Eat breakfast by the City God Temple, have lunch in the old town around the Mazu temple, and if you want one sit-down Yilan meal, make it Du Xiao Yue. That's what we'd tell a friend spending a day in Yilan City. The shops below have been feeding the county seat for fifty to eighty years, most of them in the same few streets, and almost all of them are a short walk from the station. They're cheap, they're cash, and many close one or two days a week.
This page is about where to go. For what the dishes are, gao zha, xi lu rou and the rest, see what to eat in Yilan. For the evening, Dongmen Night Market and its stalls are five minutes from the station.
Good to know: small shops change their hours and days off, and some close early when they sell out. The hours below are as listed on Google Maps in November 2026, so look again on the day.
Breakfast
Chenghuang Breakfast Shop (城隍早餐店)
Up before dawn and the best reason to be. Chenghuang Breakfast Shop, on the little street by the City God Temple, opened in the 1950s and has been going for more than seventy years. It has had a fresh, younger look since a renovation, but the dish is the same: braised pork belly on rice (焢肉飯). Add a preserved radish omelet (菜脯蛋) and a hot almond tea (杏仁茶).
- Hours Wednesday to Sunday, 04:30 to 13:00; closed Monday and Tuesday (as listed on Google Maps in November 2026)
- Address No. 3, Chenghuang Street, Yilan City (宜蘭市城隍街3號)
- Getting there About 12 minutes on foot from Yilan Station
Yi Xiang (一香飲食店)
A plain noodle shop in a lane off Kangle Road, going for more than half a century. At Yi Xiang, order the wonton soup (餛飩湯) and a bowl of sesame noodles (麻醬麵), and you've had breakfast the way Yilan City has it.
- Hours Every day, 06:30 to 16:30 (as listed on Google Maps in November 2026)
- Address No. 7, Lane 137, Kangle Road, Yilan City (宜蘭市康樂路137巷7號)
- Phone 03-932-3289
- Getting there About 10 minutes on foot from Yilan Station
Gu Yi Ren rice cakes (古意人養生米粿)
Just along Kangle Road, Gu Yi Ren keeps up more than fifty years of making rice cakes (米粿) fresh every day. The red ones get their color from red yeast rice, not dye. Pick up a few for the train.
- Hours Every day, 06:00 to 15:30 (as listed on Google Maps in November 2026)
- Address No. 140, Kangle Road, Yilan City (宜蘭市康樂路140號)
- Getting there About 10 minutes on foot from Yilan Station
Old town classics, by the Mazu temple
Two of the oldest names in town sit by Zhaoying Temple (昭應宮), the old town's Mazu temple on Zhongshan Road. Pair them with the Japanese-era houses on the same walk.
Xin Li Hao cat-ear soup (信利號)
If you eat one lunch in the old town, make it this. Xin Li Hao started in 1942 as a stall in front of the Mazu temple and now has a small room of about twenty seats beside it. It makes three soups, fish ball, "cat ear" (貓耳) or mixed, all with rice noodles. The cat ears are the house dumplings: a skin of potato and sweet potato starch around pork and fried shallot, folded into the shape that gives them the name. The broth is pork bone, cooked with small dried shrimp and bonito.
- Hours 09:00 to 17:00; closed Wednesday (as listed on Google Maps in November 2026)
- Address No. 8, Wenchang Road, Yilan City (宜蘭市文昌路8號)
- Phone 03-933-1702
- Getting there About 10 minutes on foot from Yilan Station
Miaokou red yeast squid (宜蘭廟口紅糟魷魚)
"Miaokou" means "temple mouth", and that's where this squid shop began, in 1968, at the night market by Zhaoying Temple. It moved across the road in 2010 and built its name on two things: whole squid, marinated in red yeast rice (紅糟) and a dozen other seasonings, then fried; and shiitake congee (香菇粥) to go with it. Share a half squid.
- Hours Every day, 12:00 to 21:00 (as listed on Google Maps in November 2026)
- Address No. 153, Section 3, Zhongshan Road, Yilan City (宜蘭市中山路三段153號)
- Phone 03-936-6556
- Getting there About 12 minutes on foot from Yilan Station
Worth the trip: Taishan Road
Two famous old shops moved out of the old town and now sit next door to each other on Taishan Road (泰山路), on the west side of the city. It's about 30 minutes on foot from Yilan Station, so most people take a short taxi from the station. Check the days first: between them, they're only both open Thursday to Saturday.
A Niang Gei garlic pork soup (阿娘給的蒜味肉羹)
Ask the locals for Yilan City's thick pork soup (肉羹) and they'll send you here. Pan Mei-zhi started selling it from a stall near the old north gate in 1966, as Beimen garlic pork soup (北門蒜味肉羹), with far more garlic than anyone else used. Her son took over, renamed it A Niang Gei ("what Mum gave") and moved it here in 2017. The broth gets both raw minced garlic and fried garlic, and the pork is marinated for more than twelve hours. Order it with noodles (肉羹麵).
- Hours Thursday to Saturday, 09:00 to 17:30; closed Sunday to Wednesday. It closes early when it sells out (as listed on Google Maps in November 2026)
- Address No. 239-1, Taishan Road, Yilan City (宜蘭市泰山路239之1號)
- Getting there Taxi from Yilan Station, or about 30 minutes on foot
Good to know: other members of the family run garlic pork soup shops under the Beimen name, in Yilan City and in Luodong. They're relatives, not copies.
Lao Dian Gua Zai Ji, formerly Shiliukan (老店瓜仔雞，原十六崁)
Next door, the pickled cucumber chicken soup shop has been going for more than fifty years. Its founder, Lin Hsin-chang, grew up in a noodle-making family and named the shop after Shiliukan (十六崁), an old name for part of the city. The dish he created is the one to order: chicken soup with pickled cucumber (瓜仔雞湯), with noodles or wontons.
- Hours 10:30 to 21:30; closed Tuesday and Wednesday (as listed on Google Maps in November 2026). It sometimes takes extra days off, and posts them on its Google Maps listing.
- Address No. 239-3, Taishan Road, Yilan City (宜蘭市泰山路239之3號)
- Phone 03-936-4797
- Getting there Taxi from Yilan Station, or about 30 minutes on foot
A sit-down meal: Du Xiao Yue (渡小月)
For one proper Yilan dinner, with the banquet dishes done well, book Du Xiao Yue. The chef, Chen Chao-lin (陳兆麟), is the fourth generation of a family of banquet cooks, and he started in this kitchen at sixteen. His father chose the name hoping to get the restaurant through the slow fourth, fifth and ninth lunar months ("du" means to get across). It's a favorite for official dinners: the magistrate's residence has had him cater, and the food writer Chiao Tung (焦桐) wrote a book about his cooking.
This is the place to try the Yilan banquet dishes made with care: gao zha served as one large golden block in sauce, xi lu rou turned out of a bowl in layers under a crisp egg lattice, and grass jelly chicken (仙草雞). Groups can order a set banquet menu (辦桌合菜); there's an à la carte menu too.
- Hours Every day, 11:30 to 14:00 and 17:30 to 20:30 (as listed on Google Maps in November 2026)
- Address No. 58, Section 3, Fuxing Road, Yilan City (宜蘭市復興路三段58號)
- Phone 03-932-4414 (call to book)
- Getting there Taxi from Yilan Station, or about 30 minutes on foot. It's close to the two Taishan Road shops.
Dessert: You family mochi (游家麻糬米糕)
The sweet stop, and the closest to the station. You family mochi goes back to the Japanese era, when the founder added a layer of sticky rice (米糕) under the mochi so a piece would fill you up. The fillings are made fresh each day, flavors such as green bean and peanut, taro and sesame, or matcha and red bean. When they're gone, it closes, so come in the morning.
- Hours Every day, 08:00 to 15:00 (as listed on Google Maps in November 2026)
- Address No. 92, Xinmin Road, Yilan City (宜蘭市新民路92號)
- Getting there About 5 minutes on foot from Yilan Station
For candied kumquats to take home, Orange Square and Lao Zeng Shou are both in Yilan City, and the what-to-eat page above has the details.
→ Yilan City: the old town on foot · Dongmen Night Market · Two days in Yilan · Food in Yilan, town by town
Sources: TVBS Supertaste on seven Yilan City shops over fifty years old (2018) (Xin Li Hao, the squid shop, A Niang Gei, Shiliukan, You family mochi, Gu Yi Ren); Taipei Walker on Yilan City's old shops (September 12, 2018) (Chenghuang Breakfast Shop, Yi Xiang); TVBS News on Yilan breakfasts (November 2025) (Chenghuang Breakfast Shop); Mirror Media on A Niang Gei (December 2020); CommonWealth Smile Taiwan on Du Xiao Yue (March 2015); Du Xiao Yue, official site; Yilan County tourism, local food; hours and addresses as listed on Google Maps in November 2026. Checked November 2026.