Taipei Outing: Peace Cafe and Bitan Lake (Xindian) - RE-OPENED

@Peace Cafe - up and running again with its original owners, for now :)

UPDATE:
Andrew and Kelly have taken back @Peace Cafe, after its previous owners (who bought it off them) closed it down and put it up for sale. Opening hours are reduced as they induct new owners, and they currently only serve pizzas on Saturdays, and use a new cashew-based cheese instead of the original imported 'cheese'. While the new owners will no doubt expand the menu further, I recommend a Saturday visit to try the new cashew-cheese pizza while it's there!

NEW OPENING HOURS
Monday to Friday: 11:30am- 5:30pm
Last Saturday of the month: 11:30am-8pm.

Xindian is technically a city south of Taipei, but it is essentially the southern end of greater Taipei. Xindian Station is the final stop on the Xindian (green) MRT line. It's worth visiting for Bitan, a section of the Xindian River which has been dammed to essentially become a lake (right outside Xindian station) and for hikes or bike rides into the mountains, but more importantly, for @Peace Cafe, one of the few strictly vegan restaurants in Taipei other than the ever-expanding Loving Hut chain. A trip to the lake and/or mountains, with lunch and/or dinner at @Peace Cafe makes for a pleasant half-day outing from Taipei. It is also only just off the route from Xindian to Wulai, a small aboriginal town famous for its scenery and hot springs (and Aboriginal food, which from my experience isn't altogether vegan friendly, so be sure to stop for your first meal on the way there, and perhaps take out some "Mexican Volcanoes" or other goodies for the trip).

Bitan, as viewed from a platform a short walk up the mountain behind the lake

@Peace Cafe is a must-visit cafe for any vegan visiting Taiwan, and regular hangout spots for local and international resident vegans, and for non-vegan locals who come for the food and atmosphere. It is run by an Australian, Andrew, who has been vegan for 18 years, and his wife Kelly. Andrew has keen interests in health and nutrition, and is a Pilates instructor; he ran his own business in Singapore before they moved to Taiwan three years ago. Peace Cafe opened only seven months ago, doesn't advertise and is well off the beaten track for the average Taipeier, yet it usually has a steady stream of customers, Taiwanese and foreign, both from the local community and others visiting from around Taipei and beyond.

What makes @Peace Cafe unique is that it serves a delicious, rotating international menu, with vegan pizzas (with Toffuti cheese from the USA – currently the only source of it in Taiwan) being almost the only regular menu item.

pizza, which tasted good and disturbingly 'real', and alcohol-free beer
Update: the pizzas are currently only being served in the cafe on Saturday - see update above. They are also currently using a cashew-based 'cheese' between the sauce and the veggies, and while I haven't had the opportunity to try it myself, I'm sure it's delicious!

It also has an excellent range of vegan cakes, muffins, cheesecakes etc, much like the Osaka's Mamman Tce before its tragic demise, and undoubtedly the best desserts I've found in Taiwan (Cafe Del Mar, a vegan South American restaurant which until its recent closure was just up the road from @Peace Cafe, used to be next best for vegan desserts in Taipei.)

Being run by disciples of Supreme Master Ching Hai, Peace Cafe does not serve alcohol, but it does have non-alcoholic beer, which washed my pizza down nicely. Andrew and Kelly's main purpose for the cafe is a kind of “R&D lab” to dream up and develop new recipes for international fusion foods, which they encourage other vegan restaurants to use; Loving Hut chefs, among others, come to the restaurant to watch, learn and video production of their new creations in order to expand their range of foreign foods on their menus. ”Our Customers are our guinea pigs” explains Kelly, as we test their new products before they send the recipes to vegan restaurants around Taiwan. The ever-changing menu may be why non-vegan foreigners I met while strolling around their beautiful mountain community eat there most days.

@Peace Cafe is a small restaurant with around half a dozen tables, and it also sells a small range of vegan products, including the regular Loving Hut 'Light Light' range and a few other goodies. It also does take-out, and supplies food (eg cakes) for other shops or cafes. On my last visit an American - donned in a leather jacket - walked in on his way to a party to to pick up the vegan cake he'd ordered for a party.

How to to There

Take the MRT (green line) to Xindian Station, the terminal station. If you haven't been before, get out and take a stroll around Bitan. Small pedal-powered boats can be hired, and a large suspension bridge spans the lake.

The view outside the only exit to Xindian MRT

Bus Green 3 goes straight from Xindian Station up to Peace Cafe, which is a stone's throw from its final stop. To find the bus stop, walk out the main exit (there's only one, and it's on the opposite side of the station to the lake), turn right and keep walking until you pass a 7-11 (note that there are 7-11s on both sides of the road; take the one on the same side as the station). At the final stop, walk down and around the fountain from the Family Mart, and @Peace Cafe is on the left.

綠3 bus goes straight to @Peace Cafe.

Being in the mountains, a taxi from Xindian station costs around 200-400TWDs (depending on traffic as the mountain road can get quite jammed), though once there it's easy to take the bus back to the station.

The bus should stop here. The cafe is just behind and downhill from where this photo was taken from, and can be seen from the bus stop of Family Mart.

Address:台北縣新店市金興路40號

Taipei County, Xindian City, Jin Xing Road, Number 40.
Website (Chinese only).

Bitan Lake at night, from outside MRT Xindian Station