Best cafés to work from in Taipei ☕+ 💻

Published in

Places In Asia

7 min readMar 5, 2016

Through my search to find the best places to work remotely, I have visited over 120+ cafés in Taipei alone. Reason? I am software engineer turned entrepreneur and I don’t have typical office job.
I decided I should share my knowledge with other people like me, who need great places to work remotely. My goal is to build a curated list of laptop-friendly cafés, where you just show up, pull out your laptop and start working without hassle.
Now, this is a list in progress — I will be adding more and more entries as time goes on, selecting only the best of the best. Make sure you come back here soon to see what other gems I’ve discovered!

All cafés listed here are equipped with fast & stable WiFi, free power sockets, plentiful water flow and of course serve good coffee as I believe this all should be a minimum standard for us and main criteria for this list ;)

Want to work with me? 💁 Add me on Line and say hello: xsky88

Let’s get started:

Trust Café (創咖啡)

13.30— 22.00, all week (soon to be opened 24 hours)
2min walk from Zhongshan Junior High School MRT (brown line)
WiFi: Very fast, 1Gbps WiFi
One cool thing: 1Gbps WiFi + shower!

WiFi: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Usefulness: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Ambience: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Coffee: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Hip: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Extras: alcohol, projector, printer, lockers, conference room, shower (!)

This is my top pick, as one of the most well-equipped cafés I have ever visited in Taiwan. And I really mean it. The owner, Mr. Leo, has made sure you will have everything you could possibly need to get your work done: blazing fast, 1Gbps Internet; power sockets (including fast charging USB ports!), alcohol, and even showers. That’s right, showers.

How awesome is that?

The place has 2 levels — the ground floor is more of a meeting + working space, with 2 sofas and 4 tables, each with enough space to comfortably fit 2 people working on their laptops.

The basement is more of a co-working space with an extra conference room at the end. Here, you will find lockers, a printer, and the shower room (which is big enough for your whole team ;) ).

A really nice feature of the café: there are charging cubes attached to each table, giving you 3 power sockets + 2 fast charging USB ports.

If you find yourself in need of some booze, just reach out to the side of the coffee-making area, and grab one of 20 different beers from local breweries, priced at 200NT each.

Another unique feature: Line-themed tokens. If you have the Mr. Brown side of the token displayed at your table, other patrons know not to disturb you. The Cony side signals that you’re willing to engage with others.

The staff speaks English, so you should have no communication issues.

P.S. The owner has plans to start running the café night and day. That means it will be the only café in all of Taiwan to be open 24 hours!

Oh, and if you wondered about this internet speed part, here you go:

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Sugar Man

14.00-4.00, all week
5min walk from Guting MRT (yellow line)
WiFi: Just OK.
Payment methods: Cash only
One cool thing: Opened till 4AM!

WiFi: 🔥🔥🔥
Usefulness: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Ambience: 🔥🔥🔥
Coffee: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Hip: 🔥🔥

Attention all night owls: this place is one of the very few places in Taipei that is open until 4AM. So if you’re most productive during the late hours, grab your laptop and come here.

This old coffee shop is located in a university area, so the place is pretty much fully packed around 18.00–00.00 every day. Takeaway: you might find it challenging to find a place then, so try to come earlier.

They serve food, although it’s more of a “hunger-killer” rather than a “must-try” meal. At least you won’t be disappointed by the coffee.

Pretty much everyone inside is working/studying on their laptops, so you shouldn’t have a problem getting into a good working groove. If you are on chill mode, they have an extra room with a sofas, which can fit up to 8 people.

Warning: the café is populated with hungry mosquitos, which some might find annoying. It wasn’t a big deal for me, since those little beasts flew slowly enough to be easily caught. Good luck! ;)

Future Factory (啡創工廠)

12.00 — 21.00, all week
3min walk from Yuanshan MRT (red line)
WiFi: Fast.
Payment methods: Visa, Mastercard and Cash
One cool thing: A cute cat inside! Meow 🐱

WiFi: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Usefulness: 🔥🔥🔥
Ambience: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Coffee: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Hip: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Really love this spot and every time I am in this part of the city and need to get some work done, I will come over.

It might be crowded during evening hours, however single sits next to the coffee-making area are rarely occupied so you can always sit there with your laptop first and then switch to normal table.

The place offers food so you shouldn’t feel hungry here. BLT sandwich anyone?

NOTCH咖啡工場站前店

08:00–22:00, all week
4min walk from Taipei Main Station MRT (blue line), take exit M5
WiFi: OK, but unstable with more people sitting.
Payment methods: Cash only
One cool thing: big mug of latte just 95NTD!

WiFi: 🔥🔥🔥
Usefulness: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Ambience: 🔥🔥
Coffee: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Hip: 🔥🔥

Early bird alert again - this café opens at 7.30 during week and 8.00 during weekend. First thing you will notice is that this place is full of teenagers - I guess cheap coffee is what attracts so many of them here - grab a big mug of latte for 95NTD yay! This is a real deal and best bang for your buck among all the best coffee shops in Taipei. Unfortunately they don’t serve any real food here except waffles and cakes.

Café has 3 levels - ground and 2 floors and has a lot of big tables for 6+ people. You won’t run out of power — this place has power outlets literally everywhere. Two things I did not like is poor service and lack of cleanliness so if you are neat freak and like clean spaces - don't go to toilet ;P

Notch 咖啡工場敦南店 / OROMA

Mon-Fri: 08:00–22:00, Sat-Sun: 08:00–20:00
5min walk from Xinyi Anhe MRT (red line), take exit 2
WiFi: OK
Payment methods: Cash only
One cool thing: cheap coffee!

WiFi: 🔥🔥
Usefulness: 🔥🔥🔥
Ambience: 🔥🔥🔥
Coffee: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Hip: 🔥🔥🔥

Another cafe from Notch chain. This one is hidden in the streets of Xinyi Anhe. You will find here one big square table with power outlets at the middle, another table for 6 on side, 2 sofas in the corder and few tables for two.

混hun

13:00–23:00, all week
3min walk from Guting MRT (yellow line), take exit 4
WiFi: Fast.
Payment methods: Cash only

Extras: alcohol (beer, mulled wine)

WiFi: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Usefulness: 🔥🔥🔥
Ambience: 🔥🔥🔥
Coffee: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Hip: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Homey’s Café

12:00–00:00, all week
3min walk from Zhonxiao Fuxing MRT (blue line)
WiFi: Slow :(
Payment methods: Cash only
One cool thing: Discount on second coffee.

WiFi: 🔥
Usefulness: 🔥🔥🔥
Ambience: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Coffee: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Hip: 🔥🔥🔥

Extras: alcohol (beer, mulled wine)

This café has a nice ambience but unfortunately slow and unstable WiFi, making it my last option from all listed and only if you really have no place to go.