Haili

Should You Book Haili?

Picture this: a second-floor dining room above Kaohsiung's Hanshin Department Store district, earth-toned walls, counter seats facing an open kitchen, a single set menu that changes with the seasons. Haili earned a Michelin star in 2024 and charges $$$; positioning it well below the $$$$ bracket occupied by most of its starred Kaohsiung peers. That combination of Michelin recognition and mid-tier pricing is the core reason to book. If you are visiting Kaohsiung and want the most technically accomplished meal at the most reasonable price point among the city's decorated restaurants, Haili is the answer.

The Restaurant

Haili operates out of a townhouse on Chenggong 1st Road, its understated exterior gives little away. That restraint carries into the room itself: warm, calm, deliberately low-key in a way that makes the cooking feel like a discovery rather than a performance. The open kitchen and counter seating mean you are watching the team work throughout the meal, which suits the format; a single tasting menu built around local Taiwanese and Japanese produce, prepared in a Japanese-French idiom.

Chef Kang, a Taipei native who trained in notable Taiwanese kitchens before choosing Kaohsiung for his first venture, offers a menu that rotates every season. One course each menu is drawn directly from Kaohsiung culture, which gives the meal genuine local grounding rather than generic fine-dining abstraction. That curatorial decision, rooting a French-Japanese tasting menu in the specific city it occupies, is what separates Haili from the kind of technically polished but geographically interchangeable restaurants that fill Michelin guides worldwide. For the food-focused traveller, this is exactly the kind of depth worth seeking out. Compare it to the approach at JL Studio in Taichung or logy in Taipei, both Michelin-recognised, both rooting modern tasting menus in local identity, Haili sits comfortably in that conversation.

The atmosphere at Haili is the opposite of the hushed, pressurised formality that can make starred dining feel like an exam. The room is small and warm; the energy is attentive without being stiff. Noise levels stay at a level where conversation is easy, which matters for a format built around a multi-course progression. If you are after the kind of counter-seat intimacy where you can watch each dish come together and the meal feels collaborative rather than theatrical, this room delivers that. It is a better atmosphere for conversation than many of its $$$$ counterparts in the city.

Booking and Timing

Haili is open Tuesday through Thursday from 5:30 PM to 10 PM, Friday and Saturday from noon to 10 PM. It is closed Sunday and Monday. Book as far in advance as possible, a Michelin star at $$$ pricing in a compact room creates genuine demand, this is a hard reservation to secure at short notice. Weekend lunch on Friday or Saturday is your leading chance of a slightly easier booking window compared to peak Friday and Saturday dinner slots, but do not count on walk-in availability at any service. Treat this like booking a starred restaurant in a major city: plan at least three to four weeks out, more if you are visiting during a Taiwanese public holiday period.

Friday and Saturday lunch also gives you the option to build a fuller day around the meal, Kaohsiung's waterfront, Pier-2 Art Centre, the broader Qianjin district are all within reach. See our full Kaohsiung experiences guide for context, our Kaohsiung hotels guide if you are visiting from outside the city.

Value Assessment

At $$$, Haili is priced a full tier below Sho, GEN, and Cho, all of which sit at $$$$. A Michelin star at $$$ pricing is a strong value signal in any market; in Kaohsiung, where most starred dining sits at the leading price tier, it is genuinely unusual. For the explorer looking to cover serious culinary ground without the full outlay of a $$$$ booking, Haili is the most efficient use of a dining budget in the city's fine-dining tier.

That said, Haili is a single set menu restaurant. If you want à la carte flexibility or a shorter, lighter meal, it is not the right fit. The format rewards diners who want to commit to the full progression and engage with the kitchen's seasonal vision. Go in knowing that, the value proposition is hard to argue.

Who Should Book

Haili is the right call for food-focused travellers who want Michelin-level cooking at a price point that does not require a full commitment to the $$$$ tier. It suits couples and small groups who are comfortable with a counter-seat, open-kitchen format and a fixed tasting menu. If you are travelling through southern Taiwan and want a single meal that reflects both technical ambition and genuine local identity, this is the booking to prioritise. For wider context on what else is worth your time in the city, see our full Kaohsiung restaurants guide. Elsewhere in Taiwan, JL Studio in Taichung and logy in Taipei are the natural comparators for this style of regionally anchored modern tasting menu.

If you are arriving in Kaohsiung and want to understand the broader dining ecosystem, from Anchovy's European contemporary cooking to the direct brilliance of A Fung's Harmony Cuisine, the range is wider than most first-time visitors expect. Haili sits at the serious end of that spectrum, it earns its place there.