Affordable British Afternoon Tea at Britshake2

Britshake2 is a British cafe and restaurant in Zhongxiao Dunhua. Owned and run by a lovely British lady, the original location — Britshake — is in Tamsui, and has largely positive reviews from expats and locals alike. A member of our team being British, when we saw a post on Facebook of someone getting afternoon tea there, we couldn’t resist checking it out.

The cafe is relatively easy to find, close to the popular bar On Tap, and about an eight minute walk from Zhongxiao Dunhua MRT station.

Our first impression upon entering was great — the owner personally greated us with a big smile, and we were promptly ushered to our table and given menus. The staff were friendly and sweet despite a small communication barrier.

The second thing we noticed was the decor. Quite frankly, we didn’t love it — it didn’t feel British at all, other than the obvious additions of a red telephone box and chairs with the British flag on them. We’re sure that there are plenty of people that would enjoy it, but it wasn’t for us.

At the front of the cafe, there is a selection of scones, cheesecakes, and little pots of jam and lemon curd that you can buy to take away. They also have a few British ciders.

We already knew what we were going to order before we arrived — afternoon tea for three — but appreciated the owner walking us through the menu. They had classic British dishes like fish n’chips, beef and ale stew, and a full English breakfast as well as plenty of sweet treats like scones, cheesecakes, and brownies.

Amongst other beverages, there are a range of Fortnum & Mason — a fancy brand of tea that was established in 1707 in London, and is favoured by Queen Elizabeth herself — teas to choose from. We mistakenly assumed that this tea was part of the afternoon set (it wasn’t, and we ended up paying an extra $100 each) and chose three that were recommended to us: Smokey Earl Grey, Countess Grey, and Queen Anne. To be quite honest, we found the tea to be rather weak, and would have preferred a normal cup of English breakfast. The afternoon tea comes with red or green tea.

The afternoon tea set ($888 for three people) arrived shortly after, looking gloriously instagrammable in a tiered bronze birdcage. It came with a side of lemon curd (home-made by the owner using her grandmother’s recipe), whipped cream, and blueberry jam.

The bottom tier consisted of devilled eggs, salad, and tuna sandwiches. The devilled eggs and sanwiches were great, although we were surprised to see the salad there — it wouldn’t ordinarily be found in an afternoon tea in the UK, and it was rather mediocre. Perhaps the set was adapted for Taiwanese palettes, but we personally would have preferred a more varied selection of sandwiches in its place.

The next tier was scones — plain, fruit, and chocolate chip — and a milky pudding. The scones were slightly dry for our liking, but the lemon curd was absolutely incredible, and paired beautifully with anything it touched. The jam was also great, and to our delight the staff were more than happy to keep refilling both as many times as we needed. The milky pudding was also delicious, though we’ve never seen it in the UK. We wish we’d put some lemon curd on it, if only to ingest as much of the curd as humanly possible.

The last tier was huge — three different kinds of cheesecakes and three pieces of brownies — and it was probably our least favourite. There were three pieces of brownie — once again, slightly on the dry side — and an Earl Grey cheesecake, a lemon curd cheesecake, and a honey rose cheesecake. We weren’t fans of the Earl Grey cheesecake (there was nothing wrong with it, but we couldn’t make out the flavour), but the lemon curd cheesecake and honey rose cheesecakes were delicious. Our only gripe was that by this time, our sweet tooth had been thoroughly satisfied, and we weren’t as up to the task of eating these desserts as we normally would be. This was probably in part due to our over-indulgence on the lemon curd, but by the time we had finished the last of the cheesecakes we were uncomfortably stuffed.

Overall, we enjoyed the experience of having afternoon tea, and were very impressed of the reasonable price of around $300 per person, especially considering how good some of the items were. As far as we know, this is the most affordable afternoon tea in Taipei, and although it fell a little short in terms of decor and the quality of some dishes, in general we felt that it was a pretty good deal. We would particularly recommend this to people who haven’t had afternoon tea before, as it is a way to experience it without breaking the bank. If you have had it before, you might notice that is has been slightly adapted to a local market.

What’s the vibe?

Cutesy cafe specializing in British food, especially afternoon tea. The owner is a total gem, and will make you feel very welcome. As a side note, we were blown away by how good her Chinese was. Most of the customers that we saw on our visit were Taiwanese women.

Worth it?

It’s a good way to experience afternoon tea, even if it isn’t the most authentic we’ve had, and $300 isn’t a bad price for the amount of food you get. Do note that there is a 10% service charge.

Would you go back?

Now that we’ve tried it, probably not. Afternoon tea in the UK is more of a special treat than a regular occurence anyway (we usually take our mums or aunties), and we would interested in trying somewhere new to see what they had on offer.

Britshake2

Chinese Name: 英國奶奶•午茶•司康

Hours: Mon-Thurs 12pm - 9pm Fri-Sun 12pm - 9:30pm

Phone: 02 8771 3141

English Address: No. 4, Lane 138, Yanji Street, Da’an District, Taipei City, 106

Chinese Address: 106台北市大安區延吉街138巷4號