Guide to Taipei 101's Secret Starbucks

There is a rumour that the world's highest Starbucks is located on the 35th floor of the Taipei 101 building. That said, of course we had to explore (and not pay 500 NTD to get to the observatory deck but still get a neat view)!

General notes:

- A reservation is compulsory. The number to call is +882 2 8101 0701. Our mandarin was not the best so we got our hotel concierge to make the reservation for us :P

- Don't forget to show up at least 5 minutes before your reservation timing 

- There is a minimum spend of 200 NTD per pax

- The time limit is 90 minutes 

- Make your way to Door 7 of the Taipei 101 building and join the queue. The Starbucks staff will come down and "mark" your attendance before bringing everyone up. 

- Oh and there's a dress code: no shorts and slippers are allowed!!

TIP FOR EVERY KIASU SINGAPOREAN: BE THE LAST TO ENTER THE LIFT SO YOU CAN BE THE FIRST TO EXIT TO CHOPE A WINDOW SEAT TABLE. Yeah, that's what I did. Judge me (cause I judged myself). Bernard and I even had a freaking game plan - I grabbed seats, he ran to queue and order. 

Yeah ok, go on, judge us. HAHA. 

And now for the view worth 10 SGD per person:

Pretty damm neat and worth-it I would say!

We spent the full 90 minutes up there chilling, talking about life and taking a lot of photos. Like, a lot of pictures of me, hah:

This Starbucks is seriously the definition of "coffee with a view" and one of Taipei's best find for us! 

Address:

Starbucks Taipei 101
35F., No.7, Sec. 5, Xinyi Rd., Xinyi Dist., Taipei City 110, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
Opening Hours: 7:30am – 6:30pm (Mon – Fri), 9:00am – 6:00pm (Sat – Sun)

Smith & Hsu

Spending the night indulging in tea and scones? Who cares, we're travelling! Smith & Hsu is a tea salon that serves up the freshest scones while allowing you to pick your tea from a whole tray of tea samples.

We ordered the cream tea set which came with two scones and a choice of hot/cold tea. I opted for the iced fruit tea (which FYI was amazing, so amazing that we bought the tea leaves home)! Bernard ordered another random pot of tea, forgot the flavour but it was tasty as well.

Smith & Hsu
No. 8, Section 5, Zhongxiao East Road

-

Meh, reminiscing about Taiwan and travels extra much today because I just sent Bernard off for his last overseas exercise earlier this morning. Can't wait for him to be back and we'll be off to Bali! Pardon the slow updates, school assignments has been an absolute nightmare. 

Cheers! 

無老鍋 Elixir Health Pot

As mentioned in the previous post, this is the hotpot place that I was talking about that is absolute bomb! Elixir Health Pot, better known as Wu Lao Guo in Taipei, is a renowned steamboat restaurant that is even better than Hai Di Lao in my opinion. They are known for their Mala and unique Ice Cream Tofu soup base.  

We ordered the pork slices, beef slices, you tiao, scallop and a few other random dishes but all were so good. We definitely over ordered but no regrets!!

This is the super cute ice cream tofu! so basically it'd be thrown into the soup and you will get to eat it once it expands. It was so yummy!!

Taiwanese beer and complimentary yuzu juice to end off our meal. This was probably my favourite meal I had in Taiwan! - Impeccable service and amazing food (especially the rich soup broth)! 

Taiwan 2016 Part 2 - Ximending (西門町)

Our first stop of Ximending is none other than the highly famed Ah Chong Mian Xian. This is a must-eat street food and literally nothing in Singapore can compare to this *slurps*

FYI service here is super fast despite the long queue. You order at the counter, he relays your order to the preparation counter and you get your bowl of mee sua within 10 seconds of payment. 

Literally all we did in Ximeding was eat:

You'll never get hungry in Taiwan, it's really impossible. There is food available at every corner possible. We had steamboat buffet for our last meal and it was okay, will blog about this other steamboat place that was bomb in the next post! 

We ended our night at Ximending with a box full of Taiwanese snacks and souvenirs (not pictured). Cheers!