Taiwan Food Atlas

Taipei Century Shaved Ice Desserts

A bowl of eight-treasure shaved ice at a century-old Wanhua parlor, the same cool comfort for a hundred years
📍 Taipei · Wanhua · Heping West Road🏆 Collectible · Desserts🍧 Sweetened red beans, mung beans, taro, and rice jelly

On Heping West Road in Wanhua, a plain old dessert parlor serves a bowl of freshly shaved ice topped one ladle at a time with sweetened red beans, mung beans, taro, and rice jelly, finished with a pour of sugar syrup. Most customers are longtime Taipei residents from the neighborhood who sit down and settle in for a long conversation about everyday life. This bowl of ice has accompanied Wanhua through a century, and has watched generations of neighbors through countless long afternoons.

What are Century Shaved Ice Desserts

"Ice fruit parlor" (binguo shi) is the traditional Taiwanese name for a shaved ice dessert shop. The defining item is the "eight-treasure ice" (babao bing), which packs one bowl with sweetened red beans, mung beans, speckled kidney beans, peanuts, taro, rice jelly, sesame rice balls, and aiyu jelly — the exact combination varies by shop. Wanhua is the neighborhood in Taipei where ice parlor culture runs deepest, from the sweetened syrup recipe to the coarseness of the shave — each shop has decades of accumulated feel.

Longdu Ice Dessert Specialty House on Heping West Road was founded in 1920 and has been in operation for over a century (year confirmed across multiple sources) — one of the rarest genuinely century-old ice shops in Taipei. Its signature eight-treasure ice is ordered by nearly every table. In the same district, San Liu Yuan Zi Shop is also well known for handmade sesame rice balls and red bean soup, representing another branch of Wanhua's traditional dessert lineage. Old ice shops are densely concentrated in this area, making it well suited for a whole afternoon of tasting and comparing.

How to eat it like a local

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Order the eight-treasure firstOn a first visit, order the signature eight-treasure ice to assess the shop's sweetening craft in one bowl, then decide which individual toppings you want next time.
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Visit in both summer and winterIce parlors usually serve red bean soup, sesame rice balls, and glutinous rice dumplings in winter. Don't think of them as summer-only — a winter visit has its own separate menu.
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Share at a small tableOld-style shops have close tables and generous portions. Two or three people sharing one or two bowls is just right — and you get to try more toppings that way.
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Avoid mid-afternoon peak on summer weekendsSummer weekend afternoons see the longest queues and slowest table turnover. Weekday afternoons or early evenings are much more comfortable.

Local knowledge

Verified endorsements (filtered for sponsored content)

  • Longdu Ice Dessert Specialty House was founded in 1920 and has operated for over a century, confirmed across multiple sources — one of the rare genuinely century-old ice shops in Taipei.
  • The eight-treasure ice topping combination and sweetening technique are the shop's signature, consistently featured in local media and travel guides.
  • Honest note: this dish has no Michelin Bib Gourmand listing in Taipei. Its standing is built on a century of history and local reputation.

Visiting tips

  • Longdu is near Longshan Temple and Huaxi Street Tourist Night Market — easy to work into a half-day Wanhua itinerary.
  • Accessible by MRT Longshan Temple Station on foot. Summer weekend afternoons draw crowds; arriving off-peak is recommended.
  • Old-style ice shops mostly take cash or mobile payment; some do not accept credit cards. Bring cash just in case.

Information compiled from the Michelin Guide, the Taipei City Government Tourism website, and large-scale public reviews; sponsored content has been filtered out. Photos are placeholders until Dio's on-site shots replace them with exclusive channel footage.

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