Elegant Brunch and Homewares Shopping at Paper & Tea
Zhongshan is home to a web of small alleys full of cute cafes and shops, making it a great area to walk around and explore. Just like the alleyways of Zhongxiao Dunhua, Zhongshan is home to dozens of boutiques and independent shops that are a shopper’s heaven to browse. Nestled in the centre of these alleys is a stand-alone building that we’d always noticed — a slightly bougie-looking home decor store — but never checked out.
We were more intrigued when we learned that it’s actually a combination teahouse, restaurant, and homewares store. The tea room/restaurant goes under the name P&T, which stands for Paper & Tea, while the homeware store is called Marais. We noticed while walking past that one of P&T’s specialities was brunch, and despite being rather sceptical at first, we decided to pay it a visit one Saturday morning and see what was on offer. To our surprise, we ended up enjoying it a lot more than expected.
The homewares section is the first thing you see when you walk in. It has small displays and shelves lined with a variety of boutique products mostly for kitchens and bathrooms. They tend to be more upscale with price tags to match, so we didn’t end up buying anything — but it was still nice to browse the store (and sniff all the candles) while we waited 20 minutes for a table.
P&T’s simple, cosy dining area is located just behind the store’s shelves. Customers looked to be mostly well-off women and families. Note that the maximum dining time is 2 hours and there’s a minimum spend of $200 per person.
P&T’s menu mostly focuses on tea and brunch, but they also serve a selection of salads and pasta. After consulting the menu, we decided to focus on what looked to be their hits. Here’s what we got:
Hariman Classic Chai Tea Set
P&T has an extensive tea menu, so we figured that’s where we should start. We went for a classic chai tea set, served in a pot with mugs. This spiced, slightly sweetened tea was perfect to sip while we waited for food. You can also buy packages of great looking tea to-go: check out the tea menu here.
English Breakfast ($280)
This highly unauthentic English breakfast includes grilled potatoes, roasted tomatoes, fried mushrooms, scrambled eggs with chives, bacon, guacamole, and country boule toast. It was a pretty basic spread, but everything was cooked perfectly and tasted great — definitely higher quality than your average English breakfast in Taipei. We felt the price was reasonable considering the quality and quantity of the food and fully enjoyed it despite our initial misgivings about its authenticity.
Truffle Mixed Mushroom Dutch Baby ($280)
Dutch baby pancakes are one of P&T’s signature dishes. The Brown Sugar with Bananas and Berry Nutella both looked super tempting, but we decided to go for the savoury option instead. It was served in a cast-iron skillet and included fried mushrooms with truffle paste, Grana Padano cheese, arugula, and a poached egg on top. It tasted good but took a really long time to come and arrived slightly cold. Though it wasn’t bad, it didn’t exactly impress us. Next time we’ll opt for a sweet version instead.
Check out their full menu:
Overall, P&T impressed us enough with their brunch that we’d definitely return to try more of their menu. The alleys around Zhongshan MRT Station are sorely lacking in the western brunch department, so it’s nice to have options when we’re in the area. Prices are on the slightly high side, but we would’t expect any less for the neighbourhood and it’s worth paying a little extra for a nice tea and brunch.
What’s the vibe?
Slightly upscale store/restaurant selling a variety of kitchen and homewares, plus tea and brunch. Customers were mostly well-to-do families and groups of friends.
Worth it?
More so than we expected — prices for brunch were reasonable considering the above-average quality, though the service left a bit to be desired. We didn’t buy any of the homewares, which are on the expensive side, but they were nice to browse.
Would you go back?
Next time we’re hungry for western brunch in Zhongshan (and/or looking for luxury homewares) we’ll know where to go!
Last updated February 2020
| Paper & Tea |
| Chinese Name: 柏林選茶 |
| Hours: 10am - 9pm |
| Phone: 02 2523 9860 |
| English Address: No. 18, Lane 36, Section 2, Zhongshan North Road |
| Chinese Address: 中山北路二段36巷18號 |
