Hi everyone. Forum noob here with a friendly inquiry.
Can anyone recommend a chill coffee shop amenable to laptop loiterers in Taipei? With WIFI, couches and/or comfy chairs, and an ample supply of power outlets? I know that the city is teeming with cafes, but I don’t always want to eat and sometimes I just want to post up for longer periods of time and not be bothered (recently, I was unceremoniously kicked out of a coffee shop in the ZX Dunhua area for “exceeding the time limit” - what time limit?!). Maybe I just haven’t looked for long enough, but does anything like what I described above exist in Taipei? Plz advise.
Unfortunately, you’ll probably need to look for the nearest coffee chain shop (Barista, Starbucks, Dante…). The independent cafes often offer superior food and coffee but still didn’t crack the atmosphere formula. They are often too chic, zen, over-the-top designed with sterile service so they never have that casual, neighborhood kind of feel which makes it fun and attractive for customers to become regulars.
I think most coffee shops are businesses and want to make money, not people just hanging around on 1 coffee all day and use their wifi … oh wait! that’s what most people do here in Taiwan!
They should do as a coffee shop I’ve seen somewhere on the internet, charge people by the hour spent inside … free coffee, tea and cookies tho.
Taipei has dozens if not hundreds of cool cafes to work out of for extended periods of time. You have to get out of the super chic downtown core around Sogo though.
Rattling off a few names: Rufous (my top cafe in Taiwan) near Technology Building MRT; Yaboo Cafe, For Good, Labu, George’s Coffee House, and about five other cafes just off Yongkang Street; Picnic Cafe and the half-dozen other cafes along Wenzhou just west of Taida/Gongguan MRT; Peace & Love/Gupu near Dapinglin MRT; Cafe Junkies; and so on. Pick the right neighbourhood, get off the main street, avoid the most overtly fancy places with full meals and afternoon tea, and you’ll find all sorts of places that are perfectly fine to work in.
Have you been to the new Rufous, Mucha Man? Plenty more room to sprawl, awesome coffee, exceedingly polite service, outlets (for a fair 20 NT), and no time limit (though I try to be a good guest and move along if things start getting too busy).
Are there any half-decent comfy-style cafe’s near, say, Taipower Building? I’m in Yonghe, south of the river, and there’s a distinct dearth of any such establishments - to my knowledge.
I still really miss the old Cafe Bastille near Shida Rd which for me was always the comfy chairs and low lights cafe-bar par excellence. I’ve never found another place in Taipei that had that ambience. Or if there is one, knowing my luck it’s an hour’s MRT ride away.
There are heaps in the alleys around Wenzhou Street, just across Roosevelt Road. Beware though: like many shops in the area, these cafes typically only get started after lunch!
[quote=“SleeplessInTaipei”]
Rattling off a few names: Rufous (my top cafe in Taiwan) near Technology Building MRT; Yaboo Cafe, For Good, Labu, George’s Coffee House, and about five other cafes just off Yongkang Street; Picnic Cafe and the half-dozen other cafes along Wenzhou just west of Tai-Da/Gongguan MRT; Peace & Love/Gupu near Dapinglin MRT; Cafe Junkies; and so on. Pick the right neighbourhood, get off the main street, avoid the most overtly fancy places with full meals and afternoon tea, and you’ll find all sorts of places that are perfectly fine to work in.[/quote]
It’s something I struggle with as well and I was also a fan of the old cafe Bastille.
I don’t quite feel comfortable in the real chic places and the prices can be pretty high.’ You’ll probably still be hungry after spending 100s of ntd on something that can often be fairly mediocre.
I also noticed many places around gongguan don’t open for till later.
Would be nice to have know more proper chilled out places not pseudo chilled out places. It’s might be I’m generation x and a lot for these places cater for a different generation/crowd.
I also find them a bit small , of course that’s pretty normal for an independent store but I like the anonymity of bigger places with more space.
Edit/ I just checked that rufous cafe place by God
It’s small. I wouldn’t know where to put my elbows let alone my bag, coat etc. . Then the food just looks so so but probably costs 300 ntd all told between a coffee and cake. Ouch .
I think the disconnect in my head may be because my idea of ‘cafe’ includes a lot better food and cakes, your own table and not so serious about the coffee. That’s closer to traditional European coffeeshop ideas.
Taiwan seems to have taken on more Scandinavian/hipsters ideas of what is a coffeeshop especially as people don’t go to bars so they go to other ‘hip’ places instead.
Where are the cafes with outdoor seating/balconies/patios in Taipei…that’s the question though…would like to find a place not overrun by smelly smokers.mkts the brief season where you can enjoy sitting outdoors.
HHII: One place you might consider is the excellent Ecole Cafe, which serves good food and coffee and makes their own desserts in house (I am especially fond of the carrot cake). They even have a little patio with outdoor seating, looking across (you guessed it) to a school. The theme continues (quietly) indoors as the seats are all apparently old school seats from Europe. The workers are all quite nice as well–I have always felt welcome there. I would not characterize the prices as rock-bottom but it seems to me that the days of cheap and tasty and healthy are long gone, at least in the central parts of Taipei City.
. Then the food just looks so so but probably costs 300 ntd all told between a coffee and cake. Ouch