Yongkang Beef Noodles: Still Worth the Hype?

Yongkang Beef Noodles is one of Taipei’s most recommended spots, and many visitors are curious if they should try it. The sign out front says it was established in 1963. It's one of the inaugural Michelin Bib Gourmand entries for Taiwan in 2018, and but fell off the list in 2023. At Taiwan Table, we wanted to ask and answer: Are these types of places worth the hype? Should you stand in a long lineup to try it?

It was a Friday afternoon; I came into Taipei and wasn’t sure yet what to eat. I was thinking about going to a place I walked past a few weeks ago, river snail soup. They don’t serve the snails in the soup; instead, they boil them in the soup. It seemed up my alley, a soup that’s slightly sour and unique. However, I remembered we still haven’t reviewed Yongkang, and since it was getting closer to 3 pm, I thought I’d at least see how long the lineup is.

To my surprise, no lineup at all. I walked in and took a seat. I tried this a month or two ago, but the line was long, so I skipped it. It’s been at least a year and a half, if not more, since I actually ate here. I’ve had some pretty fantastic bowls of beef noodles lately, like at Menqian Yin Wei and Dark Palace. When I got the menu, I was also quite surprised at the prices. They had gone up again. It seems prices increased around the beginning of 2026, so the large bowl of beef and tendon went from NT$330 to NT$370 (I just checked pictures of the menu on Google Maps and compared them). And here I was saying that Menqian’s NT$310 bowl was on the higher end of prices. And it is, but it depends on your perspective - NT$370 is still under US$12.00, so it’s still quite affordable for a lunch by Western standards. But it’s more than a lot of people spend on lunch here in Taiwan.

So, the good things first: chances of no lineup if you go outside lunch and dinner times. People were coming in while I ate; it didn’t get packed, but it was still quite full for 3-4 pm. I actually got to enjoy lunch with a Singaporean named Eugene, here in Taipei for business. He told me he tries a lot of beef noodle soups when he comes. We swapped our favourite beef noodle places, I told him about Menqian and Dark Palace.

I ordered the beef and tendon. It took quite a few minutes to come out. Yongkang was the first beef noodle I had with truly tender tendon. It was like a revelation: something could be so soft and gelatinous, and it’s not even fat; it’s actually quite high in protein! My bowl came with quite a few pieces of tendon, and it was just as tender as the first time. I’d say I probably would have liked a bit more meat instead of so much tendon. The meat is also quite nice, tender, and marbled, but still has some chew as well.

But I couldn’t help but feel disappointed with the broth and noodles. The noodles are a personal preference; I prefer the wider ones, but these thinner noodles were… fine. I don’t think they’re the point or focus here, but they were very plain. They also got softer as they sat in the broth, so by the end they were past the doneness I like.

The broth, too, seemed underwhelming to me. I’m not sure if it was an off day, perhaps? But for a red-braised style of broth, it lacked the depth of flavour I have come to expect. I tasted salt, beef, and some seasonings. But it wasn't the heavy, umami-rich broth that other places have. Heck, on my first visit over a year and a half ago, I remember liking it quite a bit. I hadn’t tried as much beef noodle as I have since then, so it’s hard to say how much the broth has changed or whether my palate has.

One of the things I claimed we wanted to do here at Taiwan Table is share the places that we go to regularly, as well as which places are worth the hype. Yongkang Beef Noodle is providing me that opportunity. To be completely honest, I would like to try Yongkang again another day, but after today’s visit, I really don’t think it’s worth standing in line for. I say that about almost everywhere, but I would gladly stand in line for 20-30 minutes for Menqian Yin Wei’s beef noodles rather than this one. Plus, it’s cheaper.

So is it worth going? Sure, it’s still good. Is it worth the price? With the price increase, I’d say not really. Is it worth the wait? Definitely not. And there are truly better beef noodle spots around.

Next on the list is the other famous Michelin-listed beef noodle spot: Lao Shandong; they do knife-cut beef noodles, and I think it is worth the money. Then we need to keep sharing the lesser-known places.