Chez Charlotte [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Pastry Products Chez Charlotte (夏酪堤蛋糕工房)

Address: No. 86, Neijiang Street, Wanhua District, Taipei

Website: facebook 

Style: Cake, Asian

Price: $$$ 

Anticipating this to be my last bakery stop in Taiwan, I wanted something a little more special. This small cake shop kept popping up on Google maps as the nonsensical "Summer cheese cake embankment Kobo", so I figured it had to be something not worth checking out. However, I was once on the bus and spotted it through the window and realized that it was legitimate! Chez Charlotte is almost exclusively a cake shop; in its small space, there's a single display case with several varieties of cake slices (many of which are cheesecake) and a handful of bagged cookies on top. That's it. I'm not sure if they get a lot of business, since not only did the display case look a little barren compared to older photos online, it was hard to actually get someone's attention in the back. Also, I noticed that some cake slices looked really stale, the worst of which were rather hastily removed by the lady. It gave the impression that no one checked up on the products when the store opened that morning - and that impression wasn't the most appetizing one, to be sure. 

That being said, I decided on the cherry cheesecake ($70), one of the reasons being that it was more fully stocked than other varieties I was interested in, indicating that it was perhaps more recently baked. Despite the cherries on top starting to dye the cake underneath, I was relieved to find it was quite fresh. I like fluffier, more delicate Asian-style cheesecakes, so I was a little concerned with the first forkful about how thick and cheesy it was. It was really going for that NY cheesecake style - and everyone knows what I think of NY-style cheesecake. x_x But it wasn't as unyielding and decadently cheesy as I feared; actually, it was a nice compromise. I wasn't too big a fan of the cherry compote on top, but I enjoyed it. My final bakery was, suffice to say, a lot better than my final dinner. 

Rating: ***