Consulate Cafe

Address: No. 257, Zhōngzhèng Rd, Danshuei District
Telephone: Not listed
Hours: Not listed
Price: $$

Type "Consulate Cafe Taipei" into any major search engine, and you'll get a lot of results. The majority won't even reference a cafe. Sometimes referred to as "The Embassy Cafe", Consulate Cafe is hard to miss on Zhōngzhèng Road and is across the street from the Fort San Domingo entrance.

This conveniently located cafe welcomes a lot of tourists who come to visit the Fort and former British Consulate, students from Aletheia University, and day-trippers visiting from Taipei. The fare is light and moderately priced. You can find cheaper food and drinks at the street stalls; this air-conditioned cafe is not the place to seek a bargain.

Though the menu boasted many drinks (hot/iced green tea, hot/iced black tea, beer, juice, soda, chocolate milk and hot chocolate, "ice cream soda", coffee, lattes, etc.), I decided water would be best, what with the humidity and my state of dehydration. I wanted to eat something light that wouldn't weigh me down, but thought a salad too boring. Dessert sounded good, but cheesecakes and brownies aren't really all that light. A sandwich it was.

The sandwich selection was tuna, ham, smoked salmon, or German sausage with sauerkraut ($140 - $190 NT). Quite the eclectic smorgasbord. I chose the smoked salmon sandwich with herb bread (possible alternatives: croissant, "milk" bread) for $160 NT.

The sandwich was a lot bigger than I had anticipated. The "herb bread" was actually two large pieces of olive and rosemary focaccia bread. The olive and rosemary were married well, though the focaccia seemed a little oily, bizarrely so. There was a good amount of lettuce, some nice ripe slices of tomato, several cucumbers, and (disappointingly) a sliver of salmon. All of this was smothered with some sort of salad dressing (even more disappointing). 

While I suppose it is my fault for not asking them to make the sandwich without dressing, it never stated on the menu that dressing was even a potential component. I think I hear the smallest violin in the world playing just for me.... Anyway, I was a little miffed that I had purchased a smoked salmon sandwich with almost no smoked salmon, but such is life. There was a dollop of the salad dressing and relish on the side, but the sandwich was drowning as is. Unnecessary.

The real appeal to this cafe is the location. Located right on the riverside, there are beautiful sunset views and lovely nighttime views of Bali. Consulate Cafe is located close to Big Tom, in fact, just walk down Zhōngzhèng Road and you'll bump into both of them (about a three minute walk from one another). There's no website for Consulate Cafe, but you can search "Consulate Cafe Taipei" or "The Embassy Cafe Taipei" and sift through the results.

The menu is in English and Chinese, there's a 10% service charge, and the staff speak a limited amount of English. My opinion on Consulate? Just head over to Big Tom. The view is quite similar, there's no service charge, the riverside view is indoors with floor to ceiling windows, the food and drinks are cheaper, the ambiance better, and all the Wi-fi for which you can ask!

Big Tom

Address: 2F., No. 233-2, Zhongzheng Road, Danshui

Telephone: (02) 2626-1622

Hours: ?

Price: $

  So over the holiday I wanted to get out of the city a little bit. I went to Danshui (not too far out there on the red line) and ate at one of my favorite cafes. Danshui is known for its delicious street food and there's a lot of fantastic cuisine around every bend. When you've had your share of chòu dòufu and want to sit somewhere to take it all in, I recommend Big Tom's cafe.

What Big Tom lacks in number, it makes up for in location. There aren't many of these cafes around the island, but what little there are are in high traffic locations i.e. Taipei 101 observatory, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. The one in Danshui is a cozy little affair that occupies the second and third story of a building right on the waterfront. The view is absolutely breath-taking at sunset and it's a good opportunity to snag some scenery photos.

The day I went to Danshui happened to be a little chilly and overcast, so I decided to order a hot brown sugar caramel latte ($85 NT) and a fresh waffle with maple syrup ($90 NT). The latte came first and was topped off with the customary foam. On top of the foam was a thin layer of brown sugar. Absolutely divine! I liked that the brown sugar wasn't just dumped into the latte. You had the option of stirring it in or waiting for it to dissolve, thereby controlling the sweetness of the latte (a little).

I tend to forget that there are some places in the world that take the word "latte" seriously. In Italian the word "latte" means "milk", so if you order a latte in Italy you will not be getting a cup of coffee with milk. At Big Tom, a brown sugar caramel latte is essentially a shot of espresso with a lot of steamed milk and foam. Regardless of its coffee to milk ratio, the drink is delicious and I definitely wasn't disappointed!

The waffle, piping hot and dusted with chocolate powder, arrived shortly after my latte. Let it be known that this cafe has the best service of almost any cafe I've been to in Taipei. The servers are friendly, quick, and have a good attention to detail. I've never been kept waiting more than a couple minutes for anything at any time of day.

 The waffle didn't come with butter, but there was a small dollop of whipped cream on the side (and an edible, chocolate "Big Tom Ice Cream" wafer). The waffle is typical of Taiwanese waffles. It has a cake-like consistency and isn't as fluffy or light as an American style waffle. This being said, I enjoyed my afternoon tea meal. It was the perfect thing to combat a cold, grey day. I wish it had been a little warmer and then I would've been in the mood to sample some of their ice cream flavors!

Big Tom offers a variety of flavors like cookies and cream, marionberry cheesecake, Oregon wild strawberry, banana walnut, and green tea. Two scoops (in a waffle bowl, I believe?) are $198 NT, and pints are $320 NT. They also sell floats, sundaes, bagels, and ice cream making classes (subject to location). 

The staff is fabulous and the menu is in English and Chinese. I've never had to use the restroom in this location and, that being said, I'm not sure where they would have room to put one. This is going to be my last post for the next week as I have quite the work week in front of me! If you want to know more about Big Tom, check out their website.