Cafés in Tokyo
I am someone who loves to dress up and go…
no where… (˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧
Or rather, dress up fancy and soak up the sun in a cafe. I spent almost a month in Japan, mostly in Tokyo and I can totally see myself living there permanently (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و (but this is also me, saying it whenever I visit a new city) So here’s a couple of favourite café spots that I’ve been to where I would no doubt go again if I’m in town:
PSSS — The list below isn’t written in order of preference!
all day place shibuya | About life coffee brewers
About life coffee brewers
About life coffee brewers
About life coffee brewers
About life coffee brewers, or ALCB, is a little cafe located at the ground floor of a boutique hotel called All day place Shibuya. Semi-brain fog moment with their brand naming there for a few seconds, but well, maybe the japanese weren’t thinking too much in terms of language. We did stay at this cute boutique hotel. It’s a little pricey, especially when we upgraded to have a bigger room. And according to Paula, not really worth the price that we paid for (though it’s still cute and great location in my opinion).
I personally love the coffee and wow, I need to say, hands down the best Banana Bread + Espresso butter ever! They heat up the banana bread with the espresso butter. And it melts so nicely onto the bread. Adding on to the wonderful smell of coffee, it is just the perfect simple breakfast to have. I loved it so much that I somewhat begged Paula to go back again on our last night in the hotel~ despite the fact that she doesn’t like bananas.
Location wise, it’s a little off the main station. You will have to walk towards Tower Records / Miyashita Park then you’ll find All Day Place Shibuya. Definitely not too luggage friendly if you have heavy stuffs with you. There’s some slops around the areas with stairs which can be a little complicated.
📍1 Chome-17-1 Shibuya, Shibuya City, Tokyo 150-0002, Japan
Blue Bottle
Blue bottle shibuya
I’m pretty sure Blue Bottle is rather popular right?
Coffee is always good. There will be no surprises except the smell of fragrant beans welcoming you whenever you are near. There are plenty of branches around Tokyo. I’ve mostly frequented the one at Ginza 6 Mall, which is located in the basement B2F. You know, the perfect coffee break when you’re doing some shopping at the Uniqlo flagship store right across. If you’re looking for a spot to work, the one at Shibuya or Aoyama might be a better option for you as the café space is much bigger and has more sitting spots.
📍1 Chome-7-3 Jinnan, Shibuya City, Tokyo 150-0041, Japan
Blue bottle shibuya
Blue bottle shibuya
ONIBUS CAFE / NAKAMEGURO
Onibus
Onibus is a cute little 2 story cafe that’s near Nakameguro.
I think it started to gain some popularity on tiktok / reels for foreigners because it’s located next to the railway. So if you want to step into a cute anime-like neighbourhood and train watch, this is a good spot! The sounds of the trains dashing through, causing windows to rattle, it definitely has the lo-fi playlist vibes if that’s what you’re looking for!
However, try to head over earlier in the morning as it gets really crowded yet it’s very tiny. There is wifi available, so it was an easy spot for you to get some work done. (Which I did and took some called, it worked great!) I ordered the banana bread as well. However, nothing beats the one at All day place Shibuya :D
📍2 Chome-14-1 Kamimeguro, Meguro City, Tokyo 153-0051, Japan
How can you not enjoy the vibes like this? Especially if you wanna live that slice-of-life kinda anime moment …
Omnibus
Double Tall Cafe
Double tall shinjuku gyoen mae
Double tall shinjuku gyoen mae
Double tall shinjuku gyoen mae
It was one of those days that Paula and I cramped a tone of stuffs to do in one day, so we thought it would be better to have a “slightly” heavier breakfast. It was on our way to Shinjuku Gyoen Park that we found ourselves sitting outside Double Tall Cafe. They seem to have a few branch around the area too!
It’s a quaint little café in a super quiet/residential neighbourhood, which was surprisingly already filled up on the inside. They had a few mini tables outside, so we opted to be sitted outside. There wasn’t much on the food menu so we decided to share a little egg sandwich.
It was spring then, the weather was just nice to be out at the terasse. The coffee was a little on the acidic side, very intense and strong, a nice additional good morning boost to fuel the rest of the day.
📍Japan, 〒160-0022 Tokyo, Shinjuku City, Shinjuku, 1 Chome−23−11 御苑メインビル 101
VERVE COFFEE (IMAGE FROM VERVE)
Verve Coffee Roasters
I didn’t do much research about it previously, but when i was searching for cafés, it appeared a couple of times. Verve coffee roasters are apparently Californian!
By now you can guess that any coffee you buy in Japan is always great. I popped by here in search of a light snack and a spot to work. And it turned out great! I can’t remember if it’s because I was starving… but the waffles tasted really good.
On another hand, I haven’t explored much around Roppongi, there’s beautiful views of the Tokyo Tower when you cross the streets. The viral kaisendon resto, Tsujihan; that’s going around social media which is popular for 2-3hours of queue has another branch here in Roppongi! No need to spend hours waiting at the main branch. It’s around 8-10mins walk from Verve Coffee and within 10mins (of queue I mean), you’re sitted at the counter for some really good seafood!
📍 5 Chome-16-7 Roppongi, Minato City, Tokyo 106-0032
Latte Art Mania
Latte art mania tokyo
Latte art mania tokyo
Latte art mania tokyo
Thanks so social media once again, Paula and I found this cafe. Apparently opened by latte art champions, they serve a variety of coffees that comes with very complex latte art. Well of course, the baristas were all very cute and friendly!
The cafe is located near the subway station, Gaienmae, one stop after Omotesando. It’s a very narrow cafe, but they’ve somehow made it rather cosy. You order your cuppa at the entrance after you take a seat, then once the baristas are ready to start your coffee, they actually invite you to watch how the magic happens! What a cute interaction! Especially when they start pouring you a unicorn or a phoenix!
We actually went there twice. Because Paula wanted to wash her eyes before heading back to Singapore (yes I’m exposing her right there haha)~ except our friendly barista wasn’t in on the second time. The owner/champion was actually a little more reserved. But mostly because of the language barrier. We went on both weekdays/weekends.
Definitely go on a weekday to avoid queueing!
📍 〒107-0061 Tokyo, Minato City, Kita-Aoyama, 2 Chome−9−13 斉藤ビル 1F
I needed to talk about this spot because I kept seeing it on Reels before going over to Japan.
It was said that there’s usually quite a bit of queue… It’s been sometime now, so I’m not sure if it’s still valid. But get there earlier in the morning if possible? We reached some time before 9.30am and probably waited for 10mins before we could be seated. Nothing much to say about the coffee to be honest. Very nicely roasted beans by the Roasters, fragrant lattes, really just how I like them.
But but but my point here, is all about the breads! (And apparently pizzas too if you come for lunch/dinner) They have a huge selection of breads and a delicious brunch menu. We were gonna chase trains to head to Hakone after that so we opted for a the French toast set each ( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ )
And it was so good! We had such a good breakfast. The bread was fluffy, well balanced between the syrup and the savoury bacon. We filled our bellies happily. As we made our way to the payment, you will also be enticed by a long table/shelves of freshly baked breads. Of course, before you even head over, the smells have already filled up the entire café. It’s just a pity we didn’t actually buy more to try out all the different assortments!
Ah, and the downside was that it’s located a little out of place. It’s between Shinjuku Gyoen and the Imperial Palace. There’s nothing much around the neighbourhood too. So you really travel just for breads! Not that I mind ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ♡
📍 5-9 Yonbancho, Chiyoda City, Tokyo 102-0081, Japan
Satisfied
Trunk Hotel
TRUNK HOTEL LOBBY
TRUNK HOTEL
This spot is a little special. As you can tell, it’s a hotel. A beautiful luxury hotel (that always seemed to be fully booked?) . However a friend recommended that it’s a good spot to get work done. Strangely, it seems like there’s a whole community of “remote nomads”. Or maybe some of them are probably having business meetings but as I was working in that space, it’s quite interesting to see the dynamics and people watch.
Their coffee is a little more expensive compared to other cafes for sure and it’s a little more on the acidic side which I’m not really a fan of. But the pros is that no one bothers you if you stay the whole afternoon, which I shamelessly did. Haha but I bought food and drinks a couple of times… I guess that’s okay? Get distracted a little from time to time with good looking people. Somehow a handful of them are always gathered here? One thing I love about the japanese culture is that no one will bother to steal your belongings too! I felt particularly safe going to the toilet while leaving my MacBook out there in the open. Perhaps not the smartest thing to do… but well, sometimes when you’re alone, the toilet calls there’s nothing you can do.
📍5 Chome-31 Jingumae, Shibuya City, Tokyo 150-0001, Japan
trunk bar
In the evening, the cafe turns into a bar as well ( •ᴗ•)⸝🥂⸜(•ᴗ• )
Nakano
Nakano
As I decided to spend more time in Tokyo and well, because accomodations are rather expensive during my travelling period, I decided to stay a little further from the city center.
I found a really cute apartment in Nakano, which is 20-30mins away from Shibuya (if you hop onto the right “fast” train). The neighbourhood is super lively during the day and by night, it turns into something else.
It definitely took me 1-2 days to get used to the mood at night when I walk home after “work”. During the day time, it’s super crowded with plenty of eateries happening. But when night falls, the mood changes into some sort of dark alleys. Bar signboards lights up with a handful of doormen standing outside (there’s a bar every 5 to 10meters, so you can imagine the “crowd”) to bring in unsuspecting customers. Maybe it’s because of my blond hair, or I didn’t look local enough, luckily none of them approached me (ᵕ—ᴗ—)
But this neighbourhood had plenty of cafes and eateries that actually tastes great!
Butter Coffee Stand
My apartment was quite a walk to the station everyday. So it became some sort of challenge to find new coffees every morning. The best one would be Butter. Hands down my favorite one in the hood!
It was spring season, sometimes by the time I got out of the apartment, I would be semi sweating from walking 10mins. A delicious cuppa Iced latte from them quench my thirst really well! The downside to take aways is that, you won’t be able to find a trash bin along the way… so I had to hold my cup all the way to the office…. But when I have a little more time, I would try to have my coffee in the cafe itself (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)
butter coffee stand nakano
butter coffee stand nakano
butter coffee stand nakano
Butter Coffee Stand is one the rare cafés that opens from 8am!
📍 2 Chome-1-1 Arai, Nakano City, Tokyo 165-0026, Japan
The location compared to my apartment street, was a little “outside”. So compared to all the shops along the main streets on Nakano, none of them were open at 9am. I guess they value work life balance pretty well! I only managed to try out 2 other cafés when I leave home later, somewhere towards noon. I can’t describe why, what and how, but the coffee at Butter Coffee Stand somehow hits different (*ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)ꕤ*.ﾟ
Aozora
Coffee Stand
In my 2 weeks stay in the neighbourhood, I barely come across the café open. Probably because I left too early?
But I wasn’t that early to be honest, I usually stay in the apartment in the morning to work. So when I leave, it was always almost noon. Maybe when I was there, they were on holidays? Because according to google, it says that they open at 8am.
The coffee roast is super fragrant as you walk past the shop. The level of creaminess was on point. It’s not acidic, more towards the bitter end, which is the kinda balance that I enjoy! Of course very friendly baristas which I assume are the owners.
