Looking for the best coffee in Taipei? Start with a local café

Is Taipei a good city for coffee?

Taiwan is better known for tea, but Taipei has quietly become a coffee city. Taiwanese baristas compete at the highest level — Berg Wu (吳則霖) won the World Barista Championship in 2016 — and independent cafés fill the old lanes of neighbourhoods like Zhongshan, Chifeng Street and Dadaocheng.

What we look for in a café

• Good espresso and milk work — a Flat White or a latte tells you a lot about a café.
• A signature you cannot get anywhere else.
• Atmosphere: somewhere you can actually slow down, away from the main roads.
• Easy to reach by MRT, and open when you are free — many small cafés only open around noon.

Why is NOR Coffee worth the detour?

NOR Coffee is a small independent café in Lane 53 of Chifeng Street, founded in 2025. It is the home of the Low Battery Club — a cozy refuge to slow down and recharge — and its menu leads with two cream-top signatures, Peanut Butter Cream and Salted Caramel Sea Salt Cream, over an iced Americano or latte. The classics are all there too (Americano, Latte, Flat White, Cappuccino), plus a BONSOY soy latte and Shizuoka matcha.

• Distinctive signatures: peanut butter and salted caramel sea-salt cream-tops.
• A real local corner: a quiet lane between Chifeng Street and the Zhongshan Linear Park.
• Dog-friendly, with its own Dog Parking.
• Open daily, 3 minutes from Shuanglian MRT.

Where are Taipei’s café neighbourhoods?

Independent cafés cluster in a few walkable areas: the lanes of Zhongshan and Chifeng Street between Zhongshan and Shuanglian MRT; Dadaocheng, where cafés and tea houses fill restored shophouses around Dihua Street; and the Da’an side of the city around Yongkang Street, near Dongmen MRT. Taiwan also grows its own coffee — Alishan in Chiayi is the best-known region — so it is worth asking about Taiwanese beans wherever you go.

Make a coffee afternoon of it

Chifeng Street is a café neighbourhood in itself: walk its lanes, stop at NOR, then carry on to Dadaocheng (about 15 minutes on foot) or Ningxia Night Market (about 8 minutes) as evening falls. See our Chifeng Street guide.

An honest note

No single café is “the best” for everyone — and we are obviously biased. If you like small, characterful places, distinctive signatures and a slower pace, NOR is worth the detour. Check the menu and decide for yourself.