Hidden Thai all-you-can-eat spot tucked away in Taipei alleys – must-try cold shrimp salad and lemon fish

▲ Steamed lemon fish. (Photo / Liu Bei)

Text / Liu Ni

This all-you-can-eat Thai restaurant was a total happy accident for me and my friends. We had originally planned to go to a Korean eatery, but the two directionally challenged of us took a wrong turn and ended up stumbling upon this hidden gem"Yunnan Town". The bold sign reading “All-you-can-eat Dinner 499” caught our eye: Wait, there’s such a thing as all-you-can-eat Thai food? First time seeing that ever!! And the price seemed pretty reasonable, so we decided to give this place a try today.

▲ Affordable Thai eats at "Yunnan Town." (Photo / Liu Ni)

The place was packed with customers, and the staff spoke with either Thai or Burmese accents (sorry, I can’t tell the difference ><）询问我们是几个人用餐，无论是餐厅的高人气或是店员的异国口音，都带给我们“这家泰餐一定正宗又美味”的想象。因为我们到达时是用餐高峰期，所以经过了一个半小时的等待才等到空位。两个饥肠辘辘的人，赶紧拿起菜单，准备大快朵颐一番。From the menu, you can see that this restaurant not only offers an “all-you-can-eat” option, but also set meals or à la carte choices to cater to different customer needs. The menu is quite diverse, featuring classic Thai dishes like water spinach with shrimp paste, Thai basil pork, and coconut chicken, as well as signature items like cold shrimp salad, curry crab, and lemon fish.

▲ Menu at "Yunnan Town." (Photo / Liu Ni)

Recommended by the staff, our first round featured five appetizing dishes:steamed lemon fish, cold shrimp salad, pepper spare ribs, spicy stir-fried seafood, and water spinach with shrimp paste. The service was fairly quick — our dishes started arriving about 10 minutes after ordering. Portion sizes are based on the number of diners, so since there were just the two of us, each plate was smaller than what you’d typically get ordering individually. But I actually liked that — it let us sample more dishes without creating too much waste.

The flavors of these four dishes were all quite unique, but my personal favorites weresteamed lemon fishandcold shrimp salad. Earlier I mentioned that portions are per person, but they still served us a whole steamed fish here — and not a small one. The server explained that the fish is fresh sea bass, steamed with garlic, cilantro, chili, and lemon. The moment I tasted it, I was blown away. The fish was perfectly steamed, highlighting the tender texture of the sea bass to the fullest, while the tangy lemon juice awakened my taste buds and made the natural sweetness of the fish even more pronounced. The delicate fish, the sourness of the lemon, and the aroma of cilantro and chili blended beautifully — absolutely divine.

▲ Steamed lemon fish (Photo / Liu Bei)

The cold shrimp salad, on the other hand, is a bolder-flavored dish suited for adventurous eaters who enjoy raw shrimp and don’t mind spice. The halved shrimp are topped with minced scallions, garlic, and chili. Grabbing the tail, you pop the whole shrimp into your mouth — the juicy, crisp freshness of the raw shrimp bursts forth, balanced by the spicy kick of the seasonings that brings sweat to your nose but is totally addictive.

▲ Cold shrimp salad. (Photo / Liu Bei)

After finishing these two dishes, my friend and I weren’t full at all — in fact, we were hungrier than before. Sospicy stir-fried seafoodbecame our next target. This dish combines four types of seafood — prawns, squid, clams, and crab meat — stir-fried with large red chilies and basil. The chewiness of the prawns, the springiness of the squid, and the sweetness of the crab and clams are all brought out by the seasonings, making it a rich and flavorful dish.

As for the pepper spare ribs, we found them rather average — the chef simply deep-fried regular pork ribs and sprinkled them with pepper. The meat had no standout qualities, and we ended up quickly finishing them without even thinking to take a photo. The final dish of our first round, water spinach with shrimp paste, felt refreshingly light among all the seafood and meat. The tender, crispy greens were sautéed with shrimp paste and minced garlic. It wasn’t overly salty, went well with rice, and helped cut through the richness of the previous dishes.

▲ Spicy stir-fried seafood. (Photo / Liu Bei)

▲ Water spinach with shrimp paste. (Photo / Liu Bei)

After polishing off the first round, we dove into a second, ordering another five dishes: eggplant stir-fried with oyster sauce, pineapple shrimp, curry crab, steamed chicken, and pineapple fried rice.

The star of the second round wasCurry crab, stir-fried eggplant with oyster sauce, and pineapple stir-fried shrimp. After the first round of "battle," our fighting power had clearly declined, and our palates had become more picky. But when the curry crab was served, it still won our favor. The crab meat was plump, sweet, and fresh—not the kind of sweetness from added sugar, but the natural umami of the crab itself. The curry flavor wasn’t strong and even carried a hint of creaminess. For those who love Indian curry, it might seem under-seasoned, but I felt the mild curry flavor didn’t overpower the crab meat, striking just the right balance.

▲ Curry crab. (Photo / Liu Bei)

In the stir-fried eggplant with oyster sauce, the umami of the oyster sauce seeped into the eggplant, highlighting its rich, sweet texture, with each strand of eggplant tender yet not mushy.

▲ Stir-fried eggplant with oyster sauce. (Photo / Liu Bei)

The pineapple stir-fried shrimp was also a dish we highly praised: the stir-fried pineapple brought out a fruity acidity, not as sweet as fresh pineapple, but this acidity paired with the springy, crisp shrimp, preventing the shrimp from tasting one-dimensional.

▲ Pineapple stir-fried shrimp. (Photo / Liu Bei)

As for the steamed chicken and pineapple fried rice, we found them less impressive. For Cantonese people who prefer tender textures, the steamed chicken was overcooked, losing the smooth, tender feel of the chicken meat. The pineapple fried rice also disappointed us: my friend saw the image on the menu—a whole hollowed-out pineapple filled with fried rice—and thought the presentation had a tropical vibe and the taste must be good, so he insisted on ordering it. But when the fried rice arrived, we found it served in a regular plate, and compared to the pineapple fried rice at ordinary restaurants, this one had nothing special about it. "The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment," I guess that’s what they mean, haha.

▲ Steamed chicken (left) and pineapple fried rice (right). (Photo / Liu Bei)

After finishing the main dishes, we ordered a bowl ofHibiscus pea sprout soup, which also received unanimous praise from us. "Hibiscus" here actually refers to tofu—the tofu in the soup was smoother and more tender than the usual tofu you get, melting in your mouth like tofu pudding. The pea sprouts were slightly astringent but crisp and tender, and the soup had a light, sweet taste that cut through the richness perfectly.

▲ Hibiscus pea sprout soup. (Photo / Liu Ni)

Besides the dishes ordered from the menu, this restaurant also has a self-service area with fruits, desserts, drinks, and ice cream. Since we dined quite late, the fruits in the self-service area were all gone, and the staff didn’t replenish them, which is an area I think could be improved. After the meal, we went to the self-service area and got two bowls of dessert—coconut sago pudding and coconut red bean soup. The coconut sago pudding had a refreshing taste, allowing you to enjoy the sweet aroma of coconut; the red bean soup had soft red beans with a distinct bean fragrance, and this one was thicker than the coconut sago pudding.

▲ Coconut red bean soup (left) and coconut sago pudding (right). (Photo / Liu Ni)

When settling the bill, my friend and I each paid 499 plus a 10% service charge, about 550. I think for people with big appetites, the all-you-can-eat option offers great value, because normally ordering crab or steamed sea bass at restaurants costs around 300, and just these few dishes alone are worth the price. My friend and I have already agreed to "fight another day" to try some of the other dishes.

Yunnan Town:
Address: No. 22, Lane 177, Section 1, Fuxing South Road, Da’an District, Taipei City
Phone: 02 2778 9987

Author: Liu Ni, a mainland student who came to Taiwan to study in 2011, currently a senior at Shih Hsin University.