Wash Coffee: Laundromat Cafe with a Pet Raccoon

There are tonnes of Taipei cafes we’ve vowed to visit sooner or later, but Wash Coffee only recently popped up on our radar due to a string of friend’s Instagram posts featuring their adorable pet raccoon. We couldn’t believe we were only just hearing of it — we know of alpaca cafes and reptile cafes, but a real life raccoon? It seemed too good to be true. Determined to see for ourselves, we headed right over to Songshan to investigate.

The first thing we noticed about Wash Coffee was its cute outdoor area: it has an interesting aesthetic with plants, bathtub ashtrays, and lots of upcycled furniture, including the front door, which looks like it used to be part of a shipping container. If the weather is nice, it’s a great, breezy space to sit and enjoy your drinks.

The interior has the same mismatched aesthetic which, for the most part, created an interesting and cosy atmosphere. We were surprised to learn that many of the available tables were reserved. It was strange because we were almost the only people in the cafe, but we shrugged it off and sat where they directed us.

The main attraction of Wash Coffee — at least from what we could see — is definitely the pet raccoon, which is unfortunately kept on a leash by the door. He looked happy enough, and he was definitely well-fed and well-groomed, but it broke our hearts a little to see him tethered like that. We really can’t say whether or not the raccoon seems happy (he seemed perfectly content), but it didn’t sit particularly well with us after having grown accustomed to animal cafes where the animals can (mostly) roam around. We can’t deny that it was awesome seeing a raccoon up close, though, and he definitely was very cute. There was also a friendly older-looking dog, but he spent most of his time with some girls who kept feeding him treats.

In addition to the pet raccoon, another unique feature of Wash Coffee is the fact that they have an onsite laundromat, where you can wash your clothes for 30 or 60 minutes for only $100. We loved the idea of this, though we did wonder whether we’d love it as much if we were hauling our laundry across town. But hey — it’s still a great concept, especially for travellers who just want to do laundry and hit the free WiFi while waiting for it to finish.

Wash Coffee’s menu is all in Chinese, but they offer coffees (ranging from $110-$180 per cup, +$10 if you want to make it cold), teas (all $170), seasonal desserts ($150-$200), and a range of mixed drinks and cocktails (starting at $150 for a shot of tequila, all the way up to $290 for a Long Island Iced Tea). The coffees were pretty standard, but they did offer a honey cinnamon cappuccino and an espresso tonic, which were slightly out of the ordinary.

The first coffee we ordered was an iced double cappuccino ($150). It was delicious — the coffee was milky but strong, with a thick layer of creamy foam on top. We loved it, and while it wasn’t exactly unique, we’d definitely order it again.

Our second coffee, an Americano ($130), was much more miss than hit. It was quite weak and tasteless and tasted more like an average filter coffee than an espresso-based drink. We’ve had better cups of coffee in the comfort of our own home, and nothing we did to try and improve it — adding sugar, and then milk — made much of a difference. We would skip this next time.

Since we had just finished work, we decided to treat ourselves to a whiskey and coke ($200) too. We had originally intended on a rum and coke, but the waitress assured us this was bigger (did she mean stronger?) so we switched our order. The whiskey and coke wasn’t bad, but it was pretty weak, which could just be because the ice cubes diluted it before we got a chance to drink it. It was passable, but we wouldn’t recommend it.

Overall, we weren’t totally sold on Wash Coffee, although we did appreciate its concept. It seemed unfortunate that the raccoon — arguably the biggest draw to the cafe — was kept on a leash, and we weren’t consistently impressed with the drinks. Still, we don’t mean to trash it entirely: it was cozy and comfortable, the iced cappuccino was awesome, and being able to do laundry there is a big plus for travellers.

What’s the vibe?

Eclectic cafe with a pet raccoon, friendly dog, and a laundromat.

Worth it?

That depends on why you’re going. It definitely wasn’t our favourite pet cafe, but being able to do laundry is pretty cool, and it was comfortable.

Would you go back?

Probably not, but we would consider sending people their way if they needed to do laundry (and wanted a place to sit and wait for it) or if they were particularly interested in raccoons.

Wash Coffee

Chinese Name: 穿越九千公里交給你

Hours: Mon 2pm – 11pm Tues-Thurs 1:30pm – 11pm Fri 1:30pm – 12am Sat 1pm – 12am Sun 1pm – 11pm

English Address: No. 16, Alley 19, Lane 160, Section 3, Minquan East Road, Songshan District, Taipei City

Chinese Address: 台北市松山區民權東路三段160巷19弄16號