Meet Some of the Restaurants Tackling Sustainability in Taiwan

Last year, I travelled to Taiwan for our partners’ Green Dining Awards, hosted by Green Dining Guide, where I met a wide range of foodservice businesses designing their operations to help revive and sustain the world around them. 

Many had just completed the Food Made Good Standard, and what I saw was a clear sense of purpose and a lot of passion to strengthen the systems that keep Taiwan’s food system thriving. Across the country, businesses were finding their unique ways to do things better for their teams, their communities and the environment, while also showing others what’s possible. 

What stood out for me was not just the ambition, but the consistent, day-to-day changes that are making a tangible difference. From reducing food waste and building stronger connections with farmers, fishers and local communities, to reviving awareness of native Taiwanese ingredients and finding creative ways to repurpose material waste, Taiwan’s first cohort of Food Made Good-certified operators is setting a new benchmark for the region. 

Together, they offer a clear picture of how hospitality in Taiwan is evolving and how these ideas are starting to resonate across the wider sector to create transformational change. 

Here are some of the conversations I had while I was there. The interviews were led by Chia-Ying Ho, Co-Founder of Green Dining Guide. 

Qianqian, General Manager of Bulao 125 (Taichung City)  

Bulao 125 in Taichung is a restaurant with a social purpose at its core, built around the idea that later life can still be active, social and full of meaning. Run by the Hondao Senior Citizen's Welfare Foundation and set in a restored historic house, the restaurant employs a 14-strong team of older women with an average age of 67, creating a model that responds directly to Taiwan’s ageing society and labour shortages. Rather than treating age as a limitation, the team has built systems around it, from shorter shifts to workspace adjustments and supportive training, showing that older employees can thrive when the right structures are in place. Bulao 125 is a place where older people can regain confidence, build friendships and stay connected to society, while also offering guests a warm, deeply personal kind of hospitality. 

In 2025, Bulao 125 received a two-star rating in The Sustainable Restaurant Association’s Food Made Good Standard and won Green Dining Guide’s Treat Staff Fairly award, as well as recognition in the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle category, at their 2025 annual awards. 

Watch the interview here

Chef Chang Wen-Teng, Executive Chef and Founder of A-Teng 

Led by chef Chang Wen-Teng in Changhua, A-Teng is built around close, long-term relationships with local farmers and a belief that good ingredients should not be limited to high-end dining. After nearly two decades in the hotel industry, Chang opened the restaurant with the aim of bringing more organic and responsibly grown produce into everyday eating, while making those ingredients more accessible beyond luxury settings. 

The restaurant’s approach is defined by continued collaboration rather than one-off purchasing, with Chang working directly with growers, offering ideas for how to use their produce and helping farmers find better outlets for ingredients that might otherwise go unsold. Chang uses his food to share a wider message with diners, explaining why ingredients are chosen, where they come from and what they mean for local farming communities and the environment. 

In 2025, A-Teng received a three-star rating in our Food Made Good Standard and won the Green Dining Ambassador Award at Green Dining Guide’s 2025 annual awards. 

Watch the interview

Chef Chang Hao-Fu, Executive Chef and Founder of Tu Pang 

A Taichung restaurant led by chef Chang Hao-Fu, Tu Pang uses food as a way to tell the story of place, people and ingredients. Named after the Taiwanese Hokkien word for kitchen, the restaurant is built around the idea of using local ingredients and local voices to express Taiwan’s food culture. Central to its approach is “dish storytelling”, with each course used to explain where ingredients come from, how they are prepared and why those choices matter. 

Tu Pang incorporates reclaimed materials throughout its 60-year-old building, repurposes discarded objects into artworks for its space and turns kitchen by-products such as onion skins and fish bones into seasonings and snacks rather than waste. The restaurant works closely with farmers and producers, using dining as a way to support local agriculture, revive ingredients such as Taiwanese millet and create products with important environmental meaning, including its millet-based “Yun Shan” wine infused with native cinnamon leaves. 

In 2025, Tu Pang received a three-star rating in the Food Made Good Standard and was also recognised by Green Dining Guide at its annual awards. 

Watch the interview

Chen Wanqin, Executive Chef At Cha Lounge, Grand Hyatt Taipei 

On the second floor of Grand Hyatt Taipei, Cha Lounge was created to offer a more thoughtful, flavour-led alternative to conventional vegetarian dining. Led by Chen Wanqin, better known as Chef BK, the restaurant has developed a diverse, globally influenced vegetarian buffet that has proved popular with both local diners and international visitors. The spread features more than 50 vegetarian dishes, all made in-house, built around whole ingredients and house-developed sauces designed to bring depth and complexity to plant-based cooking. 

Cha Lounge works with local smallholder farmers to procure organic and seasonal ingredients, while its flower-based teas are made from locally grown ingredients such as longan flowers, marigold and stevia. The result is a farm-to-table dining experience that combines European culinary influences with a distinctly Taiwanese sense of place. 

In 2025, Cha Lounge received a three-star result in the Food Made Good Standard and won the Green Dining Leader Hotel Award at Green Dining Guide’s 2025 annual awards. 

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Molly Lin, CSO and Spokesperson of Wistron NeWeb Corporation 

The employee cafeteria at Wistron NeWeb Corporation (WNC) is the first and (to date) only non-restaurant operation in Taiwan to achieve a two-star rating in The Sustainable Restaurant Association’s Food Made Good Standard.  

n 2025, WNC also received the “Organic & Eco-Friendly Ingredients Award” from Green Dining Guide, presented at its annual awards recognising best practices among Taiwan’s Food Made Good-certified hospitality businesses. 

WNC launched its “Good Food Movement” in 2013, aiming to serve a high proportion of organic, local and seasonal vegetables in its cafeterias. By 2024, 87% of its agricultural purchases were organic and responsibly sourced. The company has built direct sourcing networks with smallholder farmers, using corporate resources to support them and provide stable income. WNC also views employee health as a core value; since 2013, Chairman Haydn and CEO Jeffrey have taken an active role in overseeing food quality, regularly visiting kitchens to inspect ingredients and ensure meals are minimally processed. 

WNC further integrates sustainability into daily operations through a paperless dining system using ID cards, reusable tableware and portion control to reduce food waste. Senior leadership remains resolute in embedding ESG principles and employee wellbeing into cafeteria operations, supported by an investment of NT$9.5 million in green dining initiatives in 2024.

Watch the interview