30 best coffee shops in Tokyo

This Sydney transplant has been in the coffee business since 2003 and set up an outpost in Tokyo’s sumo heartland, Ryogoku, in 2014 – on the cusp of Japan’s coffee boom. Fast forward to 2024 and the roastery has now moved into a brand new space in celebration of its tenth anniversary in Japan.

Still located in Ryogoku, the new premises function as both a café and roastery, which stay open five days a week instead of just on the weekends, as was the case with the previous tasting bar.

Single O prides itself on securing ethically sourced coffee and highlighting the beans' natural flavours. For instance, the vibrant Reservoir house blend of Costa Rican and Ethiopian beans is a winner, producing an acidic brew that’s bright with citrus notes. Similar to the Single O Hamacho outpost, you can enjoy self-service coffee on tap here, taking your pick from four different varieties.

While Kyoto’s Ogawa Coffee may be best known for its kissaten-style cafés, the chain’s latest outpost in Shimokitazawa is an entirely new concept. Ogawa Coffee Laboratory is not a café, and can best be described as a bean salon, offering coffee masterclasses where you can learn to do more with your beans.

The sleek salon sells numerous types of coffee beans and staff will teach you how to brew the best cup of joe using a selection of 40 different coffee tools. There’s also a roaster on hand where you can try roasting a small batch of coffee beans yourself in less than 20 minutes.

During a visit, you’ll have your pick from over 20 types of coffee beans including single origin, house blends and even a selection of speciality beans. There’s also a coffee graph on hand which you can use to help pick your beans based on your preferred flavour profiles. From there, you’ll be given a choice of coffee equipment to choose how you want your coffee brewed. Whether it’s with an AeroPress, siphon, or a simple pour over, even the pickiest coffee drinker will find a range of options to choose from.

Koffee Mameya has finally given its fans the proper café space they’ve been craving with Koffee Mameya Kakeru, a stylish coffee haven nestled amongst the cool cafés in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, Tokyo’s self-proclaimed coffee town.

Koffee Mameya Kakeru isn’t your average coffee shop, though. While you can purchase beans and drinks for takeaway up front, the back of the store is reserved for serious coffee drinkers looking to explore and taste different roasts, coffee cocktails and even sweets.

The main menu consists of three coffee tasting courses (starting at ¥2,500), where you can sample various roasts prepared in different ways – cold brew, milk brew, filtered and shots of espresso. Courses also come with Koffee Kashi, small sweets paired with your designated brew.

Glitch Coffee has opened a new outlet in Tokyo (its second in the city and fourth in Japan) with this sleek new space in Ginza. The café is centred around a chic U-shaped counter and accented with original ukiyo-e woodblock prints hanging on the walls. A curated playlist of 1980s music playing from a set of stylish Tannoy speakers adds to the atmosphere.

Glitch is known for its light-roast, single-origin coffee beans that are all roasted in-house at its Jimbocho location. By only offering light roasts, Glitch is able to showcase the original flavour of the beans. You won't find any blended coffee here as the café aims to highlight the individuality of the coffee farms and regions it works with. 

Take your pick from 15 varieties of single-origin coffee, each accompanied by an English description of its origin and flavour profile. Glitch also has an interesting ordering system: you first select the bean and then the coffee style, such as pour-over, latte or espresso.

Beloved Shibuya mainstay Coffeehouse Nishiya has moved to its new home in Asakusa with an updated name, but still serves up the same menu of Italian-inspired café drinks. Unlike its previous sit down space, the shop operates more as a standing coffee bar where you can stop by for a quick pick-me-up. Don't worry if you can't get a spot inside – just walk up to the front window and a cup of joe to go. 

Behind the counter you'll find the jovial owner and barista Kyohei Nishitani, who has quite the coffee repertoire thanks to his experience at worldwide barista competitions. Ask him for a recommendation or go for one of the classic drinks like the cocoa dusted cappuccino, espresso con panna or espresso shakerato.

While the café lacks a food menu, some of the drinks on the menu double as a dessert, like the espresso banana shake or the simple affogato. Trying to cut down on caffeine? There are drinks for you too, including an indulgent hot chocolate (ask for the cioccolata) and a thick strawberry shake. 

This Fukuoka-born coffee roastery has found a home in the old Coffeehouse Nishiya shop in Shibuya. Leaving most of Nishiya’s retro interior intact, the menu has also incorporated a few of the old café’s favourites including premium pudding. 

Rec Coffee initially started out as a small coffee truck and has expanded to ten shops including two in Tokyo and even a couple in Taiwan. Grab a seat inside or out on the terrace and enjoy an espresso or hand drip coffee made from Rec’s premium roasted beans. Have your pick from single-origin varieties and popular blends including the shop’s Hakata and Lucy blends. You can also buy beans for takeaway if you’re keen to practice your hand drip at home.

The café also boasts a small food menu with items like croque monsieurs, croque madames, hot dogs and a smoked salmon sandwich. You can make it a lunch set by adding your choice of drink. Go beyond regular coffee with an espresso banana shake, or skip the caffeine with a warm chai latte or a mug of warm, frothy milk mixed with honey.

Situated in Ryogoku, Leaves Coffee Roasters is a modern retreat in Tokyo's old school 'sumo town'. The shop happens to only be open four days a week (leaving the rest of the week for roasting, packing and delivery), but it's worth the trip for their smooth brews and cool atmosphere.

Carefully curated beans are sourced from Ethiopia, Kenya and other South American countries while they are all roasted in-house through a German roasting machine. Coffee aficionados can buy bags of beans or opt for a fresh brewed coffee or espresso while enjoying it around the shop's stylish indoor and outdoor seating. 

Tucked into the ground floor of a small apartment block at a street corner, coffee shop WR has transformed the awkward space into an asset – something of a sleek, stylish bunker. The industrial-looking concrete walls and floor are combined with wooden tabletops and fresh seasonal flowers for a cool, welcoming vibe. Then there’s the coffee and craft beer, which are both excellent. 

The coffee menu covers the essentials, from crisp and complex cold brew and long black to milky latte and flat white. The coffee here is reminiscent of the styles you get in Australia, which is not surprising considering the managers of WR used to live and work there. If you like the roasts, which come from Haneda-based Swim Roastery, you can purchase bags of the coffee beans here, too. (Just a quick primer: a flat white is espresso topped with steamed milk and microfoam; a long black is like an Americano but less diluted and with the espresso shot added after the hot water, not before.)  

It might look small from the outside, but this speciality roastery has a lot to offer, with a dozen kinds of coffee beans imported from around the world and roasted on-site. Owner Kenji Okauchi opened this coffee shop in 2014 with the ambition of creating a cheerful neighbourhood haunt where locals could casually drop by to pick up freshly ground, single-origin beans or a drip coffee to go. 

The upstairs café overlooks the street with the window-side table perfect for people-watching as you sip your brew. A menu of freshly baked cakes and pastries is also available to accompany your cuppa.

There’s a bright and sunny demeanour to Little Darling Coffee Roasters and it feels like you’ve been transported to California. This spacious café and roastery is part of the Share Green Minami Aoyama retail and event space, whose beautiful grounds feature repurposed warehouses and a manicured lawn adorned with lush greenery courtesy of the neighbouring florist and nursery, Solso Park.

Head barista Naoya Akagawa, who was a Coffee Fest Latte Art World Championship Open finalist, handpicks five beans and roasts them on-site two to three times a week, after which they are packaged into 100g and 200g bags. The house blend, with the twee name ‘My Bestfriend’s Crush’, is a medium to dark roast of beans from Brazil, Ethiopia, Laos and Colombia. If you’re drinking in, you can choose your preferred brewing method, whether it’s American press or filter. 

Situated to the left of the entrance to the hip K5 building, Switch Coffee feels like you’ve stepped into a green nursery, complete with a handful of small tables, free wi-fi and excellent coffee. Choose from single-origin drip coffee, espresso, latte, cappuccino or an iced coffee with tonic water – an uncanny but surprisingly refreshing combination.

This location is the third for Switch Coffee (find them also in Meguro and Yoyogi-Hachiman), who source their beans directly from selected farmers around the world. Masahiro Onishi opened the first location in 2013 after turning his passion into his day job and training in the famous coffee scene of Melbourne, Australia.

Located in a quiet corner of Shibuya, Heart’s Light Coffee found a home in a clean, modern space and suffused it with great music courtesy of an extensive vinyl collection. The copper-plated roaster is particularly eye-catching; it comes from Turkey and is one of a kind in Japan. While the shop roasts its beans roughly four times a week, it also lends out the roaster as a community service to other cafés. One of the two owners also handmade a spinning coffee dripper, making it that much easier for the baristas to make pour-overs.

The house blend is the lightly roasted Heart’s Merge, a mix of Panama and Papua New Guinea that carries hints of berry jam, almonds and hazelnuts, and it’s perfectly suited for drip coffee. Heart’s Light Coffee also does interesting twists on milky coffee. There’s a banana latte and also an ‘iced’ latte that contains no ice. It’s simply cold milk topped with a shot of espresso, creating a photogenic layer effect with the black coffee floating on top of the white milk. 

Out of Coffee Wrights’ two Tokyo locations, the main roastery and café at Kuramae is the most unassuming of the lot. While it may not look as polished as its sister outlet, the factory-like ground floor space has a very pragmatic setup that puts the focus squarely on the roasting process.

Here the beans are roasted every two to three days, resulting in an ever-changing selection of six single-origin roasts and a Brazilian decaf, which carries toasty, caramelly notes reminiscent of almonds and dark chocolate.

Sarutahiko is reinvented by the Suppose Design Office with a spacious café tucked on the second floor of the new Harajuku Station building, which opened in 2020. There’s no shortage of seating inside this roomy café which looks over one of Tokyo’s busiest neighbourhoods and is fitted with cosy couches, communal tables and counter seating.

Although a predominately modern space, there are traditional Japanese touches too, from the wooden shoji panels dividing seating areas to the bonsai tree near the entrance. Perhaps the most stunning interior piece in the coffee shop is the massive central wooden table, seemingly cut from just one tree. The table also features handy outlets for those looking to get a bit of work done.

Hidden down the backstreets of Ebisu, this charming space is everything you hope for from a quaint little neighbourhood coffee shop. It’s reassuringly homely, set in a remodelled house whose entrance is almost entirely covered up by lush leafy plants. It’s the perfect place to stay idle over coffee and cake (the gorgonzola cheesecake is a winner), but make sure to check out the second-floor gallery for its selection of handbags, jewellery and ceramics by local designers.

With a focus on single-origin varieties, Drip Bar roasts its beans in small batches to maintain greater control over quality while minimising waste. Each cup of coffee is handdripped to order, using exclusive drippers made to fit just 15g of ground coffee at a time. The dual-language menu is straightforward, with six bean options organised from the lightest to the darkest roast.

Occupying a renovated, traditional-style home right by Nakameguro Station, the most interesting café in town run by Jiyugaoka-based roasters and bean importers Onibus is equipped with a shiny espresso machine and newly acquired roaster. Just don’t expect to linger – this is a very functional spot with minimal frills.

Onibus import top-grade beans from Rwanda and Guatemala among others and roast them in the shop. The menu is as simple as the décor: espresso, americano, latte or hand drip, nothing else.

When you come to Good People & Good Coffee, a small shop tucked in the side streets near Ikejiri-Ohashi station, there are a few things you should expect: a warm welcome from barista Tomoshi Okamoto, friendly conversation, and delicious coffee that bridges a variety of genres.

Good People & Good Coffee is small and intimate, and Okamoto uses the space and his coffee blends, named after classic American pop-culture references like Johnny B Goode and Tomando, to make connections with everyone who steps inside. Here you can find coffee made in almost any style you’d want – pour-over, Seattle, Italian and, as Okamoto described it, Tokyo-style. Whatever piques Okamoto’s curiosity is what he’ll make. He communicates through his brews, tying together styles and flavours in ways that are unexpected and original, in order to create coffee that people want to drink every day.

Importing beans from Portland’s famed Stumptown Coffee Roasters every week, Daisuke Matsushima’s Paddlers have been caffeinating shoppers at the Nishihara arcade since 2015. All beans are served fresh in french press or espresso form for the perfect flavour. Beans are also available by the bag, with their most popular roast being the Nano Challa from Ethiopia, which offers delicate notes of grapefruit and peach.

To accompany your cup, order one of Paddlers’ signature hot dogs, made with buns from a bakery in the neighbourhood. The café has a calm wooden interior, communal tables and a homely atmosphere – a little piece of the Rose City in one of the quieter corners of Shibuya.

A favourite of international style bible Monocle, the original Fuglen shop in Oslo, Norway is a blend of café, cocktail bar and vintage design boutique, where even the furniture is up for sale. Its Tokyo shop, which opened in May 2012, transplants the concept to a backstreet corner not far from Yoyogi Park.

Fuglen Tokyo opens at 7am everyday, selling tea and some remarkably good coffee during the daytime (though not any food – if you're feeling peckish, bring your own). It switches to bar mode in the evenings, with Japanese and Norwegian craft beers and a menu of cocktails devised by champion bartender Halvor Digernes, which makes extensive use of infused spirits and bitters; try the ginger daiquiri: it's a winner. 

Collaboratively run by the folks behind Nozy Coffee and restaurant impresarios Tysons (TY Harbor, Cicada, Ivy Place, etc), this uber-hip roastery and café on Harajuku's Cat Street is one of the city's flashiest specialist coffee haunts.

Every day, you'll get to choose from two kinds of single-origin beans for your americano, latte or espresso – the latter comes served in a champagne glass (yes, really). The coffee soft serves and suspiciously Cronut-like NY Rings are sure to satisfy sugar addicts, while Smokehouse, the American-style BBQ restaurant upstairs, is where to head for more substantial fare (and TY Harbor craft beer).

'Coffee Only' reads the sign outside Café de l'Ambre, which has been keeping the Ginza hordes well caffeinated since 1948. The kissaten was founded by the late Ichiro Sekiguchi, and the staff on-hand continue to run the shop under his legacy. Though they treat their coffee with the utmost seriousness, this isn't one of those fussy, killjoy coffee temples where conversation has to be conducted in furtive whispers and customers need a secret handshake to get through the door (we exaggerate, but only slightly).

The interior looks like it was last remodeled in the early '80s, although some of the equipment is clearly much older, and it's also the only coffee shop we've visited that has a washing machine behind the counter, on account of the cloth filters used when preparing drinks. Take your pick between a lone blend coffee and 15-odd single origin varieties, including a few aged coffees. The air of accessibility extends to English-language menus, and practically demands that you order something odd. 

Late-night coffee spots are hard to come by in Tokyo, surprisingly so even in bustling areas like Shinjuku and Shibuya. However, we have found a gem in Ikebukuro – just a four-minute walk from the station – that’s open daily until 10pm. Mermaid Coffee Roasters pride themselves on their freshly roasted coffee beans that are handpicked and roasted in small quantities to optimise flavour and quality.

Upon entry, you'll walk by a table with all the current beans on offer as well as a small decanter where you can sample each roast. While you can’t go wrong with a hand drip or one of their espresso-based drinks, we love the quirkier items on the menu, which include a Craft Cola Coffee and Espresso Romano (coffee lemonade). Surprisingly, the spices in the craft cola accent the coffee nicely, and the effervescence from the soda water reminds us of an espresso tonic. Coffee and lemonade might seem like an unlikely combo, but the mixture results in a bold drink with a tangy punch.

Stepping through the low, marble-tiled entrance, the first thing you’ll notice is the gorgeous tableware displayed behind a long hardwood counter. That’s not to say that the surroundings here outshine the coffee – on the contrary, Satei Hato’s hand-drip offerings maintain the absolutely highest quality. Choose from up to eight varieties of charcoal-roasted beans and watch as the formally dressed staff prepare your treat with almost religious dedication. Our Guatemala, served at a pleasant, just-right temperature, was smooth and soft with a barely noticeable whiff of citrus, while the homemade cakes are well worth a shot as well.

At ¥900 and up, the coffee here doesn’t exactly allow for everyday consumption, but any true enthusiast will do well to visit Satei Hato at least once. When you do, look out for the massive potted tree adorning one of the larger tables – it makes for a seriously impressive decoration.

Tucked down a cosy shopping street in Koenji, Amp is run by a husband-wife duo who have been turning out carefully roasted beans and quality cups of coffee since 2010. The roaster is the first thing you'll notice on entering – space is at a premium in this narrow shop, with weathered floorboards and seats for just over a dozen people, none of them especially comfortable.

There's not much opportunity for dawdling at the bar: drinkers are given a simple choice of latte, mocha, espresso or regular coffee, the latter served in a cafetiere and with a choice of different beans. Whether single-origin or one of their house blends, you know you’re always getting a quality cup as the shop has been sourcing beans from the same importers since its inception. Good sweets, too, and you can also buy beans to take home.

Located in coffee central, aka Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, Arise is the kind of place where you feel like you’re having a good ol’ cup of coffee at your friend’s house. The walls are covered with the owner’s skateboard decks which he’s collected over the years, and there’s a handful of trinkets from his travels to Thailand littered around the in-house roaster.

As for the coffee, there are about ten single-origin varieties to choose from, with the most popular beans coming from the Dominican Republic. A light and fruity roast, this coffee exudes light notes of strawberry and is overall quite a mild one to sip on. The shop also offers a handful of pastries from a nearby bakery called Kotoripan.

There was a time when Musashi-Koyama was famous for little besides having a shopping arcade that seemed to go on forever. That arcade is still there, but we're more likely to make a detour to the area to get a quick jolt at Amameria Espresso. Opened in the summer of 2010 by certified cupping judge Toshiaki Ishii, this intimate shop – all exposed brick and cement walls, wooden floors and upright piano in one corner – roasts its own beans, and the aroma alone is likely to lure first-time customers.

Coffees are prepared on a handsome Synesso machine, and the espresso is buttery with a bracing citrus tang. The Gibraltar – essentially a condensed latte served in a dinky glass – has good crema, smooth with a caramelly finish. Amameria sells its house-roasted beans, including an award-winning Nicaraguan San Antonio, and they also stock an array of coffee-making gear. 

The chalkboard in front of Turret Coffee says ‘Welcome to the best outrageous coffee shop in Japan’. Named for the ‘turret’ mini-trucks that used to zip around nearby Tsukiji fish market, Turret Coffee and its owner Kiyoshi Kawasaki both pull and pour quality espresso, all in a funky, intimate space. Relax on one of the few ‘real’ seats or sit on the back of an actual turret as you chat with friends, or with Kawasaki himself, while sipping your drink. If you need a real pick-me-up get the Turret Latte, which has a double shot of espresso – not to mention some beautiful latte art.

Those with a sweet tooth can try the seasonal offering or snag one of the fluffy, buttery dorayaki (a pancake sandwich filled with red bean paste) made especially for Turret. 

The perfect place for a coffee break in busy Shinjuku, 4/4 Seasons serves up a well-curated selection of single-origin beans roasted in house daily. Up at the front of the café you’ll be greeted by the roaster alongside tubs of beans – if you’re lucky enough, you can catch the staff in action, meticulously measuring and carefully roasting their beans all while keeping track of the process via computer.

The beans at 4/4 (pronounced ‘all’, it turns out) are sourced from seven countries, and the shop speciality is variations on light roasts matching the beans in question. 

Serving terrific coffee in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa since 2014 – long before the arrival of Blue Bottle made the neighbourhood one of Tokyo's third-wave hipster havens – New Zealanders Allpress also have outlets in cities like London, Sydney and Singapore. Housed in a former warehouse that's been beautifully renovated to match the brand's sleek but down-to-earth image, their Tokyo outpost is where to head for mild but refined brews.

And if you're feeling peckish, go straight for Allpress's sandwiches and baked goods which include cookies, banana cake and gluten-free dark chocolate brownies.

Imagine a stereotypical neighborhood Italian bar transposed to the suburbs of Tokyo, and you might get something like Lo Spazio. It's one of those rare places where you can prop up the counter while sipping your espresso after work (or grappa, if it's got to that point in the evening), and even the slightly shabby décor is of a piece with the kind of places you might expect to find in a small town in continental Europe. Owner Haruhiro Nozaki honed his technique in Italy, and runs a barista school and seminars, while the shop manager is a trained sommelier.

Lo Spazio ship their Alberto Verani beans direct from northern Italy, a point that's advertised on the menu and mugs, as well as with the prominently positioned fridge containing bags of the prized coffee. The espressos are hard to fault, and while we could've done without the cartoon puppy etched in chocolate powder on the foam of our cappuccino, the drink itself is spot-on, starting smooth but packing a nice, lingering bitterness. The food menu puts the emphasis on hearty, casual grub, including agreeably al dente pasta, risotto and Neapolitan pizza.