Taichung's food scene runs across the full spread of Taiwanese cuisine — Hakka, Hokkien, Japanese-influenced, mainland regional, and a strong line in coffee, tea, and Western-style cafés. Sun cake (taiyangbing), a flaky pastry filled with malt sugar, was invented in the city and remains the standard local sweet to take home.
The cheapest eating is at the night markets — Fengjia is the biggest, Yizhong and Zhongxiao are easier to navigate. For a sit-down meal, the small streets around Wuquan Park have the best concentration of independent restaurants, with several with one or two Michelin Bib Gourmand listings.
JL Studio, Section 1, Wuquan West Road, is the city's two-Michelin-star Singaporean-Taiwanese kitchen and one of the best restaurants in Taiwan. Tasting menu only, book months ahead.
Lung Mei Beef Noodles at the corner of Sanmin Road and Yixin Street is the city standard for the dish — large bowls, hand-pulled noodles, queue at lunch. The original branch of Chun Shui Tang, on Siwei Street, is where bubble tea was reputedly invented in 1983.