This place we’re about to review is tucked along the busy main street in Xihu area (looks like this only applies on weekdays as when we went there on weekends the area seemed a little deserted). Yes, this place’s location is not that convenient to us, we admitted it, but we really wanted to give you guys this special review! Why is this place so special? Curious?  😉 

Ever visited a place with sophisticated way of ordering? Or probably “non-social” considering it minimizes interaction with fellow human? There seems to be more and more places establishing this new system. One of the places is 2F Lite. Let us give you one more thing that make 2F Lite different than the rest: they don’t accept reservation, but, you can stay as long as you want = there is no time limitation. It is rare to have this kind of place in Taipei, isn’t it?

welcome (1)

welcome (2)

signage

front view

visiting guide

Let’s not waste more words and go directly to the first thing to note about dining in 2F Lite. There are several simple steps to follow: find your seats (either with or without assistance of the greeters), go to the iPad area to browse the menu and decide on your order – good points here, English option is available! How cool is that 😎 . Next, after confirming the order you can pay by tapping your EasyCard (悠遊卡) or you can simply have your order list printed and go to one of the cashiers to pay.

ordering area (1)

ordering area (2)

ordering area (3)

high-tech ordering starts here! (1)

high-tech ordering (2)

high-tech ordering (3)

high-tech ordering (4)

They will afterwards give you a number on a lamp. Yes, a lamp! They will first switch on the lamp – we’re not sure whether this is to ease the waiter who will look for your number and deliver your order or it’s just well, an extra appeal..? Oh! We forgot to mention that the ordering done with the iPad only covers most of the main food, drinks and desserts. But since they are cafe-and-bakery, there is another separate section which offers pastries, sandwiches, cakes and a lot other choices.

lamp with our order number

bakery section (1)

bakery section (2)

bakery section (3)

Upon making payment, it took a while before we were served with our first item, my partner’s mushroom tomato soup. Pardon the unappealing look, well.. regretfully, the taste is also quite forgettable.

mushroom tomato soup

Soup was cleared in no time, but there was no sign of our other orders. Nobody bothered to clear the empty bowl too. We started to feel bored and then tried to check their wifi. What? We were made disappointed as soon as we found out none of the two available wifi options could be connected. Crowd issue? Now one of our special notes of appeal started to fade, simply because good wifi connection is an attractive point for long stay in a cafe.

We then efficiently made use of our time to take snapshot of their menu. Here are the shots.

menu (1)

menu (2)

menu (3)

menu (4)

Actually the menu is quite varied and I was first impressed with the creative use of header like “spoonful of joy” and “battle of knife and fork”. Okay, we still had some more time to capture the ambience of the cafe.

inside (1)

inside (2)

inside (3)

inside (4)

Finally!

coconut curry chicken rice

The main that my partner ordered actually fits my expectation, the curry tasted light and proper, the rice was cooked just nice – for this one the problem is that the portion is really small. I actually still had the urge to scoop some more but my partner was still hungry, oh! and then came my mango danish waffle. And our drinks. Distraction  😛

mango danish waffle

(left) hot cranberry popcorn tea, (right) ice kiwi soda

hot cranberry popcorn tea

The waffle was “different” – we didn’t expect it too – as they use pastry dough, it wasn’t that bad but not up to our liking. We still consider cronuts better fit the texture. And if they intend to focus on the crispiness, then mille-feuille will be more appropriate to replace the waffle in the setting.

Overall our experience was okay. Probably having brunch or lunch will be better option for us, or maybe for tea time we can try out their bakery section instead of ordering the waffle. As conclusion, we close this review with 4.5 star rating for technology, 2.5 for location, and 3 for the taste.