Friday, eight p.m., No. 9, Lane 394, Wenhua 3rd Rd Section 1. A line stands outside 地中海餐酒館 ABV Bar & Kitchen 林口文三店 — 4.7, 3,500-plus reviews. No reservation at this hour means you wait.
Next door at No. 356, on the second floor of Mitsui, JAPOLI義大利餐酒館 turns tables on 4,000-plus reviews without pausing.
Drinking in Linkou, most people’s first reflex is “shouldn’t we just go to Taipei?” No need. The bar scene here grew with the new town: MRT A9 strings Linkou and Guishan’s A7/A8 into one living line — Taoyuan people drink here, Linkou people drink there, routine either way. This list splits into three routes by how you want to drink, bounded by the last MRT train and the designated-driver number.
One rule first: Linkou has no nightclubs. For a dance floor and DJs, take National Highway 1 to Taipei or Taoyuan, 20–30 minutes by car. Don’t force that question here.
Dinner and drinks: Wenhua 3rd Road’s home turf
Section 1 of Wenhua 3rd Rd is Linkou’s bistro main street. Best Brews精釀吧 at No. 1 and 啉啉精釀 Lim Lim Craft at No. 358-2 bracket the craft beer at either end; mid-strip, JAPOLI and ABV do the heavy traffic.
Review counts aren’t the experience. ABV’s strength is the depth of its beer list; JAPOLI is closer to an Italian family restaurant — serious drinkers will leave unsatisfied.
Section 2 is the surprise. The Tudor Inn Bar and Restaurant 都鐸館 at No. 49, Lane 211: a perfect score, 1,600-plus reviews — the only house in Linkou holding perfect past the thousand-review mark. English-inn playbook, kitchen and bar both solid; weekend reservations are table stakes. At No. 32-7, in the Farglory courtyard, 柒息地串燒居酒屋 林口遠雄店 runs 4.9 across 360-plus reviews — the standard answer for skewers and draft beer.
As for 浮島展悅 at No. 455 — 2,000-plus reviews, but its 4.3 sits at the bottom of this road. The view-restaurant problem: come for the scenery, fine; come for the drinking and you’ll leave disappointed.
Skipping the queue: slip over to Zhongxiao and Zhongshan Road
When the mall strip is full, walk toward the old town and the rooms loosen by half.
京都清水居酒屋 at No. 51 Zhongxiao Rd and 飲樂啤酒串燒 at No. 262-2 Zhongshan Rd both sit around 4.4 — not top of class, but you walk in on a weekday night and get a table. That never happens on Wenhua 3rd.
LightBar來吧-新北林口 at No. 6, Lane 308, Zhongxiao Rd — 4.9, 120-plus reviews, small-room cocktails; when the counter fills, that’s the house full.
The pace over here is slow. No table-turning pressure, no nine o’clock second seating.
Mid-session urge to sing? There’s a small KTV at 2F, No. 12, Lane 394, Wenhua 3rd Rd Sec. 1 — the Xingguang Xiangyan piece tears down its specs and booking rules; it chains on neatly.
Drinking properly: four houses, four liquors
Cocktails: Black Sugar - Cocktail & Wine at No. 350 Bade Rd, 4.9 across 200-plus reviews — Linkou’s answer. A cigar with your glass: HighBall Cigar Bar at No. 28, Lane 191, Wenhua 3rd Rd Sec. 1, 4.7. Wine: Cozy Mozy葡萄酒吧 at No. 85 Minfu St — only 30 reviews, small sample, but note the 4.9. Bottles of craft to carry home: 鋐釀酒坊 at No. 200 Nanshi St.
Four houses, four playbooks, one thing in common: quiet. Right for the second stop, wrong for a party of ten.
Getting out
Leave before the last Airport MRT train and walk back to A9 — cheapest. Past that, call a cab; late-night Wenhua 3rd Rd hails easily, and central Taoyuan or Taipei is 20–30 minutes by car. Driving in? Decide who stays sober before you set out — this one isn’t negotiable.
For a straight-from-work evening, the A9 night piece has the timeline laid out; coming off a Mitsui run, see the Linkou night route. The full bar list lives at Linkou nightlife & bars; everything else is on the Linkou district page.