Moment Cafe

Pour-over coffee and a case of handmade desserts are the reason to stop here, and the strawberry Swiss roll is the item that explains the counter fastest. Moment Cafe sits inside the Grand Mayfull hotel in Taipei, working as bakery, dessert counter and café at once.

Handmade desserts beside pour-over coffee

The drinks side runs slower than an espresso bar because the coffee is brewed as pour-over; the cup becomes part of the afternoon rather than a transaction. Mate tea is served alongside, presented as Argentina's national drink, which is a more considered answer to the non-coffee drinker than the usual single herbal option. The bakery gives the counter its weight, with handmade cookies and freshly baked breads beside plated desserts, cakes and chocolate work. Some of the case is built for carrying rather than eating in, including pastries made with Kavalan whisky and dried fruit and boxed as gifts. The kitchen has at times worked with Japanese pastry chefs on wagashi, which says something about how it thinks about texture.

A hotel room that behaves like an afternoon café

The room is polished in the Grand Mayfull way, white and gold, broad windows, pale tables and pink chairs, without the hush of a lobby lounge. What changes the pace is the long central table, fitted with lamps and power outlets; people settle in with a drink and a plate and stay to read, talk or work. The most useful hour is the afternoon, when the dessert set brings the café and the pastry case together and there is time for the pour-over to arrive without the wait feeling long. Later the light-meal menu takes more of the room, with pasta, beef noodle soup and fried rice moving through the tables, so come for the counter rather than as a fallback for dinner.

Start with the strawberry Swiss roll

The Swiss roll, filled with whipped cream and fresh strawberries, explains the place quickest: soft sponge, cream, fruit and a clean bakery shape instead of a heavy plated dessert. Pair it with the pour-over for the café at its most direct, or with mate if the cake is sweetness enough on its own. For two people, add the Chocolate Hazelnut Balls, which sit on the richer side of the case and cut against the roll's cream-and-fruit line. On the way out, look at the Kavalan whisky and dried-fruit pastries; they are built like a present rather than a snack, and that is the point of them.