portrait · natural light
Curator

Mei Chao

Covers Da’an · Dadaocheng · Zhongshan

Tea buyer turned curator, vouched for by Inês. I grew up between Dadaocheng's dried-goods lanes and Da'an's back-alley cafés. I look for the rooms that make you lower your voice, and the pots worth waiting for.

On their list
Tea house · Da’an, Taipei

Qingtian Tea House

A wood-and-rain tea room down a Da’an lane, where a single pot can hold an entire afternoon.

Café · Songshan, Taipei

Fujin Roast

Serious filter coffee on Taipei's most walkable tree-lined street.

Bar · Zhongshan, Taipei

Marginal

A standing-room wine bar pouring Taiwanese and low-intervention bottles you will not find twice.

Rooms · Dadaocheng, Taipei

Dihua Rooms

Five rooms above a restored merchant house in the old herb-trading quarter.

Cicerone — a hand-kept guide to the places worth knowing