Cafe Magician 188, Ta Yeh Rd., Taichung Tel: (04) 2319-4556 Hours: 11:30 am - midnight

by Douglas Habecker

I first noticed the cafe one late summer evening while driving home from a dinner with friends. The beautiful decor and the warmly-lit, comfortable-looking interiors immediately caught my attention. At the ceiling-to-floor windows, I could see customers inside, relaxing over coffee, chatting or reading. It was love at first sight.
Intrigued, I later returned and met the owner of Cafe Magician, Miss Wang. It turns out that the cafe, open since mid-August, is actually her second coffee house, the first being along Taichung's famous European-style Ching Ming 1st Street. Twenty-nine-year-old Wang was involved in the clothes retail business until just four years ago, when she opened her first cafe.
The spacious two-floor 114-seat cafe has a sunny, warm feel to it, with peach and yellow walls, high ceilings, framed Italian prints, lots of dark wood cabinets and fixtures, some wrought-iron decorations, a small rounded bar and, most unique of all, swinging wicker two-person seats.
Daily from 11:30 am to 2 pm and from 5:30 to 9 pm, diners can choose from three or four constantly-changing specials, usually fish, chicken, pork and beef set meals. Wang says that her healthy, lighter fare combines a variety of western and Chinese dishes, noting the latest addition of a Japanese-style mini hot pot option. I had a delicious barbecued chicken leg dinner, which came with a small dish of cooked vegetables, potato soup, a fruit jelly and a creamy cup of cappuccino.
This is first and foremost a cafe and there is wide variety of hot and iced coffees, particularly Italian styles, made with German and Viennese beans, plus just as many fruit teas, fruit shakes and juices, all costing between NT$120 and NT$150. I tried one refreshing house specialty, a very large, all-natural kiwi fruit shake. Also good are the NT$60 crepe-like pancakes which are slathered with blueberry and cheese, peanut and chocolate and other flavors and rolled into a cone. The NT$120 waffles are covered with similar toppings, including ice cream. A NT$198 2- to-5 p.m. tea time special gives customers the choice of a drink to go with a pancake.