Fika Fika Cafe — Restaurant in Zhongshan District

TL;DR: I will definitely be coming back. Staff is friendly, the menu is well developed, the ambience is relaxing. Slightly expensive, but there are cheap selections available. Great place to meet up with friends as opposed as a café where you can do individual work. Experience: I had first arrived at around 10:30AM on a Wednesday morning, but it was pretty crowded so I went to a nearby 7/11 to have a light snack, before coming back at around 11:00 where there was much more room. Staff is well trained, friendly and work fast, there are workers who are able to speak English (international friendly). I first ordered the ‘Osmanthus Longan Honey Latte’ [160NT] with a ‘Cinnamon and Raisin Bagel’ [65NT]. Everything came out within 20 minutes.

One thing I will say (and that my sister pointed out) is that the cup sizes here are pretty generous (see pictures for more details). And as I looked around, I realised that this seemed to be a pretty common theme, at least for people buying lattes. My bagel was nothing fancy, but it wasn’t a disappointment. Butter was not offered along with it, while cream cheese and jams costing around 15 NT extra. As extra flavouring for your beverages, they offer brown sugar, cinnamon powder, and chocolate powder. Ambience: Open windows and numerous warm bulbs helps create an open yet cosy environment. Background music is soft-pop and paired with the sounds of the baristas working, the gentle hum of conversations around the room isn’t too intrusive. There is a huge range of seating options, including elevated seating spots along benches (one separated into a corner along the back wall), there’s benches wrapping around the back of the kitchen area. Small tables that can host couples, as well as a centre piece large table. On the whole there's a greater focus on being social than spaces to study and work privately. The general demographic is young adults, although there were a few mature-aged couples around, all enjoying the warm ambience that Fika Fika was able to offer. It definitely has more of a vibe to relax than rather focus down and do some work. This vibe mainly comes from the large windows that make up most of the walls around Fika Fika café, and also the fact that this place tends to get crowded (or at least feel crowded) quite easily, making it difficult to stay focused. This also made me feel like I couldn’t stay for as long as I wanted to, because I was a lone person, and had finished my drink. There are no outlets available, as per a previous review, there seems like there used to be but they have since been taped up. However, the staff members were pretty friendly for people like me who wished to stay a little longer and work on their laptops. Just make sure you are fully charged. I would recommend Fika Fika as a place to meet with friends, perfect for a sunny day as well as...

Visited here on a busy afternoon in June 2020. Coffee was great. That's where my positive comments end.

Restaurant has a minimum per person charge, this is quite common in TW (but with a twist which I'll share). When I came here with my partner, we grabbed a table first, then we both went to cash and I ordered one set menu, which was meal plus drink (about 400 NTD); we went back to our table to wait for our order. The cashier didn't ask anything further, whether we wanted to order more or not.

The food arrived, we happily ate and drank our set menu.

My partner went back to cashier to order a bagel (100NTD). Cashier told her she could not order. We were both confused, asking why she couldn't order. Apparently she needed to order a drink. Specifically the minimum charge is not a minimum dollar charge, but that each person MUST order a drink at least. So if my partner wanted a bagel she also needed to buy a drink. (Drinks start at 100NTD also).

Where is the logic in this?

We continued to sit to figure out whether we wanted to order an additional drink plus bagel or what our options were. 20 minutes go by and the cashier comes back to pester us whether we were going to order another drink per their rules.

By that time I lost it and asked to speak to their manager specifically asking the logic (or lack thereof) of: having a minimum drink purchase and why a bagel wouldn't count in place why they didn't specify this when I first order my set menu (with my partner standing next to me at time) even if we spent nothing more than my set menu, the 400 NTD (which counts for four of their cheapest beverages) has already exceeded their so called "minimum spend" If my partner had never gone up to try to purchase the bagel in the first place, they would not have even insisted on this rule and come over no less than three times to our table to bother us during our visit

The manager didn't have anything to say and continued to insist this is their '規定' regulation, which I told them is totally senseless and they just lost a customer.

If the store, or any other businesses are reading this, please try to use logic. We were paying customers, we obeyed your max seating time (even left early), and we spent more than enough to satisfy your so called minimum spend. When your regulations don't make sense and require someone, INCLUDING A MANAGER, to make a DISCRETIONARY decision about whether to let something go or insist on the rules, please use your brain. Not only have you lost me and my partner as customers, I'm now leaving this scathing review so I hope other reads it, and we have told at least five of our other friends of the unpleasant experience.

An upscale coffee shop of this kind should not have this kind of practice. The cafe scene in Taipei is bustling and I will happily go ANYWHERE else next time....

This cafe is like the paradigm of all cafes. The rest of the so-called "cafes" in Taipei should take notes.

Service: When you enter, the Barista's actually welcome you---even if you're in a bad mood, they take care of you by greeting you, asking if you're dining with them, finding you a suitable seat. Then they explain the ordering process, and point out where to get water. And they do it in perfect English.

When your order is ready, someone brings your item over over. When you're done if a service-person is nearby they help clear your dishes, after someone leaves they actually clean the table they were at. The staff is attentive, warm, efficient.

Atmosphere: they're not selling a vibe or a lifestyle, they're not pretending to be a restaurant, or a workspace. They're selling good coffee, and a nice to place to have it. That's it. The music isn't booming in your ears, the ceiling is high enough to absorb conversational chatter so you're not overwhelmed by noise.

The seats are decent, the tables aren't at weird angles, there's a mix of single seats, doubles, quadruples, and a couch. There's good natural light that doesn't blind or overheat the window-seat patrons. The decor is simple, warm, welcoming.

Food: the menu is simple and done well. The coffee is a little bit expensive but it's actually worth it. There are a handful of well-prepared pastries, as opposed to 100 mediocre ones. And there are a handful of well-balanced cafe-style meals (eggs, croissants, salad, yogurt, that's it. perfect.).

So many of the cafes in Taipei are pretentious, gimmicky, don't know what what they are, or have terrible service, or overpriced coffee, play terrible music and deafly volumes, splatter meaningless tasteless decor on the walls, install seats that look good but bruise your but cheeks.

But not Fika Fika Cafe: This place knows exactly what it is---and they do really...