Tipsy in Taipei:

Among the many kinds of taverns, cocktail bars have in recent years often been in the spotlight. Many Taiwanese establishments have repeatedly made the list of Asia’s 50 Best Bars, and bartending has become a much-­admired profession. Also, the World Class mix­ology competition, which Taiwan has been invited to take part in right from its first year, not only generates buzz, it has helped create a fad for cocktail bars.

Tonic Liu, who has been interested in mixology since college, has even selected his English name based on the commonly used mixer. One of the ingredients in tonic water is quinine, whose Chinese pronunciation, kuining, is similar to Liu’s Chinese given name, Kuilin.

An insider’s guide to bars

It takes a few rounds of drinks to get a good buzz going. For cocktail lovers, the only way to really get into the pub spirit is to go barhopping, visiting at least three bars in a night.

To give us an under-the-radar experience of Taipei bars, we have as our guide Tonic Liu, who migrated south and founded the refined cocktail bar Maltail in Kaohsiung. One afternoon, we follow him into one of Taipei’s pub hotspots—the area around the Xinyi Anhe Metro station.

The first stop is Liowl, run by mixologist Pin Chen. Sheer curtains cover half of the floor-to-ceiling windows of a shopfront in a quiet lane off the main street, with the only things visible inside being a clean brick wall and busy employees. On entering, we find it is a small establishment that only seats about ten people.

The bar, which opens in the afternoon, features meticulous décor, refreshing, elegantly crafted cocktails, and a resident cat that pads its way among the tables. Everywhere there are details exuding the refined touch of the place’s female owner.

When evening comes, we relocate to the nearby The Fridge Bar. It is ensconced behind a sandwich shop, but when you open the heavy refrigerator-like door, inside it’s a different world.

The sense of seclusion and intimacy there creates the ambience of a speakeasy, the type of underground pub that was a product of the prohibition of alcohol in the US in the 1920s. Today, this highly atmospheric space further echoes the speakeasy tradition through its dusky lighting, retro interior design, and the old-­fashioned attire of the bartenders.

Because the bar and the restaurant in front of it share a kitchen, the meals are of very high quality, adding more luster to the time that we spend there.

Liowl, with its highly refined atmosphere, does not have shelves of alcoholic beverages behind the bar as most pubs do. It opens in the afternoon, when the ambience is more like a coffee shop.

Taiwanese cocktails: Quantity and quality

Pubs in Taipei are in a period of intense competition, with different taverns each boasting their own styles and areas of excellence. This diversity meets the needs of this era of segmented niche markets. Who would imagine that the concept of the modern cocktail bar only arrived in Taiwan at about the turn of the 21st century? They began to spring up in the decade from 2000 to 2010, and only exploded into prominence starting about 2010.

Although the trend has only been going on for a decade or so, with the arrival of the social media era, just as fine dining has become all the rage, so cocktail bars have rapidly spread all over Taiwan.

Tonic Liu observes that Taiwan’s consumer market is noteworthy for its openness to other cultures. Also, with the island being a hub in East Asia, its high permeability to international information, and its small geographical size, commercial information spreads rapidly here.

Moreover, wealth is relatively evenly distributed in Taiwan and there is a large middle class, with mostly similar tastes and interests. This gives the local market a broad economic base that can support commercial development.

In addition, compared to neighboring countries, the barriers to entry to the food and beverage industry are low in Taiwan—thanks to factors that include relatively cheap labor and rents—so that “the cost of failure is relatively low.” Also, the sector is thriving. The multiplier effect of these various factors has encouraged many young people to take the leap and open restaurants or bars.

Liu, who spends a lot of time overseas, compares Taiwan to other markets. In Japan, cocktail culture was introduced more than a century ago, and a local cocktail tradition has evolved. However, precisely due to this long history, Japan is slow to adopt more up-to-date cocktail culture. Hong Kong, meanwhile, also has a flourishing cocktail culture, but bars are mainly concentrated in Central District, with only rare exceptions in areas such as Kowloon or Tsim Sha Tsui. In ethnically diverse Singapore, cocktail bars mainly depend on Western customers, and although there are a large number of pubs, they are similar in style because their customer base is so uniform.

Overall then, thanks to the vitality of the food and beverage industry and investments by optimistic young entrepreneurs, Taiwan’s cocktail culture is very dynamic. When you also take into account the intensity of competition and the exit of failed businesses from the market, the result is that bartenders in Taiwan are outstanding, and cocktail bars are both numerous and high in quality.

The Fridge Bar, whose atmosphere is like a 1920s American speakeasy, offers a sense of seclusion and intimacy.

The interior décor and the attire of the bartenders at The Fridge Bar are very retro, and the food is excellent.

Trio, founded by Aki Wang, is well known for its tasty cocktails and generous servings of food. The first floor is decorated in Polynesian-inspired Tiki style, creating a tropical mood.

Larry Tu, founder of PaperPlane.

Indulge Bistro, which has been listed numerous times as one of Asia’s 50 Best Bars, enjoys international fame.

Taipei’s drinking hotspots

The cocktail market is fast-changing, with major developments every three to five years. However, bartenders have begun to hit bottlenecks in terms of techniques and materials. Tricks borrowed from the West, including use of liquid nitrogen, sous vide, foaming agents, and clarification, no longer are novel to patrons. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, not only have bars had to maintain the level of their food and beverage services, “they also need to provide clear themes or value-added to attract customers,” says Tonic Liu.

PaperPlane, founded by Larry Tu, is an online guide to barhopping much trusted in the industry, and the names of a number of establishments that have been hot topics of conversation in recent years roll off his tongue. These include Liowl, which opens for business in the afternoon; The Public House, which stays open until 4 a.m.; Some Fun, which has an indigenous people’s vibe; Bar Pine, which incorporates night-market foods; Tei by O’Bond, which excels at tea–alcohol mixed drinks; Wu, which mainly makes classic cocktails; Futura by TPH (a branch of The Public House), which specializes in fermentation; and Abvless, which features alcohol-free “mocktails.”

Tu also mentions that Taipei has several areas with high concentrations of bars, each with its own style.

The lanes around Songshou Road in Xinyi District, located near department stores and movie theaters, are home to about 20 bars, and this is a popular place for young people to congregate. The pubs include the famous Fake Sober and Sleep No More, both of which offer beer-based “beer cocktails.” People gather here for unrestrained fun, and the atmosphere generated by customers imbibing as they stand in the street makes this area like a smaller version of the Lan Kwai Fong neighborhood in Hong Kong’s Central District.

If you want to take things up a notch in terms of beverage flavor, meals, and atmosphere, you can head to Taipei’s “East District” and the areas around the Xinyi Anhe and Liuzhangli Metro stations. As for the East District’s anchor bars, one cannot fail to mention the Indulge Bistro, which has been listed among Asia’s 50 Best Bars seven times. The most famous taverns in the Xinyi Anhe area are The Public House and Wu. It is hard to get a seat at these places. Meanwhile, well-known bars in the Liuzhangli neighborhood, where such establishments have arrived only recently due to market spillover, include Futura by TPH, Mad:Men, and Silver Lining.

There is a dazzling array of options, but Larry Tu gives us some simple guidelines to follow: If you want to go on a pub crawl in the evening, it’s best to start at a place with a bigger and better food menu. Next you can go to any place that strikes your fancy. Finally, he suggests, you should move on to a bar that stays open very late.

If you want to go drinking in Taipei, the problem isn’t a lack of places to visit, but that the night isn’t long enough.

Songshou Road, close to department stores and movie theaters, is home to numerous bars and is popular with young people. The later the hour, the livelier it gets.

Taipei’s Japanese Bars: Lighting the Night in the Jōdōri Area

The Jōdōri area of Taipei exists for its own special reasons. It has bars, but not only bars. It is an entertainment area where all kinds of Japanese-style drinking and eating spots are concentrated, and is a spiritual home for Japanese living in Taiwan.

In the Jōdōri area, it’s the establishments that choose the customers rather than the other way around.

A “Little Japan” in Taipei

“There is no other place in Taiwan where bars are so densely concentrated as in the Jōdōri area.” Our guide is Lee Cheng-tao, who works in advertising and is owner of the Wanderland Hirunomi pub.

Lee can be considered the Taiwanese customer who knows the most about the Jōdōri area, and he speaks in a vivid and lively manner as he explains it to us. It is a section of Taipei’s Zhongshan District bounded by Zhongshan North Road, Civil Boulevard, Nanjing East Road, and Xinsheng North Road. The small streets that run east to west across this area are called Jōdōri 1 to Jōdōri 9.

The fact that jōdōri is the Japanese word for a small backstreet tells us something about the area’s historical origins. Lee has read up on the history and says that in the Japanese colonial era (1895–1945) the district was called Taishō Ward and was home to the residences of numerous Japanese officials. In the 1980s it evolved into an area filled with Japanese-­style bars and restaurants. Today there are about 70 such establishments there, including the famous Hizenya unagi restaurant; the karaoke bar Meido, which appeared in the popular TV series Light the Night; Fuji, which has been in business for over 40 years; and eateries featuring traditional Taiwanese cuisine that are popular with Japanese tourists, such as Chi Chia Chuang, Umeko, and AoBa.

Many Japanese-style eating and drinking establishments are congregated in Taipei’s Jōdōri area. Visiting there feels just like being in Japan.

Most of the bars in Jōdōri are heirs to Japanese tavern culture, and invariably have the draft beer, highballs, and “sour” mixed drinks featured in bars in Japan.

The essence of Jōdōri bars

Lee, who is very familiar with the neighborhood, says the bars of Jōdōri have several distinguishing characteristics. In order to give Japanese who have lived in Taiwan for a long time an authentic taste of home, most of the owners—whether Taiwanese or Japanese—follow a set of unwritten rules. First, all communications and menus in these pubs are primarily in Japanese. Also, the types and categories of bars follow Japanese patterns, and include izakaya spots, “snack bars” run by female owners, karaoke pubs, and cocktail bars serving exquisite drinks.

But which type is most popular with customers? Lee says that in Jōdōri, “it is the establishments that choose the customers, not the other way around.”

There are finicky cocktail bars that don’t accept parties larger than three people, where perfume is forbidden, and where people mustn’t speak too loudly, but which still have a cadre of loyal patrons thanks to their high-level mixology. There are nearly hidden snack bars with virtually no interior décor but a constant stream of Japanese customers, thanks to the dexterity and warmth of their “mama-san” owners. And there are old establishments that have shelves filled with the special alcoholic beverages preferred by long-time customers which show their age but have always had “by reservation only” policies, as if indicating: “If you don’t understand the rules here, perhaps you should leave.”

As for barhopping, Lee says it is customary in Japan to visit three to four venues in a night. Tradition requires that patrons first call out a greeting to the proprietor, then order a glass of beer, after which the menu arrives and they can drink and chat as they casually peruse the options.

Whether with group of friends or hosting a business client, one can find a private and happy drinking experience in the Jōdōri area. There are Japanese beers, “sour” mixed drinks, and highballs, accompanied by hard-to-find foods. Many establishments have their own specialties, such as the aged mackerel at Manjirō, the “sticky trio” at Kimuraya, the spaghetti Neapolitan at Yorimichi, and the grilled shredded squid at Meido. One can even hear Japanese songs performed as accurately as the originals. The zone leaves visitors mystified: Is this Taiwan? Or is it Japan?

In this genteel old-fashioned area that blends Taiwanese and Japanese cultures, the later the hour, the more it reveals its charm. 

The taverns in the Jōdōri area fall into various categories. Meido, which was used as a location for the popular TV series Light the Night, is a karaoke bar.

Lee Cheng-tao is known as the Taiwanese customer who best knows the Jōdōri area.

Every pub has its own specialties, such as the spaghetti Neapolitan served at Yorimichi.

Fuji, which has been in business for more than 40 years, is one of the Jōtōri area’s most venerable bars.