Mai Mien Yen Tsai was one of those places I kept seeing on TikTok before my trip, so I added it to my list almost immediately. It also happened to be near my hotel, which made it an easy first meal after arriving in Taipei and dropping off my bags. By the time I got there, it was around 30 minutes before closing, which probably meant they were already on last orders, but there was still a long queue outside.
Thankfully, the turnover was really fast. I only waited around 15 minutes before getting seated, and since I was dining solo, they gave me a counter seat. The place itself wasn’t fancy at all, just a small shop with some seating outside near the cooking area and more seats indoors. You could see the staff constantly preparing bowls and dishes the whole time, which added to the atmosphere a bit.
Mai Mien Yen Tsai is Michelin Bib Gourmand recognized and is known for its noodles and side dishes, especially the crispy skin braised pork. Since there wasn’t really any English spoken there, I just took a photo of the menu, used Google Translate, and pointed at what I wanted. I paid as I ordered, which made everything straightforward enough, even with the language barrier.
I ended up getting their dry noodles in sweet sauce along with the crispy-skin braised pork. The total only came to NTD75, which was less than PHP150, and honestly that kind of shocked me considering how good the food was. Everything felt really comforting and satisfying, especially for such a cheap meal.
Overall, it was a great first meal to start the trip with. Between the quality of the food and how affordable it was, I’d say it was definitely worth queueing for.
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