The Clubhouse (Guo Hsing 3rd St., #60. Phone - (03) 834-1818) is the number one hangout for foreigners in Taiwan. They serve wonderful Mexican food, hamburgers, sandwiches, salads, and pizza. The food is freshly made, and is by far the best Western food in Hualien. This place is also a hostel, with reasonably priced, air conditioned rooms upstairs. Also, they show cool movies on Sunday nights.
Trunk Road (Linsen Road, #359. Phone - (03) 835-5667) is a comfortable spot with great atmosphere. They serve curry, pork chops, rice dishes, and plenty of beverages, including coffee, tea, and beer. In addition, they occasionally have rock concerts. It's just down the road from the Guo Sheng movie theatre and Caves Bookstore
Hualien now has its own Turkish restaurant. Turkiye Restaurant (Ming Hsin Road, #1-18. Phone - (03) 832-6257) is located behind the big post office.
Just next door to the Turkish restaurant is Hsin Fu restaurant (Ming Hsin Street, #20. Phone - (03) 835-0918). They have superb gung bao chicken, dumplings and more.
Guiliano (Chung Shan Road, #340. Phone - (03) 833-4008) has Italian food, including excellent pesto spaghetti. Great service and atmosphere.
Leo (Chung Shan Road, #590. Phone - (03) 857-0899) has Italian dishes, steak, coffee and dessert.
Sarlee's (Jian Guo Road, #105. Phone - (03) 832-3405) has spaghetti, pizza, steaks, and lots of other items.
If Starbucks is too crowded and noisy for you, I would recommend Miracle Coffee (Bo Ai Street, #183. Phone - (03) 836-0198). This place has excellent coffee as well as snacks and meals. Good atmosphere, too. I.S Anna Coffe is another good coffee shop closer to the train station area. A little pricey.
Marshal Hotel (Gung Yuan Road, #36. Phone - (03) 832-6123) has a buffet style Western restaurant and a Chinese restaurant.
Some other good places for eating out are: Milcado Steak House (Guo Hsing 5th Street, #213. Phone - (03) 832-1928) and Charlotte Cafe (Lin Sen Road, #403. Phone - (03) 834-9142)
A popular spot with Hualien's foreigners is Ru Lin (a.k.a. Treehouse) (Min Guo Road, #84. Phone - 0939-575-986). They have lots of delicious Chinese dishes and an English menu.
Yi-Mei (Chung Shan Road, #155) is my favorite place for bread and desserts. Their milk and ice coffee are also excellent.
You can get delicious bread, bagels, desserts and more at Fragrance Bakery (Chung Shan Road, #422-7. Phone - (03) 836-2887).
Ever dreamed of dining with cats? Then The Ailurophilia Tilery is for you. Located at Ming Hsin Road #48, this place gives you the chance to mingle with cats while you enjoy your food and drinks.
If you're looking for something a little classier than a sidewalk noodle stall, I have three recommendations: Springfield Cafe (Bo Ai Street, #209. Phone - (03) 834-0557), Cafe' Jade, which has lots of art books in English and in Chinese, and Les Deux Magot (Jian Guo Road, Sec. 1, #86. Phone - (03) 858-0077) which serves up excellent beverages and meals.
Chinese dumplings, fried rice, and fried noodles are on the menu at Lao Shao Dumpling House (San Min Street, #3-2. Phone - (03) 834-0858).
Mr. Goh, a native of Japan, is serving up Japanese dishes at Open Sesame (Jian Chung Street, #61. Phone - (03) 834-6659). The popular dishes are curry, steak, and sashimi. Take a look at their English menu.
Yakiniku (Chung Shan Road, #469. Phone - (03) 835-7688) is a classy place to barbecue, Japanese style.
Taipei Steakhouse (Dz You Street, #76. Phone - (03) 832-9570) is one of the better steakhouses in town.
If you're in the mood for Indian/Pakistani food, head over to Mandina Restaurant (Min Guo Road, #93. Phone - (03) 831-2046). It's just a few minutes walk away from Caves Books.
Burmese food is on the menu at Yi Jiang (Min Chuan Road, #11-1. Phone - (03) 831-0077). Organic foods are for sale at The Green Garden Life World (Min Guo Road, #139-1. Phone - (03) 833-7818).
The Linsen road area has plenty of bars and pubs for the lounge lizard. Brand new to Hualien is Sofa Pub (Ming Li Road, #75). Just down the street you can find Life Coco (Linsen Road, #264. Phone - (03) 834-3711) and All Star Live House (Ming Li Road, #81. Phone - 0913-229-698) both have food beverages and live music. Du Yi Wu Er (Linsen Road, #429. Phone (03) - 835-1886) is very popular now. They serve drinks, food, and also have karaoke, with a menu of Chinese/Taiwanese/English songs. Next door is V2 (Linsen Road, #427), a more upscale restaurant and bar. A few feet down the road is Orange Pub (Linsen Road, #411, 2F. Phone - (03) 831-0653), a friendly spot with drinks and live music. Next door is River Pub (Linsen Road, #407. Phone - (03) 834-4216), a very popular spot for locals and foreigners. Country Pub (Fu Hsing Street, #71. Phone - (03) 833-6102) is close by. A few blocks away is A Place To Lounge At Night (Fu Hsing Street, #86-1. Phone - (03) 835-5260). Classic (Da Tong Street, #60. Phone - (03) 831-1226) offers liquor and tobacco for sale, as well as a bar. If you're on the other side of town, you might want to check out L.A. TV Pub (Min Chuan Street, #9-12. Phone - (03) 0925-815-017) or Music 5 Bar (Chung Hua Road, #11. Phone - (03) 835-1150).
Backpackers Hostel (Jian Guo Road, #206. Phone - (03) 835-2515), run by Maggie Liang is a nice place to stay. Rooms are 350 N.T. a night. They have lots of reading material on Hualien, as well as a kitchen and a library of English books.
If you want to learn Mandarin Chinese, Tzu Chi University's Chinese program is for you.
Otter Health Club (He Ping Road, Sec. 1, #12. Phone (03) 856-2300) is the best place to exercise. They have swimming pools, treadmills, stationary bikes, weights and a lot more.
Chen Hui Jiu's workshop (San Min Street, #28-1,2F. Phone 0912-226-420) has yoga and pilates classes.
Boss Billiards Club (Guo Feng Street, #3. Phone - (03) 833-5035) is the best pool hall in town.
Need some passport photos made? Ms. Chang at Konica (Chung Shan Road, #527. Phone - (03) 833-0269) can have your passport photos made in a few hours.
Kang Shr Fu (Chung Shan Road, #773. Phone - (03) 857-0827) is the place to go for massage and Chinese treatments like "gwa sha".
Hua Yang Internet Coffee (Chung Shan Road, #591. Phone - (03) 833-1106) has the usual rows and rows of computers, but also some pretty good eating, such as spicy kung pao chicken and pesto spaghetti.
Inhale Fashion (Nan Jing Street, #215. Phone - (03) 834-4112) has aboriginal clothing for sale. They also design clothes.
The only place in town for huge Afro wigs, angel costumes, and balloons is Balloon Party (Chung Cheng Road, #462. Phone - (03) 832-0119). They have lots and lots of party/novelty items.
Working House (Chung Cheng Road, #472. Phone - (03) 833-4909) has home furnishings, office supplies, kitchen items and a whole lot more.
Tian Tian (Guo Fu 10th Street, #21. Phone - (03) 856-6483) is the place to go for shrimp fishing.
Back to EFL in Asia