6 best dessert cafés in Tokyo specialising in Japanese parfaits

This dedicated parfait bar is open until the wee hours of the morning and makes a great alternative to a night of bar-hopping. The menu changes seasonally, and you'll always find details of the many components that go into each and every indulgent parfait. In the past, we've seen towering creations made with a whopping 17 ingredients, including sake jelly, strawberry gelato, matcha mochi and sakura mousse. You can also turn your parfait order into a set by adding on coffee, tea or a refreshing cocktail.

As the café easily attracts a queue, you can also check out the other locations in Ikebukuro and Shinjuku.

Parfaits from Patisserie Asako Iwayanagi are on another level. The art-like parfaits are crafted around seasonal ingredients and rarely appear on the menu for more than two weeks at a time. It’s also like a farm-to-table experience with much of the seasonal fruit sourced from a farm in Yamanashi prefecture run by owner-chef Asako Iwayanagi's partner's parents. The most recent menu includes autumn-inspired parfaits with timely ingredients like persimmon, cardamom orange hojicha jelly and sweet potato brûlée.

Reservations here are highly recommended. To book yourself a spot, visit the website.

Bien-Être Maison is the café extension of Yoyogi-Uehara’s famed Bien-Être Pâtisserie. The shop’s stunning parfaits were once offered at the patisserie’s small eat-in space before moving to this more spacious setup after their popularity exploded.

A different seasonal parfait is offered every month, with a descriptive diagram explaining every component in the elaborate dessert. Expect to see flavours like sakura in spring, pineapple in summer and figs in autumn. This winter parfait is a celebration of chestnuts, paired with coffee and sake to create a warm flavour profile. 

Reservations here are highly recommended. You can book a spot here.

This spacious café just off the Meguro River always has at least five to ten parfaits on the menu including the signature Strawberry Zukushi that uses plenty of Hokkaido’s famous Yotsuboshi strawberries, which are known for their perfect balance of sweetness and tanginess.

When strawberries aren't in season, you can try out some of the other sweet concoctions that range from towering parfaits topped with shine muscat and kyoho grapes to parfaits featuring an entire peach and Hokkaido milk soft serve ice cream.

This extravagant parfait parlour is tucked away in a quiet residential neighbourhood, but is well-worth the hunt if you’re a serious fan of dessert. The parfaits here are created by a well-established pastry chef who spent 19 years at the New Otani group of hotels. The menu centres around whatever fruit is in season and it’s all sourced from the nearby Ota Market, which specialises in fruits and veggies.

You can get an individual parfait or a larger one for sharing. Your jaw may drop when you see the sheer size of the large parfaits. On our recent visit, our towering creation came out topped with a mountain of grapes including shine muscat and the rare Nanago purple.

Reservations here are essential, and can easily be made over Facebook in English. Parfaits can also be ordered for takeaway, but those also need to be reserved.

Ginza Sembikiya is one of Tokyo's fine fruit purveyors and it has been crafting simple yet elegant parfaits for decades. Its flagship location is home to the Fruit Parlour that sits above the store, and you can dine on a range of desserts here including the famous Ginza Parfait.

The ingredients featured in the parfait change with the season but there are always seven different fruits as well as other components like lemon jelly, mango and peach sherbet, strawberry sauce and creamy vanilla ice cream.