Eighty-Eightea Rinbansyo: Serene Tea House in a Historical Japanese Building
Eighty-Eightea Rinbansyo is a beautiful Japanese-style tea house located on the outskirts of Ximending, right next to Nishi Honganji, a reconstructed bell tower and an archive building from the Japanese era. Housed in a beautiful old Japanese building that was once the living quarters of a priest, it’s a beautiful, calm place to spend an afternoon.
There are two seating sections of the tea house: the first is a Western-style area with regular tables and chairs, and the last is a large tatami room where you can take off your shoes and sit at low tables. The tatami room is much more popular, and there is often a wait if you wish to be seated there.
Eighty-Eightea Rinbansyo offers a wide range of exquisite Taiwanese teas, but be warned: it’s not exactly cheap. Just like Wistaria Tea House in Da’an, this is a place where people come to experience tea culture and history, not just to grab a quick cup. We’d say it’s more of a place to bring visitors from out of town than a place to catch up with friends, although we witnessed plenty of both on our visit. Expect to pay between $230-$880 for a pot of tea, although you can also get cold-brewed tea, milk teas, or “special drinks” (also tea) for around the same price. There is a minimum order of one drink per person. They don’t serve meals, but there are lots of tasty looking snack sets.
We ordered the cinnamon oolong tea ($240) and the Taiwan white tea ($340), both of which were divine. A lovely member of staff introduced our teas to us and showed us how to prepare them, which was an experience in and of itself. We loved sitting on the tatami floor, chatting, trying to remember the correct order of tea preparation, and sipping the ever-so-slightly spicy cinnamon oolong and the mild, pleasant white tea.
Eighty-Eightea Rinbansyo also has a selection of teas and tea-related goods on display for purchase in their gift shop. This would be a wonderful place for gift shopping, but it’s definitely on the pricey side — come here if you want to get something a little fancier than average, but take your time browsing the many gift shops of Ximen if you’d prefer to save your cash. You could also check out the nearby Ximen Red House for more gift options.
Check out their tea and snack menu below:
All things considered, we really did enjoy our experience at Eighty-Eightea Rinbansyo. It’s not somewhere we’d go to meet up for a casual get-together, but it’s firmly on our list for visiting family, or maybe even a date that we’d like to impress. It may not be the cheapest, but it’s also not extortionate, with prices being similar to other nice tea houses. And it’s quite reasonable, considering you’re really paying for the experience of sipping tea on a tatami mat in a heritage building, and not just the delicious tea itself.
What’s the vibe?
Beautiful old building from the Japanese Occupation Era that has been repurposed into a tea house. Customers are a mix of locals and tourists, and the lovely staff can offer explanations in Chinese, English, and Japanese to accommodate this. The atmosphere is calm and relaxing, just as a tea house should be.
Worth it?
It’s extremely worth it under the right circumstances: just be sure that you’re in the mood to spend a little more than usual, and to sit and savour the tea and your surroundings.
Would you go back?
With visitors, yes, but not by ourselves.
Last updated October 2019.
| Eighty-Eightea Rinbansyo |
| Chinese Name: 八拾捌茶輪番所 |
| Hours: 11:30am – 9pm |
| Phone: +886 2 2312 0845 |
| English Address: No. 174, Section 1, Zhonghua Road, Wanhua District, Taipei |
| Chinese Address: 台北市萬華區中華路一段174號 |
