questioning the world: I could go for some coffee right now

Hello! Today I wanted to talk about some of the cafes we have visited. Of course there's the quick coffee places attached to the 7-Elevens and the typical Starbucks that attracts both international and local peoples, but we have tried to pick some more quirky places with a bit of charm to get our coffee fix. This past week we tried a place called Vino Vino Cafe, that's set in what seems to be a more laid back street with some small boutiques and restaurants. In fact we ate at the Italian restaurant right by this cafe a while back which is what sparked my interest in this place. We arrived around lunch time and found out that they unfortunately don't serve their "special" coffee until night time but we decided to stay and have a light snack. We had a tuna sandwich and green tea. I was surprised by the tea though because it came in a tall glass and was foamy at the top giving it the appearance of beer! And here I thought everyone in the restaurant just liked to drink afternoon beer out of little twisty straws haha! This cafe was charming to me partly because it reminded me of some of the cafes in Paris. It had an open view facing the street with windows ajar letting in the breeze and soft relaxing music playing overhead. There was also a second floor where customers could sit in a more open area without windows.

toilet Chaplin lol

Our whole reason for visiting this cafe in particular though was for their specially made coffee art, so as not to be disappointed we came back again that same evening to get our drinks. It cost a little bit more for the fancy coffee but it doesn't seem like something many places do so it was worth it for the experience.

Caramel cake~

The next cafe we visited was kind of a surprise to me. It is called 安和65 or Anhe65 and it is an art gallery/ cat cafe. The entrance was kind of set back away from the main streets and not entirely noticeable at first as any sort of coffee shop. Once we walked in I noticed the first cat asleep on an ice cream trolley. You have to walk down to get into the actual cafe area where it opens up into a basement-like area with concrete floors and various artworks decorating the walls. I was a little bummed at first that there was only one other cat asleep on a chair but the place had a really nice urban artsy feel to it that distracted from the lack of kitties. The art work was fun and colorful and they had some small items by local artists for sale as well. We sat and enjoyed our drinks with some cheesecake adorned with a cat drawing done in some kind of green sugary stuff.

The last cafe we visited actually visited today was Minimal Cafe which is also a cat cafe but this one lived up to it's name and was full of cats. The first thing I noticed aside from the cat drinking from hte fountain on a shelf was the smell, it definitely smelled like cats! I didn't mind at all and neither did any of the other customers. It had a very laid back feeling much like all the sleeping cats we kept spotting. Some in chairs and others lazying about on the counter where we made our orders. I had a French iced coffee and Yue had a weird banana latte thing blegh. The coffee was delicious but kind of pricey at $6, I just hoped the extra money was going to pay for the cat food lol.. the furniture was a bit shabby and covered in cat hair but we didn't have to pay any extra fees to sit with the cats or pet them. They came and went as they pleased, one even found its way onto the coffee mugs and was just laying there on top of them. I sure hope they wash those haha! I honestly didn't mind it at all but I don't think a place like this could ever exist back in the US simply because they have such strict laws about workplace hygiene with food. We both thoroughly enjoyed our cat time though after being surrounded by dogs everywhere all the time. Definitely a unique place I'm glad we could check out.