I am the antithesis of a café connoisseur.

I don’t frequent cafés often, I seldom drink tea and I don’t get anywhere near coffee of any sort. How, then, do you suppose I could possibly pass judgment on a café? Aesthetic appeal and music selection are half the battle. The space also needs to be conducive to productivity. Most importantly, my perfect café must offer wine.

Say, what?

Yeah, that’s right. I said it. Wine. There is nothing better than a beautiful patio and a nice glass of wine to accompany a creative suites tweak out session.

Costumice Café is a renowned café tucked away in a small residential street close to Zhongxiao Dunhua MRT station. It is located close enough to the main road to be convenient, but just far enough away to offer a peaceful haven in which to relax, enjoy a beverage of sorts, or like most patrons I observed, collaborate and work outside of the office. Costumice Café is an excellent place to observe the creative elite of Taipei in their natural habitat.

The grub had the distinctly Asian twist on Western favorites that I’ve grown to tolerate. The cucumber on the lasagna and the honey bread were dead giveaways that I wasn’t actually transported back to the west.

Costumice Café may not be the cheapest café in Taipei, but it might just be the best.