For people who love coffee, they’re sure to often check out new shops. Although Google Maps is quite convenient for quickly finding nearby coffee shops, it wasn’t specifically designed for that purpose, so it can be a bit inconvenient to use—especially when looking for coffee shops abroad, where the information isn’t rich enough. That’s when “珈琲散步” is really worth bookmarking.
The website “珈琲散步” is dedicated to introducing distinctive coffee shops in Taiwan and Japan. To date, it has collected nearly 700 shops, each with a complete introduction covering its special features, business hours, and whether it’s a hidden gem. If you’re planning to visit these coffee shops in a day, it also offers a one-day coffee route planning feature, which is quite handy.
“Coffee Stroll” is a website dedicated to introducing specialty coffee shops in Taiwan and Japan.
Kafesanpo「珈琲散歩」 is a coffee map and recommendation website that curates distinctive coffee shops in Taiwan and Japan. If you often look for specialty coffee or unique kissaten, or want to discover coffee shops worth a special trip while traveling, this site is quite handy.
Currently featuring around 697 coffee shops across 28 cities, spanning from Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung to major Japanese cities including Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Sapporo. Rather than simply pulling every listing from Google Maps, the curation focuses on shops that are “worth making a special trip for.”
The most distinctive feature is that it has its own “trending ranking” system. This ranking isn’t based solely on Google star ratings; instead, it’s calculated from a combination of factors like Google ratings, review count, new reviews added in the last 30 days, reader votes, and awards. As a result, beyond the well-known popular spots, it also makes it easier to find coffee shops that are currently on the rise but haven’t yet become widely famous.
Besides the ranking, the website also offers a “site-wide map” and a “nearby stores” feature, so if you’re out and suddenly want coffee, you can directly see which listed stores are near your location.
It also distinguishes between “actually visited” and mere “data collection.” If the site owner has personally been to a shop, they usually add the visit date, what they actually ordered, and on-site photos; for other shops, they mainly compile publicly available information. In addition, the site currently emphasizes that there are no sponsored posts, paid listings, or paid rankings, and shops cannot pay to get a higher ranking. Overall, it leans toward being information organized from a coffee enthusiast’s perspective.
Featured list
- Focused on curating specialty coffee shops in Taiwan and Japan.
- Approximately 697 coffee shops have been catalogued, spanning 28 cities.
- Provide a custom “Trending Topics Ranking”
- Ranking combines Google ratings, review count, recent review growth, awards, and reader votes.
- Provide a site-wide coffee map.
- Support for finding coffee shops near your location
- The homepage shows this week’s topics, the latest additions, and restaurants that have surged in popularity this week.
- Each coffee shop has its own independent information page.
- Provide coffee guides for different cities and themes.
After entering the Coffee Sanpo website, scroll down and you’ll find currently trending coffee shops, along with rankings for each area:
Each coffee shop has its own dedicated introduction page, with photos of the shop at the top. Scrolling down, you can find a description, business hours, address, and user voting information. The most interesting part is that some shops are labeled with things like “only for true coffee lovers,” “hidden gem,” or “champion shop,” and seeing those makes you want to go check them out:
The “Coffee Guide” is definitely worth checking out. Instead of just ranking shops on a list, it organizes them into different guides by city, area, or theme—like Tokyo specialty coffee, Kyoto kissaten culture, hand-drip coffee, and unique coffee shops—so you can quickly find places based on your travel destination and preferences. For anyone planning a trip to Japan and wanting to include a few distinctive cafés along the way, this is way more convenient than searching through Google Maps one by one.
The one-day coffee route is also quite handy. First select the area you want to visit, and the coffee shops in that area will be listed below. Each shop is labeled with its specialty, such as champion shop, old-house revival, or artisan specialty. Choose up to 5:
Then it will plan a suggested route for you, showing you the smoothest way to get there:
You can even import it directly into Google Maps, and it will map out the route for you:
It also supports a map-based store search feature that can directly access your current location to quickly find nearby specialty coffee shops:
The red dots on the map are the coffee shops:
Source: KOCPC Chinese