Board Game Hut (Taipei Branch) — Local services in Taipei

Excellent small boardgame store where you can buy and play games in Taipei, just a short walk from Taipei Main Station or Ximen. Located on the second floor with a lift tucked back into a small entrance, it is easy to miss the entrance - but persevere! Of particular note is that they stock a wide range of games in English as well as Chinese. These include classics from the major publishers, as well as very new and recent games of all genres. I saw Dungeon crawlers, co-op, solo-only, racing, worker placement, 4X, area control, legacy, lcg, etc. Some accessories were also on sale. By the standards of most of the boardgame shops/ cafes I have been to, there was an impressive English selection! :-) HOWEVER, do not go expecting the kind of very large site and selection offered in specialty stores in the US etc. (This is not a complaint! This is to be expected as the shop is a small location on the second floor of a standard building, not a warehouse.) The prices I saw ranged from about the same as US Amazon with shipping to East Asia (for smaller games) to significantly more for very large and heavy kickstarted games by boutique publishers. (In other words, perfectly reasonable pricing for a small bricks-and-mortar operation that is importing niche hobby items in an already expensive lifestyle hobby.) There are several tables to play on with sofa seating and chairs. We brought our own games, but there was a selection of games to rent out too (although of course these were mainly in Chinese language.) Canned drinks are available to purchase, but the friendly staff were happy to direct us to the nearest convenience store if we wanted to bring in our own drinks (which we did.) The shop use an hourly rate system for renting play space, but also have a 'day rate' for longer stays. We went on a Friday afternoon, around 2.30 pm, and we were the only people there. (YMMV - call about availability of seating). Before visiting, I dropped by their website, where you can search for their current stock. In terms of service, staff were really friendly and communication in English wasn't a problem on the day we visited. Finally, (as you may be there several hours...) it is worth noting that there are toilets on site and these were clean and well maintained. If in the area, I'll definitely be back to scan those...

Level 2 of building. Incredibly large amount of games to choose from. Trust me, I am well deep into the hobby and this beats any store I can find in Sydney, especially as someone looking for asian publishers and hard-to-find American/European titles. I picked up Sub Terra which is sold out in the US and Australia. I found the staff helpful and one spoke good English with me. I don't think you'll find a board game store in South Asia with more English language copies of games, while also featuring the Taiwanese and Japanese published titles. I spent about an hour just looking at all the games. Plenty of euro games and heavy games by designers like...

Huge range of games, good prices, and friendly and helpful staff. Cool to be able to play games there too. It's a little difficult to find. There's a small aisle leading to a pair of lifts, from which you need to go up one floor. While I was there the lifts and the aisle were under maintenance, so the place looked a little uninviting. However, braving that was totally worth it. Will come again if I come back to Taiwan! I bought the SGS...