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The Han-Jia

Tainan

A masterclass in the joy of eating and drinking

Borrowing its name from the Taiwanese Hokkien hán-tsia̍h, a phrase that holds two meanings at once – something rare and precious to eat and the act of eating and drinking with abandon – The Han-Jia wears both readings comfortably in Taiwan's oldest city. The room on Ximen Road is striking, spacious and unusually well-lit for a serious bar, its high ceilings and exposed brick set against velvet banquettes and crystal chandeliers, with private rooms arranged around round marble tables for parties who intend to stay. Whisky is the spine of the operation, with bottles from around the world running along metal shelving on the walls, poured neat for purists or routed into cocktails presented with minimal flourish and the occasional wink, a cola gummy clipped to the side of the Long Island Iced Water being the house's idea of a garnish.

The bar belongs to Nono Yu, who opened it in 2020 within a growing family of Tainan venues that now runs from Jia Jiu and Bar Tor Dāy to Nán and Fatdoo and Shaogao. A magician before he was a bartender, Yu took the World Class Taiwan title in 2022 from a field of more than five hundred and was named among GQ's Men of the Year the same season; and his drinks still carry the logic of stagecraft, conceived by picturing the finished cocktail first and reverse-engineering the route to it through local fruit, herbs and tea. The Goat Mei-Mei makes the method plain, building kaoliang, goat's cheese, strawberry, yoghurt and white truffle into something that smells like a strawberry truffle dessert and drinks like strawberry cheesecake. True to the Pairing Dinner in its full name, the kitchen is no afterthought, running French technique through Italian-style snacking in dishes such as squid croquettes, wok-fried duck hearts and an octopus braised with more than ten spices, seared in butter and finished with house Romesco, each plated with a cocktail in mind. A debut at No.79 on the extended Asia's 50 Best Bars list in 2024 was followed by a twenty-place climb to No.59 in 2025, proof that the rare and precious thing the name promises is exactly what Tainan now has.

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