Xing Long Ju

Review

Xing Long Ju sits on Liuhe 2nd Road near Liuhe Night Market and has served breakfast for more than sixty years. It is often called a legend of the Kaohsiung breakfast scene and is popular with Japanese and Korean travellers. Media list opening times anywhere from 3:00 to 4:30 a.m., but they agree the queue starts before dawn.

The soup bun is the top order: it is the size of an ordinary baozi, filled with cabbage and minced pork, and releases plenty of broth when bitten, with the crisp, sweet cabbage keeping it light. Sesame flatbreads are crisp outside and soft inside, stuffed with scallion omelette, pickled greens or fried dough, and the savoury soy milk is smooth with a mildly spicy, tangy note. Potstickers, egg crepes, radish cake, rice rolls and pan-fried buns round out the menu.

Diners rate the soup buns and flatbread with fried dough highest, and many remember the burst of broth and say the flatbread needs no sauce. Complaints focus on long queues and a somewhat chaotic ordering process; some find the bun wrapper ordinary and the broth unremarkable, other items merely average, and opinions on cleanliness are split.

Current listings show roughly 4:30 to 11:30, closed Mondays and Tuesdays, while older reports give slightly different hours, so check before you go. You order and pay while queuing; if you only want soup buns you can collect them at the side counter first, and diners note it is cash only. Seating is on two floors, with upstairs quieter, and you return your own tray. Media say prices are similar to a regular traditional breakfast shop, and weekdays or very early mornings mean shorter lines.

It suits early risers who want a classic Taiwanese breakfast in Kaohsiung and is a good place to bring visiting friends. Order a few soup buns with a flatbread and fried dough or a flatbread with scallion omelette, plus savoury soy milk or black tea; when it is packed, take it away and eat as you stroll.