REC COFFE — Restaurant in Taichung

Unfortunately it seems as though more and more places exist only for an instagram pic with no actual substance. Having had many excellent coffees in Japanese higher end coffee shops, one would think the experience may translate here. I am a bit conflicted because the end result - the coffee itself - was quite good. These are high quality beans roasted appropriately and when they eventually poured the pour-overs we ordered, it was very good. But how does a cup of coffee that Blue Bottle regularly does with high volume in a few minutes take half an hour in a half empty store?

The management here is the real problem. The ordering system is quite silly, you are forced to sign in to a wifi because service is bad up this high, then scan a QR code to order from a menu that has very little English. Then you have to stand up to go pay at a counter (they don’t tell you that they don’t start the order until you pay) where they have trouble finding the order on their corresponding and have to ask you a bunch of questions again, as if you didn’t just order on the menu on your phone. When technology actually makes the process more complicated, it probably should be axed.

Our coffees took about half an hour (there were no pour overs ordered before us) because their process is apparently that the person says pour over order incoming and that is when the pour over guy goes there. I guess he didn’t hear it the first time because I had to go to the counter to ask them about 20 minutes in for them to announce it again.

We ordered some food items - lemon cake and a butter toast which were also pretty good, so it’s unfortunate that the management has let down a solid hard product and a pretty nice view. Hope they can figure out how to get their...

Arrived at 5pm on a weekday in the lobby of the building where you have to register first. We waited almost 20min before being sent upstairs (café located on the 26F). Upstairs greeted by a bare minimum friendly staff and It was difficult to understand why we had to wait so long since café was almost empty. We were informed that it closes at 6pm. Fine, however it took 15min more minutes to get our drinks, 1 Americans and almost 10 more minutes for 1 espresso 🤔. I believe they mixed upstairs my order. So not many time left to enjoy before closing. Drinks were okay, quite pricey though, total NT286 included 10% service charge. Service was not bad, not good either. 6 Staff behind the counter and still not feeling orders are processed efficiently. I cannot imagine how they handle it if it was crowded. Overall experience barely recommendable, except for the view. Sadly it's facing east, so you cannot really enjoy the sunset, night view with city lights is pretty though (hence 3 stars for...

REC Coffee is one of the champion coffee roasters in Japan that’s originally from Fukuoka. This location was their first branch oversea, so it’s one of the hottest spots recently in Taichung.

We visited on a weekday afternoon at about 3pm and we still needed to wait for about 15 minutes to be seated, so we believe the wait would to bad on weekends.

The decor is elegant & bright with cozy & relaxing ambiance, and it’s perfect to stay for a while. The options on the menu were various from coffee, smoothies, tea, snacks to desserts…etc.

We got a Mont Blanc, Lemon Tart, their signature Hakata Blend, Honey & Lychee Latte and Brown Sugar Latte to share with a group of three. It’s at a little high price point but everything is delicate.

Our favorites were the lemon tart, which was refreshing and the creamy brown sugar latte. We might visit again for their coffee...