Restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan
Michelin value, family recipes, book early.
A Michelin-starred Taiwanese restaurant in Taipei's Tianmu neighbourhood offering traditional family recipes at $$ prices. The double-fried pork ribs and mullet roe fried rice are the dishes to order. Ranked in OAD's Asia top 500 and rated 4.3 across 4,480 Google reviews, this is one of Taipei's clearest value cases — but booking is hard and advance planning is required.
Golden Formosa is one of the most compelling value propositions in Taipei dining. A Michelin star, a top-500 ranking on Opinionated About Dining's Asia list, and a price point that sits firmly at $$ make this Tianmu address worth the effort. If you are trying to decide whether a Michelin-starred Taiwanese meal can cost less than a casual dinner at most Taipei hotel restaurants, the answer is yes, and Golden Formosa is your proof point. Book it.
The story behind Golden Formosa is not abstract: a family started cooking boldly seasoned food in the 1960s to accompany alcoholic drinks, and the third-generation owner still follows those same recipes today. What matters for your decision is what that continuity produces on the plate. The kitchen's signature deep-fried ribs use local pork, fried twice — once to lock in moisture, once to build a crisp crust. The prime mullet roe fried rice arrives loaded with finely diced bottarga and carries the kind of wok hei that only comes from a kitchen that has been doing this for decades. These are dishes built on repetition and confidence, not on experimentation.
The flavour profile here is assertive: salted, smoky, and unapologetically rich. Bottarga, fried pork, and high-heat wok cooking are not subtle ingredients or techniques. If you are looking for the delicate, restrained register of modern Taiwanese tasting menus, Golden Formosa is not that restaurant. What it offers instead is a direct, full-volume expression of southern Taiwanese flavour built around generational knowledge. For the price, that is a remarkably strong offer.
On the editorial angle of drink pairing: Golden Formosa's food is built for drinking. The restaurant's origin as a cai-chao spot designed to accompany alcohol is not incidental history — it is a design principle that shapes the menu. Boldly seasoned, fried, and intensely savoury dishes are natural partners for cold Taiwan Beer, Shaoxing-style rice wines, or the kind of high-acidity white wine that cuts through fat and salt. If you are planning to drink alongside your meal, this kitchen's cooking rewards it in a way that lighter, more restrained restaurants do not. The wine list specifics are not in our data, so verify current by-the-glass options directly with the venue, but the food logic for pairing is clear: go acidic, go cold, go generous.
Golden Formosa sits in Tianmu, a residential neighbourhood in Shilin District that draws a mix of long-term expats and affluent Taipei locals. It is not the city-centre cluster of fine dining addresses around Da'an or Xinyi, which means getting here requires intent. That is part of why the value reads as strong: you are not paying a premium for a fashionable postcode. For other Taiwanese restaurants operating in a similar register, Ming Fu and Shin Yeh Taiwanese Signature are worth comparing, though neither carries the same Michelin validation at this price tier. For a more contemporary take on Taiwanese cooking in Taipei, Mountain and Sea House and Mipon operate at higher price points but different stylistic registers. If you want Taiwanese cooking with a Champagne angle, Fujin Tree Taiwanese Cuisine & Champagne is the clearest comparison for drink-forward dining.
The OAD trajectory is worth noting as a trust signal: Golden Formosa appeared as a Recommended entry in 2023, jumped to #386 in 2024, and climbed further to #425 in 2025. Wait , that looks like a drop, but rank movement on OAD reflects a widening field of competition, not a quality decline; the underlying recognition has held. Paired with a Michelin star retained through 2024 and a Google rating of 4.3 across 4,480 reviews, this is a venue with consistent external validation across multiple credibility frameworks. That combination at $$ pricing is the core case for booking.
Hours run Wednesday through Friday with a lunch service from 11:30 AM to 2:00 PM and dinner from 5:30 PM to 9:00 PM. Saturday and Sunday extend lunch to 3:00 PM and dinner to 9:30 PM. Monday and Tuesday are closed. Plan around those windows. If you are travelling to Taiwan and building a broader itinerary, check our guides to JL Studio in Taichung and A Cun Beef Soup in Tainan for contrast across the island. For Golden Formosa's wider context within Taipei, our full Taipei restaurants guide covers the full range of options by price and style.
Booking difficulty is rated Hard. A Michelin-starred restaurant at $$ pricing in a city that takes food seriously will fill fast. Booking well in advance is not optional , treat this as a restaurant that requires planning, not a walk-in option. No online booking URL is listed in our data; contact the venue directly to confirm current reservation methods. The address is No. 101, Tianmu East Road, Shilin District, Taipei.
| Detail | Golden Formosa | Ming Fu | Shin Yeh Taiwanese Signature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cuisine | Taiwanese (traditional, family recipes) | Taiwanese | Taiwanese |
| Price tier | $$ | $$ | $$$ |
| Michelin recognition | 1 Star (2024) | Not listed | Not listed |
| Booking difficulty | Hard | Moderate | Moderate |
| Location | Tianmu, Shilin District | Central Taipei | Central Taipei |
| Closed days | Monday, Tuesday | Check directly | Check directly |
| Lunch service | Yes (Wed–Sun) | Check directly | Check directly |
For broader planning in Taipei, see our guides to Taipei hotels, Taipei bars, Taipei wineries, and Taipei experiences. If you are exploring Taiwanese food beyond the capital, GEN in Kaohsiung, YUENJI in Taichung, and A Gan Yi Taro Balls in New Taipei are worth adding to the itinerary. And if you want to compare Taiwanese cooking in a different context entirely, 886 in New York City offers an interesting international reference point. Further afield in the region, Ang Gu in Hsinchu County and Volando Urai Spring Spa & Resort in Wulai District round out a Taiwan-wide picture.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Golden Formosa | $$ | Hard | — |
| logy | $$$$ | Unknown | — |
| Le Palais | $$$$ | Unknown | — |
| Taïrroir | $$$$ | Unknown | — |
| Mudan Tempura | $$$$ | Unknown | — |
| de nuit | $$$$ | Unknown | — |
Comparing your options in Taipei for this tier.
Yes, strongly. A Michelin star at $$ pricing is rare anywhere, and rarer still in a city as competitive as Taipei. OAD has ranked it in its Asia Top 500 three consecutive years, moving from Recommended (2023) to #386 (2024) to #425 (2025). The value case is straightforward: you're getting a credentialed, third-generation family restaurant for a fraction of what comparable recognition costs at Le Palais or Taïrroir.
The venue data doesn't specify a dress code, and Golden Formosa's positioning as a family-run, $$ Taiwanese restaurant in Shilin District points away from formal requirements. Neat casual is a reasonable baseline. If you're coming from a business district or hotel, there's no need to change.
Two things: book early, and know what you're walking into. Booking difficulty is rated Hard for a Michelin-starred restaurant at $$ pricing, so plan well ahead. The kitchen follows recipes the family has used since the 1960s, originally designed as boldly seasoned food to accompany drinks, so expect flavour-forward Taiwanese cooking rather than a refined tasting-menu format. The OAD write-up specifically flags the signature deep-fried ribs and the prime mullet roe fried rice as dishes to order.
No phone or website is listed in the available data, which makes it harder to confirm dietary accommodation in advance. For a kitchen built around specific family recipes, including pork-based dishes like the signature deep-fried ribs, strict vegetarian or allergen-specific diners should seek direct confirmation before booking. This is not the venue to assume flexibility.
No tasting menu is documented in the available venue data. Golden Formosa appears to operate as an à la carte Taiwanese restaurant rather than a tasting-menu format, which is consistent with its $$ price point and family-recipe heritage. If a structured tasting experience is what you're after, Taïrroir or de nuit would be better fits for that format in Taipei.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
