Komeda Coffee Shop embodies the quintessential characteristics of a Nagoya coffee establishment. It strives to create a welcoming space that invites you to feel as if you’ve stepped into your cosy living room. With its spacious seating areas and comfortable sofas, Komeda Coffee ensures that all customers can relax and savour their coffee and meals in peace. These unwavering commitments to comfort and quality have allowed Komeda Coffee to seamlessly integrate into the daily lives of its patrons, cementing its unique position in the industry in Japan, and now in Taiwan, too!
Since its inception in 1968 in Nagoya, Japan, Komeda Coffee has maintained an unwavering dedication to the quality of its meals. The establishment places a premium on food safety, with stringent hygiene standards and rigorous daily inspections spanning from the production plant to the serving area. This commitment is a testament to Komeda Coffee’s determination to uphold the trust of its valued customers throughout all of its branches.
While Komeda Coffee is renowned for its coffee, it places an even greater emphasis on this beloved beverage than one might imagine. Carefully sourcing coffee beans from around the world and expertly blending them to craft a distinctive formula, Komeda ensures that every cup of coffee is a rewarding experience. The coffee cups themselves are designed with ‘Arita ware’ aesthetics in mind, known for their durability, lightness, and heat retention properties. From the moment you walk in to when you bid farewell, Komeda Coffee delivers warm and attentive service, maintaining a pristine store environment, offering free reading materials, and anticipating your needs with a staff that always greets guests with welcoming smiles.
Table of Contents
The aesthetics inside are soft and welcoming, characterized by lots of wood and exposed brick. The entrance spaces are filled with warm light and serve as a space to showcase cups, bottles, and coffee that they sell as part of the Komeda brand.
As they do in Japan, and also in many Japanese restaurants around Taipei, the front of the restaurant showcases their food in an incredibly realistic way. Some of the most characteristic dishes of Komeda Coffee’s menu are their soda float in a boot, their coffee with whipped cream on top, their mixed fruit milk served in a jar, and their assorted sandwiches.
If you aren’t sure how to order or what to do when you arrive at Komeda Coffee, then this is the post for you. See below for How to Order in Taipei Restaurants like a definitive pro!
3 Fast Tips on How to Order in Taipei Restaurants like a definitive pro!
The Menu at Komeda Coffee
When ordering at Komeda, you scan a QR code on your table and order through your phone. You can do it through the server if you prefer, but it seems almost too easy to order via QR code to bother with flagging down a server to place your order. Scan that QR code and then take a look below to see what I recommend.
Coffee
All coffee (and maybe drinks, but I can't confirm that) is served with a packet of aeroplane-style peanuts in a bag. I opted for the hot Americano coffee, which was pretty good. It's not going to win any awards for the most delicious cup of coffee ever made, but in terms of batch-brewed filter coffee, it's a solid option.
The bag of peanuts wasn't what I was expecting. I didn't need it and it didn't add anything, but they were fine.
Breakfast & Lunch specials
Komeda Coffee offers breakfast (order before 11:00) and lunch specials (order between 11:00-14:00). For breakfast, if you order a coffee then you will get a thick half of toast with a selection of either red bean paste, egg salad, or a scrambled egg for absolutely free. That's quite the deal!
Alternatively, if lunch is your thing then you can order one of 3 sandwiches (egg salad, red bean and cream, or hot dog) and you'll get chicken nuggets and salad included, with an option to spend a further $90 for a drink of your choice. Also great value.
Club Sandwich
The club sandwich isn't included in the lunch special, but I just fancied it, so went for it anyway.
There's a healthy portion of egg salad stuffed into the lightly toasted, fluffy bread. A layer of bread separates that egg salad with cucumber salad and ham. It's good, it's filling, and it's all pretty tasty. It isn't going to set your world alight with a new experience of the most incredible sandwich ever created, but it is going to allow you to feel satiated with a solid sandwich, for a reasonable enough price.
Egg Salad Sandwich
The egg salad sandwich here is part of the lunch special and comes with a side salad, chicken nuggets (pictured below), and we opted for corn soup as the add-on drink. The egg salad was similar to the sandwich above but came with the addition of tomato, which gave it a nice freshness. The side salad was nice, and the corn soup was fairly standard for most corn soup across fast-food chains around Taiwan.
Red Bean and Cream Sandwich
If something slightly sweeter is what you want for your lunch special, then opt for the red bean and cream sandwich. The cream isn't particularly sweet, but the red bean paste makes up for it and balances it out quite nicely.
Chicken nuggets feel quite odd with a sweetened red bean and cream sandwich, and therefore the salad has that similar feeling, too. However, I embraced the contrasts and went in for it.
Let me tell you this - the chicken nuggets are really good. They are juicy, they are piping hot, and they are packed full of flavour. The greasiness gets eased as you have that salad at the side of the plate, and everything just sits quite nicely. If sweet Vs savoury is your thing, then opt for this. If not, then opt for the egg salad above. Either way, they are both good options, and you won't go far wrong.
Ice Cream
You'll get a tiny offering of ice cream at the end of your set meal, which is milk-flavoured. It was fine, but I wouldn't order it if it didn't come included in the meal. The texture was good, but the milk flavour just tasted a little bit fake to me.
The bottom line
Is it worth it? Komeda Coffee is a good chain breakfast or brunch space where you can get free WiFi and unlimited seating time in a comfortable atmosphere. I enjoyed it, but I didn't necessarily love it for the food.
What is the best dish? I'd say the club sandwich was the best for taste alone, but for value for money, it's hard to look past the egg salad sandwich. I liked the red bean and cream, but I don't think I would substitute that for lunch, as it was just a bit too sweet for my normal lunch order.
Are there other places like this? There are plenty of amazing cafes around Taipei, but whilst some will limit your time, Komeda Coffee doesn't do that. I'd say that Komeda Coffee feels comfortable and I could quite happily spend plenty of time here writing up work without feeling like I need to vacate my seat. Furthermore, you just know what you're getting at Komeda, and there's a comfort in that.