Tabaq definitely serves some of the best coffee in the country, hands down! My first experience with Tabaq was back in August 2021 when I travelled to and stayed at Dhaka for one of my Medical exams. I was in dire need of some caffeine kick as I was doing some last moment revision and Tabaq popped up on my foodpanda (a food delivery service) with pretty high reviews. I had no idea about the shop and I was at a completely new place. I took a leap of faith and went ahead and ordered myself a nice, large cup of Latte. It took me one sip to get hooked and I ordered latte from Tabaq every day during my stay that time.
I returned back to my hometown and there's no tabaq there. Soon after my results of the exams I shifted to dhaka for my post graduate medical training. But as fate would have it, there were no branches of Tabaq in the vicinity of my grandma's place where I was staying initially. Travelling all the way to Gulshan for just a cup of coffee was ridiculous. I didn't know of the existence of the Dhanmondi branch then, and even if I did it wouldn't matter. Because Dhanmondi is still quite some distance for just a cup of coffee. The taxi cost alone would buy me 2 extra cups of latte!
So the next time I got to taste Tabaq coffee was almost exactly 1 year later when I rented a hotel close to my exam centre, which was incidentally pretty close to the Gulshan branch of Tabaq. And I again relied on the caffeine from Tabaq's coffee to push me through some final revision. Mind you these were both, two of the most important examinations of my medical career and the direction I was headed.
The point of me telling such a large introduction is to give the readers an idea of the sentimental value Tabaq's coffee holds to me.
And yet, in over two years since getting introduced to Tabaq's coffee, I never actually ended up physically visiting one of their outlets. After I moved to a house closer to my workplace, I have again ordered latte from tabaq, this time from the much closer Dhanmondi branch. But the fact remained, I hadn't stepped foot in their branches yet.
The fact also remains, I never got to meet any of the HIVEans I got so close to over on discord despite living in the same city as most of them for over a year!
The two converged last Saturday as we finally met up, and I finally stepped foot in a branch of Tabaq after it has eluded me for so long! I have already written about the meetup and how special it was.
Riz611 has also done a fantastic recollection of that wonderful evening!
So, straight to the food then!
As soon as our coffee and desserts were served, we almost straightaway delved in, there was very little time to get some artistic snaps lol!
This large chocolate cake took the centre stage, it's actually much larger than it looks in the image. It was pretty good, but a bit too sweet for my taste. I think we had brownies too, but I think it was wiped off the plate faster than I was able to take out my phone to take a picture 😂
I however agree with zayedsakib for once that Tabaq's best dessert is actually their Banana Bread.
You can see someone (definitely not me, really!) had already dug in before I remembered to take a snap!
I also got a roast beef sandwich when I saw so many sweet desserts being ordered. I need something to wipe out the taste of extreme sweetness before I can fully enjoy my coffee. This was overpriced, but a really, really good sandwich. The cheese was heavenly, as it always is!
And finally the long, long awaited coffee! My wife and I both went for hazelnut Latte. Hazelnut latte is actually one of my favourites, but here every shop makes it too sweet. So I had given up on it.
Tabaq however, almost nailed it! I still prefer a little less sweet, but by far the best hazelnut latte in the country.
