Tiramisu [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Tiramisu (提拉米蘇精緻蛋糕)

Address: No. 55, Section 1, Chengde Road, Datong District, Taipei

Website: https://www.tiramisu.com.tw/

Style: Cake

Price: $

 

Unlike the majority of bakeries and stops on my Taiwanese Cake Tour, Tiramisu specializes solely in cake; more a cake counter than bakery or even dessert spot, they have their display facing the street and you can either grab your cake slices for takeaway or go inside to the seating area and eat it there. However, without a doubt Tiramisu's claim to fame is their prices. It's the one thing everyone raves about and, even after having read the reviews, I was expecting well-priced slices of cake, but I didn't expect them to be *that* cheap. I mean, you can get a cake at Tiramisu for the same/less than the average price in Taipei for a pineapple bun (i.e. the cheapest kinds of bread at your typical bakery)! Unbelievable. 

That being said, people also rave about their quality, but some cakes simply didn't make the grade visually. The green tea ones, in particular, were way too bright green and had that commercial bakery look to them (not to mention they just pluck slices from the stacks of boxes in the fridge whenever they're restocking). It just didn't appeal to me. Others such as the chocolate ones don't look too bad, though. In honour of the name, I had to try the tiramisu ($25). I'm always pretty wary of Asian takes on classic European desserts, but this was pretty good. The flavour was there, even though there was too much chocolate cake and no "soaked element" for it to be really called a tiramisu, but it was better than expected. 

I also tried the cheesecake ($25). They had another variety, but this was simpler and more Japanese-style in both look and taste. As with some Japanese-style cheesecakes, I'm not exactly sure how much cheese actually went into this - it definitely didn't taste like much. Probably not a lot of eggs either, but it was pretty good. I'm not sure which I preferred more: this or the tiramisu. Maybe it's not the most premium destination for cakes, but it's still more than worth a stop. 

Rating: ***