Su Mama Tangyuan

Review

Su Mama Tangyuan (the Puli flagship) is at No. 118, Section 3, Zhongshan Road, about a ten-minute walk from the Puli bus station. Supertaste calls it a shop running for more than thirty years and a popular stop for visitors, many of whom pair it with the nearby Puli Winery, while locals drop in for a bowl of tangyuan or rice noodles as a proper meal.

The tangyuan come sweet and savoury. A common sweet order is large sesame and peanut balls: a 2022 TVBS report put a bowl at NT$55, with two sesame and two peanut balls, the sesame filling runny inside. There are also taro and red bean filled balls. The healthy sweet tangyuan are mini balls coloured with red yeast, purple rice, turmeric, matcha, butterfly pea and bamboo charcoal, served with red beans, oats and longan syrup; Supertaste listed them at NT$50 in 2021. On the savoury side there are pork-filled tangyuan, while the Puli rice noodles come topped with minced pork for NT$50, and the minced pork rice and wonton soup are popular too.

Fans praise the fair prices, the chewy sweet tangyuan and the wide choice, and some especially like the minced pork rice and mushroom soups. Critics say the fame outruns the food, some waited around half an hour for a table, and some find the pork-filled savoury balls odd, likening them to fish balls; the sweet versions are generally preferred.

Online listings show hours of about 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., closed Wednesdays. You order and pay cash at the counter, food arrives quickly and tables turn fast, but 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 6 to 7 p.m. are the busiest, so aim around them. Demand spikes near festivals, so order frozen tangyuan or delivery early; prices above come from past reports and may have changed.

Good for travellers wanting cheap Puli snacks, families with older relatives, and anyone who wants dessert and a meal in one stop. Two people can share Puli rice noodles, minced pork rice and a bowl of sesame and peanut or healthy sweet tangyuan; the curious can add pork-filled tangyuan to compare sweet and savoury. Expect about NT$50 to NT$150 per person.