Le Palais

Despite the French name (it means "the palace"), Le Palais is a temple to Cantonese banquet cooking, set in the lavish Palais de Chine Hotel. Head chef Ken Chan left Hong Kong for Taiwan three decades ago — dropping out of school at twelve to push a dim sum trolley — and became the restaurant's chef in 2010; executive chef Matt Chen, Macau-born, joined in 2017. Together they've held three Michelin stars since the inaugural Taipei guide in 2018, the only Taiwanese restaurant to do so for years. The signature is a Cantonese-style crispy roast duck, flamed tableside with kaoliang liquor and ordered two days ahead, but the dim sum, abalone and stir-fries are all exacting. Prices are gentle by three-star standards, which makes it one of the great fine-dining values anywhere. A grand, glamorous Cantonese feast right above the city's busiest transit hub.