Feb 18
A Cataloging of Cafes
Since moving to Taipei, I’ve been in search of a perfect coffee shop near my apartment. As an educator, writer, and editor, I do a lot of work in front of a laptop screen, and spending all that time at home is not good for my mental health or productivity. I’m fortunate that my corner of Taipei has a TON of coffee options, but each of them has drawbacks.
Place: the SE corner of Taipei proper, between Liuzhangli MRT Station / 六張莉站 and Taipei Medical University / 醫學大學.
Priorities: Good cold brew and lattes. Open early. Good music. Relatively quiet. Smells good. Non-dairy milk options (preferably not oat milk but I’ve literally yet to find a place in easy walking distance that has other milks available: it’s oat or cow and nothing else). Available seats and power outlets. Some food is nice but not necessary.
Options, alphabetically:
生活域所 A Living Labb — I end up going here the most. The music is great. The prices are on the low end for this kind of coffee shop and the taste is excellent. They open at 10am and have a nice view of the nearby park. However, they have two problems. The first is the windows, which are floor to ceiling. If it’s hot outside, sitting in certain places in the cafe means it’s not very comfortable. It also means that twice I’ve had people see me through the window and come in to talk to me for not great reasons. The second problem is the patio, where there is frequently people smoking. If you sit by the patio, you will have to smell the smoke. These two problems are compounded when it’s crowded, which is often, limiting where you can sit. I’m also sad to report they have no non-dairy milk options, and that I can never remember they’re closed on Wednesdays so sometimes I waste my walk there. However, their food options are quite good, though I wish they had a vegetarian curry addition!
Always bean Good — They opened after we moved here and I think used to have more limited hours, so I haven’t been much. Now it opens at 9am, which is awesome. They have good coffee and oat milk is available! The seating is nice but several of the tables don’t have power outlets. Coffee is a little expensive and if you go close to lunch it fills up fast. Finally, they only have paper cups, even if you are staying there, which is a bummer.
木待制咖啡Cafe Mo — Wins an award for most friendly staff (and a great Instagram). Great coffee, has good oat milk, and their prices are probably the best on this list. Unfortunately, compared with the rest of the list, they are the furthest from my apartment and they only have a couple of seats, so I don’t go here as much as I’d like.
Coffee Woodrow 伍拙咖啡 — I don’t know why, but this place is like a black hole in my mind. Every time I pass it, I think I want to go there, but when I am deciding what coffee shop to go to, I never remember it. I’ve only been once and it was when I first moved here! Need to try again.
東咖啡 Dong Coffee Bar — I love this coffee shop. It’s tucked away in a quiet spot. Its aesthetic is great. It’s never loud and it has a wide ranging selection of good music and the staff is very nice. HOWEVER! It doesn’t open until noon. Its oat milk is not great (they use Avena brand and the taste is bad; Oatly might be horribly unhealthy and overpriced but at least it tastes good). The cold brew is expensive, but large enough where the price isn’t awful (though the prices overall are a little above average), so that means I only can get it if I want to drink a lot of coffee. Really great desserts and not a bad place to go get a cocktail in the evening.
復・咖啡Full Coffee — This place is very close to my house, but I’ve never been! I visited twice and both times the exact same thing happened. Out of the five tables, two were empty, two were occupied, and one was covered with stuff for the business. Both times I was told the two empty tables were reserved. So I gave up! I guess the name is appropriate.
917 How’s Coffee (edited to add) — Went there twice. Coffee was okay, dessert was really good, but both times the smell of smoke from their patio came inside quite strongly, so won’t be returning.
Moonshine Coffee Roasters | 私釀咖啡商行 (敦南旗艦店) — !Three! non-dairy milk options. Great snack and tea selection. The coffees are kind of small for the price. It’s also on the edge of how far I’m willing to walk from my house on an average day, and past the edge on a summer day.
森優咖啡 Tribu Cafe — The owner or manager here is extremely nice and friendly, and it’s great because I see him around the neighborhood outside of his business quite a bit. However, because the cafe does not open until noon and is closed on Mondays, I almost never go. It also does not have cold brew and it doesn’t have non-dairy milk. One other reason is that for whatever reason this cafe has a louder customer base when we went, including one guy who really wanted to talk to us about teaching him English while we were trying to talk to each other.
Honorable Mention: 有意樹桿咖啡 ArTree Cafe — ArTree is the literal closest coffee shop to my house. It doesn’t open until noon, it frequently fills up, and it has no non-dairy milk, but their coffee and pastries are fantastic, and the prices are okay. However, it seems to have been a casualty of the epidemic. It’s been closed for months and even though the sign is still hanging outside the door, there’s been radio silence from their social media pages. I’ll miss them! We even got two birthday cheesecakes from them when it was open.
Dishonorable Mention: Louisa Cafe — It’s always full, its prices are cheap, its sandwiches are not bad, but this coffee is awful. Cama and 7/11 have better coffee (although you can’t really work well in either of those) (also, shockingly, the one time I went to an Ikari I think they have even worse coffee than Louisa). Also very loud the couple of times I’ve been.
Favorite cafes a little further away: Rufous is expensive but has maybe the best tasting coffee I’ve had in my life. Boom is also a little expensive but I love love love their music and their espresso is wonderful. Seeds is the closest place I know of that has a non-dairy milk besides oat.
Commentary: I wish more coffee shops opened before noon, and I wish they had more non-dairy milk options! I would also kill for a Vietnamese-style coffee with non-dairy milk (I miss Bodhi Viet in Austin that had coconut milk coffee options). There are vegan coffee shops in Taipei, but none close to where I live, and that should change.
