Historic Sites Transformed into Hip Cafés: Two New Highlights of Japanese-Era Architecture in Tainan

By MOOK Scenic Spots Editorial Department

In recent years, aside from the booming trend of revitalizing old houses, there have been increasingly more cases of historic sites being given new life. Tainan’s first commemorative building, the “Former Oiwake Restaurant,” and the municipal historic site “Former Tainan Branch of the Taiwan Governor-General’s Office Monopoly Bureau (Yancheng Outpost),” officially opened for visits in April and May.

During the Japanese colonial period, the Former Oiwake Restaurant was known as the “dream teahouse,” while the Yancheng Outpost once exclusively sold Taiwan’s earliest and longest-standing sun-dried salt. Both buildings have recently been restored and are now operated under concession.

The Former Oiwake Restaurant has been entrusted to Tainan’s most renowned Taiwanese cuisine restaurant, A-Xia Restaurant, which specially reconstructed the lost teahouse and named it the “Eagle Ridge Eatery.” It will later launch innovative and refined dishes to revive the former glory of the dreamlike Oiwake Restaurant.

To revitalize the space, the Cultural Affairs Bureau held an open tender, with the A-Xia Restaurant operating team winning the concession rights. After two years, the lost main building of the Former Oiwake Restaurant has been rebuilt into the new Eagle Ridge Eatery, with the first floor selling light meals and beverages, and the second floor serving as an art and cultural exhibition space.

The municipal historic site, the Former Tainan Branch of the Taiwan Governor-General’s Office Monopoly Bureau (Yancheng Outpost), originally functioned as a salt administration office during the Japanese colonial period. Among the surviving Japanese-style buildings, it is the only one constructed using the “relocation” method. After restoration by the city government, the premises were entrusted to a local operator who successfully transformed an old knitting factory into the refined café “Manman Nong Café.” In the future, it will integrate the alleys and stories of Yancheng to become a new tourist attraction in southern Tainan.