Akiramori Uji Tea

Alleys around National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts feature many distinctive cafes and restaurants. For food aficionados and bloggers loving to take photos, this area is worth visiting in Taichung besides Gongyi Road. Akiramori Uji Tea has a long name in Mandarin, yet it claims clearly the centerpieces in the cafe. The cafe has various delicacies made of matcha, such as cold drinks, puddings, cookies, cakes, ice-cream and other small snacks. Besides, the most popular dish is definitely the matcha waffles. The brown waffles are baked crispy with white powdered sugar sprinkled on top of them, and matcha jelly and red beans are served beside the dish. With matcha ice-cream adding the final touch on the waffles, the texture combining the cold and hot makes the dish unforgettable. As for hot dishes, those common in a Japanese cafe, including soba (buckwheat) noodles, matcha porridge, ochazuke (a Japanese dish with rice in green tea), even shabu-shabu (a Japanese-style hot pot), all appear on the menu. In addition, Japanese style decorations, such as bamboo, a Japanese stone lamp, and a red paper umbrella, are seen in the outdoor garden, enticing the guests to believe that they were dining in Japan. However, the interior decor carries more of a Taiwanese feeling, and the servants are not necessarily proactive, which is the only blemish in the cafe.