Temple Snacks

Located on the ground floor of the Flushing Mall in the food court. It is the very last corner food stand. Not much lighting in that section, but it it open. Food is so tasty. I usually pick up a large order for the week. The kind man behind the counter will ask when I plan to eat the food and will wrap them up tightly with instruction how to finish the cooking.

This is my favorite vendor from the Flushing Mall Food Court. Literally «Miaokou Small Eats», Temple Snacks serves Taiwanese street foods. The restaurant is name after a famous market district in the city of Keelung. Each menu item has a unique touch, with some dishes you don’t even see in many Taiwanese restaurants in Flushing.
Fried Chicken Roll 廟口炸雞卷 ($ 5.75) — Inside the roll is a filling of taro and onions but I don’t think there is an ounce of chicken. I guess it gets the name because it resembles fried chicken? Best part of the dish is the garlic sauce that lights up your taste and smell senses. (⁸⁄₁₀)
Bamboo Shoots & Stewed Pork w. Rice 廟口筍干焢肉飯 ($ 6.75) — Looks good and tastes better. The whole chunk of pork belly was juicy and full of flavor. Accompanying the rice is some shredded bamboo shoots, minced fatty pork, lettuce, and tea egg. (⁹⁄₁₀)
There are so many items on the menu I want to try and just going through the picture menu gets me excited. Hopefully this the food court stays long enough until I tried everything.

This was the first stop on my Taiwanese food hopping adventure with Linny F. Thank you Linny for taking me around :). Temple Snacks is located on the far left of the food court in the Flushing Mall. I came in through the back entrance where the furniture store is located. If that is the case, when you first walk in, go towards the left in the vestibule to walk down the long hallway that eventually leads downstairs to the food court.
If you want to get a taste of cheap Taiwanese street food or 路邊攤 at American prices this is the place to go. Because we were Taiwanese food hopping, we only ordered two things avoid getting too full:
Taiwanese Gua Bao (割包) — Best guabao is the original Taiwanese one with Chinese mustard (酸菜) and peanuts. Not the Asian fusion ripoff ones with aioli and other weird fixings. The pork belly was more meaty than fatty which I like, nicely stuffed in the soft buns. It’s pretty sizable too, so easily shareable if you do not want to eat too much.
Wa Guei (碗粿) — This is one of my favorite foods to get in Taiwan ever. I’m usually always on a quest to find this. It is hard to find, so I usually have to resort to making it myself, which takes too much time and effort. It is essentially a steamed savory rice cake topped with braised meat and sauce. The ones sold in Tainan, Taiwanese also include dried shrimp. The one they make here wasn’t bad. It didn’t have the super, soft custardy texture, nor the gooey brown sauce. It is definitely better in Tainan, naturally, and the sauce is here is slightly different, but I fully appreciate that they sell it here. At least it was softer than law bok gow, the Cantonese pan-​fried turnip cake, as it should be.
Big Sausage wrapped around Little Sausage (大腸包小腸) — Very popular street food in Taiwan, which consists of a sausage casing stuffed with glutinous rice split down the middle with a Chinese sausage stuffed in. Normally, nothing too special, but topped with their garlicy sauce, it is delicious. Be prepared for scary garlic breath afterwards.
Pig’s Blood Cake — I heard something about this being banned in the US, so I guess they don’t use real pig’s blood in these anymore and just the rice with a pig’s blood substitute? It certainly didn’t taste much like pig’s blood and only of the sweet sticky rice. Nevertheless, with that super garlicy sauce they put on it, it was a delicious snack.
Very authentic Taiwanese food. I live really far from Flushing, but I will be making several trips back to try everything I want the menu.

This is a hidden gem of Taiwanese comfort food!
My favorites are pork blood sausage (豬血糕), Run-​Bing: veggie burrito (潤餅）, and fried pork-​roll (雞捲). It is so amazing they also serve Taiwanese meatball such as Caozaiguo （草仔粿）, and sweet filling sticky rice ball: Red tortoise cake (紅龜粿) which I’ve never seen them at any other place in US.
I love how this place preserve the deliciousness of street food from Taiwan and not modifying them to accommodate american tastes. I always ended up taking out more food home for dinner: D

Taiwanese food done right. It will transport you back to the Taiwan, partly because of the workers speaking Taiwanese. The food is just comforting, nothing fancy. Some might say it leans on the sweeter side but it’s all so good. The meat will fall apart and just melt. The meat sauce with the pickled mustard complements everything so well.

One of the places I would almost always come when I visit Flushing. Very authentic and cheap food. Even though I don’t go back to Taiwan as often as I like this place serves as a good reminder on why I should visit more often :-) Practically every item I’ve had from here has been really good. Of course I’m not giving an objective review here being that nostalgia is making an influence.
But I definitely do believe if you’re a fan or had TW food before you’ll like this place. Practically everyone that comes to Flushing Mall is just for the food otherwise there’s not much else to do here. Do make a visit if you’re in the area I really think its worth your time to try this place.

Very old school Taiwanese. It’s like a time warp dining there. The choice of soup + braised pork rice combos are impeccable

Now here’s a place I was hoping would be amazing, but fell disappointingly short. With annual trips back to Taiwan still not satiating my desire for the food of my mother country, I was ecstatic upon seeing the menu for Temple Snacks, serving up some very traditional Taiwanese eats that I’d never seen anywhere else. We ended up ordering their:
* Ba Wan (Taiwanese Meat Ball) — Basically ground meat and other veggies surrounded by a thick glutinous rice exterior, covered in the sweet chili sauce. Not nearly as good as the ones I’ve had in Taiwan, lacking a bit in filling, and a tad too sweet.
* Braised Pork Over Rice — Not bad, but not the traditional flavors I expected from this dish. I actually make a better version of it back at home.
* Ren Bing — Something of a Taiwanese burrito/​wrap, filled with various vegetables, sugar, and peanut powder. Their version of it was a bit strange, as their wrap was a bit cold, and a bit wet, with a lukewarm interior. What you normally find in Taiwan is warmer, with a thinner wrap, and just oh so much tastier.
***Accessibility Info***
Venue — On the food court level of the somewhat decrepit Flushing Mall, which is plenty spacious and has loads of accessible tables.
Bathroom — I didn’t really check, but it’s a mall, so I imagine there were definitely bathrooms around.

This is one of the more authentic, inexpensive places that offer Taiwanese food in Flushing. The restaurant’s located in an aged mall.
I haven’t tried any thing on their menu that I have not enjoyed. Probably because I stick to what I know will be a hit.
Their chicken roll is crispy yet crunchy and not soggy like how many places make these rolls.
Pork blood sausage — sounds gross? but it is not. Again, not soggy, and has the perfect consistency. I love the sugar peanut and cilantro that comes with the dish.
Pork chop over rice is fried to perfection and not too oily.
Their smelly tofu is good.
Try the bitter melon soup w/​pork and the lily with pork soups. Both have a really good flavor base.
One of my faves is the tempura. Maybe it’s because of the sauce… mmm dipping sauces…
This is a no tip cafeteria style seating location.

great cheap-​ish food.
in the flushing food court, not the new world one. I had the braised pork rice, which although delicious, it really could stand to have more of the pork topping. Its not quite balanced. The taiwanese burritos… are delicious. I’m taiwanese, never seen these before and i was pleasantly surprised. Finally i tried the turtle cake, no real turtles used. Its filled with red bean, a good after meal snack.

over price, my rice/​meat sausage was cutted in half to make it looks bigger… which end up looks extremely cheap…

Delicious ba-​wan. Tender noodles with a great chew, meatballs and sauce tasted fresh and tangy. Just unctuous enough without tasting off. Really enjoyed it.

Herbal Rice Cakes. If you stop by the old mall for nothing else, get a order of herbal rice cakes and some of the small plates from this place.

Came here as recommended by a friend. Every time I come here, try new food and enjoy the food very much. the bad thing about this small place is I’m addicted to their Smoked Duck. I can eat the whole duck by myself.

This just brought me back to childhood, when I went to Taiwan every summer. It’s by far one of the most authentic Taiwanese food places I’ve ever been to.
I love the rice blood pudding. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s the closest thing to the real deal (believe me, I’ve been searching since I was 9).
The people were really nice, not pushy like some of the other places. If anything was to bring me to Flushing every night without question, it would be this place!

Its Chinese name, Miao Kou, means temple entrance. This is because in a famous temple in Taiwan, there are a bunch of street vendors by the entrance that sells all sorts of delicious snacks for the visitors & tourist. It wouldn’t be entirely untrue to say that some people visit the temple, looking forward more to eating the temple entrance snacks itself.
My boss, coworkers, my Dad, and my Taiwanese friend LOVES this place for its authentic Taiwanese flavor. They dig the pork belly over rice (#1), porkchop over rice, tofu side dish, red turtle cake (as explained by Radford below), and 4 God Soup (intestine soup, flavored with vinegar & rice wine. let the brave ones try!).
I think 2 things worth mentioning is their bamboo, and tofu side dishes. It’s extra «Taiwanese» because the bamboo is sort of pickled and flavored differently than any other Chinese-​type cuisine. Tofu comes with garlic paste & hot sauce that gives it a particular kick, just remember the Trident afterward.
Their hot soups (lily flower w/​porkchop bone, or bitter melon w/​porkchop bone) is very good and minimal MSG! I think the combination of one of these soups plus the #1 over rice is Chinese comfort food at its best. Mmm, just like how mom used to make it! (If my mom cooked)

This is one of two Taiwanese places that I am a repeat customer. I come here if I felt like I worked too hard at my gym and always go for the pork belly dish with tea egg and pickled bamboo shoots. There is something very harmonious of how he makes that dish. I also really dig this guys pork belly sandwich which is classic Taiwanese street fare. I like the way they do this better than Baohaus back in Manhattan although I like Eddie, but I like the old guy at Temple Snacks more.

I really wish Unilocal would give us the option of half stars. I’d give this place 2.5 stars.
Breakdown:
3 stars for taste
-.5 stars for price + portion
Temple Snacks takes its name from Taiwanese tradition; it is well known in Taipei that the best street food is always near the miao kou, or entrance to the temple.
They serve ONLY Taiwanese food here; I’m not sure why some of the other reviewers have noted that they sell «some» Taiwanese.
My go-​to item is the mi fun tang, rice noodle soup. They are the only ones that make it with thick rice noodle, instead of the thin rice noodle (like 66 Laifood). Their taste is also almost on par with what a REAL mi fun tang should taste like. I don’t like intestines but they also give plenty of that, which my husband will greedily polish off for me.
So why my complaint on portion? They are almost outrageously priced in terms of what they offer. Go a few steps down to Ah Chung and you will almost get double of what Temple gives.
My husband loves their lou rou fan, braised pork bits over rice, but they’re so cheap with the lou rou that its almost upsetting. Come on guys, that stuff is CHEAP, rice is CHEAP. You don’t have to be so dang cheap about it!!!
We have tried many of the items on the menu and agree that this is as close as it gets to Taiwanese street snacks, but being located in Flushing Mall, you have to really adjust your prices so customers don’t feel ripped off.
We only come here when we have the illest cravings. That’s it! Or else I’d rather goto Red Chopsticks.

One of the food stalls in the Flushing Mall Food Court, this place serves up small and simple Chinese dishes, with several Taiwanese specialties. This is the stall at the far left side of the food court. Like most of the stalls there, they make their food from a small kitchen that you can actually see. There is one person taking orders, and a few people in the kitchen making the food. I came here on a late Saturday afternoon on my continuing quest to try out all the places at the Flushing Mall Food Court.
Their menu is in both Chinese and English, and they also have pictures of the dishes posted up. I could tell from the menu that with a few exceptions, most of these dishes are quick and easy dishes that you can cook at home if you have the right ingredients. I decided to order the Boiled Chicken and Mushroom Soup with Braised Pork Rice, and also the Taiwanese Red Bean Cake.
The Boiled Chicken and Mushroom Soup with Braised Pork Rice is really two dishes — the soup and the rice. The Boiled Chicken and Mushroom Soup is basically something that Chinese people might make at home. It’s a broth cooked with plain chicken and some mushrooms. At home, people would add some salt to it, but probably here, they used MSG. It was a well made and satisfying soup, but to be honest, it’s pretty difficult to mess this soup up, because you basically add some chicken and mushroom in a pot of water and throw in some flavouring. The Braised Pork Rice was a small dish of rice with some bits of fatty pork. Also pretty nice, but they had very little pork in the dish for a growing boy like myself.
The Taiwanese Red Bean Cake was something I’ve never had before. The English name doesn’t really tell the entire story. The Chinese name translates to «Red Turtle Rice Cake». It’s not really a «cake» per se, but that’s the closest translation I can come up with. It is actually a delicacy with an outer layer made with glutinous rice. This particular one that I ordered is red, shaped like a turtle shell, and is filled with red bean paste. These rice cakes have a Hakka origin, and this «Red Turtle» variety has gained popularity in Taiwan. I really liked this dish, but I may be biased here because I like most things with red bean paste!
One of the things I noticed about this stall is that they’ve mounted a little speaker in their corner to blast out old Chinese and Japanese songs from the 60s and 70s. I thought that was kind of funny.

Update: this place has moved from the Roosevelt Food Court (which is now defunct and being remodeled and turned into something to-​be-​determined) to the Flushing Mall, closer to the yummy shaved ice and other food stands. This place has an amazing pork belly sandwich that is not to be missed!