Saturday, April 25, 2009

In search of a perfect cafe

You know how much time we spend in cafes. And of course in some periods of time in Edinburgh "when you can't find me in my room, I must be in a cafe"
But a good cafe is so difficult to find.
Ideally it should be above the street level, so you don't get people and cars roaming in front of you, and also allows more natural sunlight in.
E.g.
Pacific Coffee Stanley and Starbucks Happy Valley
If not, it should be isolated from the street
E.g. Pacific Coffee Repulse Bay
They should also have a lot of comfy seats and is spacious. Mysteriously there are some that doesn't fit all the above criteria, but still won my heart,
E.g.
Sift in Graham Street - probably because of it's unique atmosphere, the so squished steep street filled with old building and of course it's amazing food.
AND
Aries!
It should also be quiet enough, of course, it's often difficult to get that, so one should always visit a cafe early in the morning, and avoid the time when school kids get off school (if it's near a school)
There are also some other with nice memory like
Starbucks in Hysan Road, the old Starbucks of LKF...

In Beijing, I still haven't found one cafe that I always want to revisit.
Sculpting in Time in Fragrant Hills is quite close, as it has good food, friendly waitress who know me already, free wireless, sunlight, and open view, and cats, but the sofa is not very comfortable, and as noon approaches, it gets crowded and you see disturbing scenes of people forcing cats to be near them!
The cafes I have tried in
798 either has good food but boring view, or no view and bad food.Nanluoguxiang's cafes are nice, especially if you watch from outside, but they have no sofa, and there will always be people admiring you (actually the cafe windows) in an arms length.Sanlitun is good for lunch and dinner, so those are not really cafes.The bookworm cafe is pretty but doesn't have nice seats.
Another problem is that they are all in a bit of a distance. Beijing is too big.

Of course there are also those cafes in shopping malls, which has no windows, those are not going to be considered.
et cetera....

I will continue to search for good cafes, some that I want to visit:
Cave Cafe 洞房咖啡 - 798 looks really nice, wanna go!! But far
Pacific Coffee - There are pacific coffees in Beijing, but no photos, i dun wanna travel half the city and be disappointed
Sugar Bar looks pretty but chairs dun look good
90% of the cafes in Beijing has wireless, but don't have good chairs, and no view, or are in crowded places, or have limited view because Hutongs have narrow roads. (ohhhh.....) But I still love Beijing, especially when I eventually find my favourite cafe here.


(Cafes I have visited so far in Beijing:
Nanluoguxiang: Guoke, NGLX, Sandglass
798: Art Cafe, The High Place, THe living experience place
Zhongguancun area: Starbucks, JC Cafe, Mima, Sculpting in Time
Sanlitun: that french cafe, Elements.... dun remember)


Picture was taken in a cafe in Denmark

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