The shortest distance from farm to table — a handmade fresh food café in Kaohsiung!

Text & photos byShadow

Located along Wenzhong Road, right next to the HanShan Dome Metro Station, this spot is notably quieter compared to the bustling Yucheng Road just outside. We visited this café during a break. Qi Wu Can Café has been in operation for nearly a year. When we first met the owner, he was quite shy but full of passion for cooking. This elegant café has an unexpectedly divine name origin — the deity instructed that it be named “Qi Wu Can” (七午餐), which phonetically suggests “eating lunch,” combined with the fact that the owner was born in 1975, leading to the final name: Qi Wu Can Café.

Hailing from Jiuru Township in Pingtung, he carries the simple and down-to-earth personality typical of rural kids. His family’s farming background provides him with plenty of fresh ingredients to showcase his culinary skills. With the support of his family, he can focus wholeheartedly on creating delicious dishes. Since opening, despite challenging economic conditions, the journey has been tough — yet his original vision remains unchanged: to offer everyone the freshest, most natural, handmade food.

Though lacking in lavish décor, the space exudes a minimalist, homey comfort. Over a year of operation, the café has built up a loyal customer base, which the owner finds very rewarding.

The dining area on the first floor features high ceilings, preventing any cramped feeling. The metal rack to the left of the entrance not only serves as decoration but also acts as a partition to create a sense of separate space. An eight-seater section is tucked into the corner by the floor-to-ceiling window, ensuring diners won’t be disturbed even when the place is busy.

The row of seats can be divided into two-seaters or combined into four-person tables, offering great flexibility. On the other side of the aisle is an open bar counter for preparing drinks and plating food.

At the back of the café, utensils, condiments, and complimentary drinking water are placed for customers to help themselves.

As stated on the menu, the dishes emphasize natural, healthy, and handmade elements, with many ingredients sourced from the owner’s family farm in Pingtung, filled with heartfelt care.

Brunch is one of the café’s highlights, with a clear menu that allows you to avoid certain ingredients if needed. It’s also worth noting how playful the dish names are.

Pasta and risotto are also recommended items. Dishes marked with stars are staff favorites, serving as great references for first-time visitors. You can upgrade to a combo meal: Combo A for 69 NT includes a choice of soup or salad, plus a drink and dessert; Combo B for 99 NT comes with soup, salad, dessert, and a drink.

Handmade dishes emphasize no MSG, using only sea salt and black pepper for seasoning, avoiding excessive flavors that might mask the ingredients’ natural taste — that’s what real cooking is about.

In addition to main meals, there’s a diverse selection including salads, fried items, desserts, and afternoon tea pancakes, catering to diners at all times of the day.

The café uses 100% Arabica premium beans. Arabica coffee trees are known for their demanding cultivation conditions and lower resistance to pests, resulting in relatively low annual yields. Among the world’s Arabica coffee production, only a small fraction is classified as specialty coffee, characterized by fruity aromas after roasting.

(No suitable natural translation found for “不知如何解释主厨特制早午餐299元” — likely a note or placeholder; returning as-is.)

Choose one from handcrafted beef steak, tenderly pan-fried spiced chicken thigh, or Japanese-style pork cutlet, served with bagel, sunny-side-up egg, caramelized onion, and cheese. The meal also comes with soup, salad, dessert, and a drink (choose one from Ceylon black tea, cold-brew green tea, orange juice, or American hot coffee).

The bread used in the café is made with natural yeast and handcrafted, free from chemical additives — a reassuring touch. Other sides like sweet potatoes and potatoes with skin offer great satiety.

The yellow sauce is honey mustard, hiding slices of cured pork and caramelized onions. There’s quite a bit of mustard, which, while visually appealing, slightly overpowers the flavors of the pork and onions — a slight pity.

Fireworks Girl Seafood Wide Flat Noodles – 260 NT (à la carte)

“Fireworks Girl” pasta is a classic Italian home-style dish. The name “Fireworks Girl” is linked to women in Italy’s special entertainment industry at the time, and its exact origin remains debated — though perhaps not our main focus here.

This pasta is primarily flavored with anchovies and capers, giving it a tangy and spicy profile — a rich and bold taste. For those who love strong flavors, it’s absolutely delicious, and we unknowingly polished off the entire plate.

The optional side salad includes common Western ingredients like beetroot and romaine, along with trendy sesame leaves, and a few nuts and dried fruits — light and guilt-free.

The soup comes with bread made from natural yeast, giving off a pure, aromatic bread scent.

Enjoying it together with the soup is another option.

The petite and adorable dessert is a cheese mousse, with a fresh milk flavor that might initially be masked by the cocoa nibs on top — the milky taste becomes more noticeable as you reach the bottom.

Specialty Tropical Fruit Tea – 150 NT (left), Latte – 130 NT (right)

The fruit tea is different from usual — it relies on the natural essence of fruits, with no added sugar, delivering pure fruit aroma and natural sweetness. The latte itself is unsweetened, served with a syrup boiled from brown sugar by the café. The coffee aroma is rich and lingers in the mouth for a long time.

Square Toast with Homemade Seasonal Fruit Jam – 149 NT

This dessert is quite intricate to make. The square-shaped bread has a crisp texture, and even the jam is homemade. Paired with fresh fruit slices, its sweet and tangy flavor makes it especially appealing to women.

The mulberry jam on the side is also homemade, offering a layered sweet-and-sour taste that complements the bread perfectly. This dessert is a bit sweeter for Shadow, but Ant People will love it. The dessert comes with a choice of one drink: Ceylon black tea, cold-brewed green tea, or orange juice.

Using homegrown fruits and vegetables delivered fresh to the restaurant, the chef transforms them into various dishes without overly compromising their original flavors. Cooking is the owner’s greatest joy, and their dream is to develop more natural, homemade recipes so more people can eat healthily. This thoughtfully run restaurant is definitely worth recommending.

Café 753
Address: No. 24, Wenzhong Road, Gushan District, Kaohsiung City
Phone: 07-5553753
Business hours: 10:00–21:00, closed on Tuesdays

Kaohsiung Food Adventure Blog　Kaohsiung Food Lovers FB Fan Page