Nikkoffee

When Kish heard I was craving tea, he introduced me to Nikkoffee, a new cafe on No. 3 that serves a special kind of milk tea. They call it Nikkoccino, but the drink was originally invented in Taiwan where it's known as 奶蓋茶, literally translated as milk top tea. There are 4 choices of milk top: traditional, chocolate, salted and matcha green tea. The traditional is $4 and the rest are $4.50. Both of us opted for chocolate which is just chocolate powder sprinkled on top of the milk, but he chose green tea and I chose black.The sweetened tea was served in a glass mug with a thick milk top much like the foam on top of a beer.  The milk was extremely smooth and creamy with a consistency similar to whipped cream. The drink should be taken like a latte, with the foamy top and the tea on the bottom coming together in the mouth. It should not be stirred or it would taste completely different, as I found out through experimentation. The portion was huge and I only managed to finish half of the glass despite trying very hard, so I decided to experiment with the leftover half. After stirring the milk into the tea, the drink became a frosty milkshake which was still good, but lacked the contrast of texture and flavour.

In conclusion, I would revisit for the milk top tea but would probably refrain from trying the food. Kish ordered a curry rice to go with his drink, and it didn't look very appetizing. I'm confused about the market position of this place, as it seems to be a little bit of everything. There is a small display counter with homemade bakery items that are supposedly French desserts and pastries. The food menu offers dishes ranging from American to Japanese to Italian to Hong Kong style cafe fare, while drinks like the milk top tea are distinctly Taiwanese. The waitresses are dressed in maid uniforms like the maid cafes in Japan, and the decor is half quaint British style (with fences crawling with plastic flowers as partitions) and half Hong Kong cafe style. This is one confused little cafe...