Since its launch last month, 2F Lite (貳拂咖啡) has spurred interest as “the iPad restaurant.” The centerpiece of this American-style cafe is a long wooden table with six touch tablets encased in plastic, each loaded with the menu in English and Chinese. After finding a seat, diners walk up to the tablets and make their selection. Then they tear a receipt from a printer, pay at the nearby counter and pick up a number to display on their table so servers know where to deliver.
It is a trendy system, and the tablets are busy from noon well into late afternoon with rapt customers exploring them with a pioneer’s spirit. Potentially, the devices could do away with the paper menu, but this has yet to happen and there are hard copies available at the table. For now, it looks like 2F Lite is using the tablets to list additions to the original menu, to mark items that have sold out and to save on wait staff.
Like its parent brand the Second Floor Cafe (貳樓餐廳), 2F is designed to be a home-like environment for the urban diner. But while Second Floor Cafe, with its picture frames and fat beige couches, could be a room in the American sitcom Full House, 2F Lite looks more like a home office tailor-made for professionals in the neighboring technology park.
Photo: Enru Lin, Taipei Times
The tables and floor paneling are a sedate brown, all minimalism and clean lines. Punky spots of color — wasabi-hued high chairs and a partial red brick wall — brighten the room in a composed and aesthetically logical way. Every table is equipped with a standard charging port and USB port. On weekdays, this restaurant is filled to capacity with white-collar workers, some watching a basketball game on the HD TV, others reading from their phones at the charging stations.
The menu at 2F Lite is American-style with an emphasis on innovation. Drinks are non-alcoholic brightly colored curiosities, like almond chips latte (NT$130) and brown sugar plum soda (NT$90). Cranberry popcorn tea (NT$100) is mashed popcorn and cranberry tea, loaded in a little infuser that’s hung on a wide-mouth mason jar. This blend results in a pretty pink that’s tart, not sweet, slightly nutty and clean in its aftertaste.
Sometimes the presentation seems better than the substance. The curried broccoli soup (NT$60) arrived quickly in a color-coordinated bowl, but was only slightly warmer than room temperature and tasted a bit heavy, mainly of an indistinct curry.
Photo: Enru Lin, Taipei Times
But on the whole, the menu is fun and technically proficient. Skinny fries (NT$60) are thin spud straws fried up fresh, not too much, so they have a crunchy shell that yields to a creamy and tender potato center.
On the tablet, main courses are organized by tabs with names such as “Spoonful of Joy” (risotto dishes) and “Layers of Surprises” (sandwiches and sliders). “Battle of Knife and Forks” is meat entrees, featuring high-care dishes like top blade with whisky and kumquat (NT$320) and baked rack of lamb with Jack Daniel sauce (NT$380).
The salmon (NT$350) entree is a pan-seared cut of skin-on salmon, mashed potatoes and a heap of cherry tomatoes, wide slices of eggplant, grilled lime, sweet peaches and other vegetables that are almost too beautiful to eat. The fish is gently cooked, rich and soft, and picks up a surprising amount of flavor from the citrusy spicy jelly that arrives with it in a tin cup.
Photo: Enru Lin, Taipei Times
2F Lite also includes a self-service bakery. Located at the immediate right of the entrance, there’s a long bar heaping with baked goods, notably Danish pastries, which are hard to find in Taipei.
Photo: Enru Lin, Taipei Times
Photo: Enru Lin, Taipei Times
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