40 things to do in Shimokitazawa: restaurants, cafés, coffee, shops and more

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.

Hashiri is a Tokyo offshoot of a San Francisco institution, which earned a Michelin star for three consecutive years between 2017 and 2019.

Hashiri serves up omakase courses consisting of exquisite sushi and kaiseki-style dishes paired with wine chosen by the inhouse sommelier. The fish at Hashiri are sourced from Toyosu market while the sushi is crafted by chef Tokunori Mekaru who trained at Hashiri San Francisco. The menu here changes every season to highlight the ingredients and produce at their prime.

There are roughly 120 labels of wine on offer, and they are all displayed on the restaurant walls. You can purchase bottles to take home, too, as the restaurant has an instore wine cellar and bottle shop.

Entering this café hidden in residential Shimokitazawa feels like opening a secret door into the owner’s imagination. A good 15-minute walk from Shimokitazawa Station, Hi Monsieur is decorated with quirky knick knacks that seem random except for a vague association with Europe and America. 

Many of the cups, plates, clothes and books on display are also for sale, or you could just admire them while you savour a cup of coffee from Yokohama’s Tera Coffee. Light snacks on offer include a selection of baked goods from Higuchi Noriko and cinnamon sugar doughnuts from My Picnic.

This popular New York vegan burger joint has made its way to Tokyo and boy, does Superiority Burger live up to its name. The meat-free menu offers the store’s two signature burgers: the classic Superiority Burger with lettuce, tomato, mock cheese sauce and pickles, and the Sloppy Hide, a vegan take on a sloppy joe. There are Japan-exclusives, too, like the New Japan Creation burger, which features yuba (tofu skin), herbs, onions, pickles and mushroom mayo. Don’t miss the housemade gelato, where you get to pick from three seasonal flavours.

You’ll be hard pressed to find a more spacious café in Shimokitazawa, especially one with free wifi. This Brooklyn import is located at the end of the Mikan Shimokita complex and it occupies a sprawling, lofty space.

The menu offers all the usual café drinks (which can also be made for takeaway) along with an extensive food menu. You can eat out all day at Brooklyn Roasting Company, with breakfast starting at 8am through to dinner last orders at 9pm. The food here is reminiscent of American diner staples – think breakfast plates, pastas, pizzas and steak. There’s freshly baked pastries, too, at the coffee counter if you just want a nibble.

Following a successful pop-up stint last year, Sarutahiko Coffee in Shimokitazawa is officially transforming into a cocktail bar during the evenings after regular café hours. The bar starts its service from 7pm and you can order coffee cocktails made with premium coffee beans, plus mocktails and light bites.

For starters, try the coffee margarita made with an original coffee blend, tequila and lime. The matcha martini is also a lovely choice as it combines vodka, lychee puree and matcha for a bright and refreshing flavour. The coffee brocca is another standout, made with Setouchi lemon, tonic water and Sarutahiko's coffee brocca – a spirit created by soaking coffee beans in vodka. For something on the sweeter side, opt for the cocktail coffee float with whiskey, cold-brew coffee and wasanbon (fine-grained Japanese sugar) milk ice cream.

Kitade Tacos is one of the restaurants and bars at Shimokitazawa’s Nansei Plus area, which is also home to Tefu Lounge. The lively eatery features plenty of indoor seating as well as a small outdoor terrace. 

While Kitade Tacos prides itself on using local, Japanese ingredients, the flavours are unmistakably Mexican. The authentic corn tortillas are made from 100 percent Hokkaido corn and you can choose from a variety of fillings including pork carnitas, beef suadero and chicken tinga. For non-meat eaters, there’s a vegan option: tortillas topped with soybean tempeh, guacamole and avocado salsa.

While there are a plethora of curry restaurants in Shimokitazawa, there’s only one offering a quirky combo of curry and gelato. Ordering here is similar to a ramen shop, where you purchase a food ticket via a vending machine. You can pick either two or three daily curries served with jasmine rice, along with condiments like pickled red onions and coconut sambol.

Always order your curry set with a cup of gelato for dessert. You can pick two flavours, and since this is a curry restaurant, you can expect Kalpasi to infuse its ice creams with spices. 

Cheerful owner Takeda Masada brings the rice and sake of his home prefecture, Akita, to Tokyo at this casual food and drink spot. Masada comes from a family of rice farmers, and is passionate about the grain and all it produces. Bonus Track is the second Andon location, complementing the first shop in up-and-coming Nihonbashi. Inside the pint-sized Shimokitazawa store, you order at the counter, then take a seat around the courtyard to enjoy your Akita sake or beer and bites.

Hakko means ‘ferment’ in Japanese, and fermented food and drink is the speciality of this grocery store and café – the cute logo is a creative version of the two kanji symbols for hakko. Opened by fermentation specialist Hiraku Ogura, the grocery and liquor section here has just about every fermented Japanese product you can think of – and many you didn't even know existed.

A shop with a name like ‘noodles of the future’ has to be doing something different, and the noodles here are like an udon-ramen hybrid. Handmade fresh every morning from mochi-hime wheat sourced from Mie prefecture, the noodles have a wonderfully chewy, or mochi mochi, texture that keeps ramen fans coming back for more. The speciality is the shio (salt) ramen, which costs ¥850 and comes with a hearty helping of the shop’s signature hand-cut noodles and a broth that isn’t too salty, so you can slurp up every last drop.

To get here, wind your way through the backstreets south of Shimokitazawa Station for about 10 minutes – you’ll know you’ve reached Dashinsoan when you spot a traditional wooden gate fitted with noren curtains, and behind it a remarkably lush garden. Inside the soba specialty restaurant, the dining room is bright, spacious and serene, with large glass walls overlooking gardens and a leafy courtyard. In one corner of the light-filled open dining area, you’ll find the room where soba noodles are made fresh each morning, and the large granite grinder for making fresh buckwheat flour.

Located in the jumble of Shimokitazawa’s backstreets, this izakaya looks as traditional as they come, but serves up classics with a twist – think wholesome nikujaga (beef and potato stew) served with garlic bread, and a glorious ‘tofu cheese’ with honey. If there’s space and you’re not with a large group, try to nab one of the counter seats for a prime view of the chefs in action, plus a whiff of the fragrant pot of oden bubbling away.

Ten To Sen has the most visually appealing spicy ramen around, prepared with an abundance of colourful toppings: wood-ear mushroom, cashew nuts, pepper, chives, coriander, burdock, red onion and pork slices. It may be pretty but it still packs a punch. This curry ramen is based on the Japanese-style soup curry originating from Sapporo. The spectacularly good curry is made with pork bones, chicken, seafood, vegetables and a handful of spices while a hint of sweetness works beautifully to counter the heat. Don’t worry if you’re not a spice fiend: you can choose from six levels of heat and order the rich lassi to cool your tongue.

Okonomiyaki joints are dime a dozen in Shimokitazawa, but none of the others get quite as busy as Hiroki. Unlike Osaka-style okonomiyaki, in which the batter and fillings are mixed together before cooking, Hiroki makes them Hiroshima-style by spreading out the batter on a hotplate, and then topping it with cabbage, pork, noodles, egg and other ingredients.

Hiroki also offers noodle-free versions; however, first-timers in particular will want to go the whole hog, which is expertly prepared right in front of your eyes if you’re lucky enough to grab a counter seat. Seafood options are available for those averse to meat.

This kotatsu café, Stay Happy in Shimokitazawa is run by a cosmopolitan, English-speaking Japanese couple who travelled the world before opening their comfy base. A kotatsu is a low table with a small heater underneath and a blanket draped over it, making Stay Happy a perfect winter hangout. Besides the half-dozen kotatsu, you'll find communal tables and even some hammocks.

Owned by musician Keiichi Sokabe, this Shimokita joint combines the functions of a café and a record store. Tucked away on the fourth floor of an office building that's seen better days, City Country City stocks more records than the space can handle – as evidenced by the piles of vinyl stacked against the walls.

Genres range from acid folk to house and ambient, and you can listen to any disc of your choice on the in-store players. Look out for the monthly lounge parties, and remember to order a serving of the shop's much-vaunted pasta.

Shimokitazawa is Tokyo’s soup curry hot spot, and with its relaxed vibe and eclectic interior Ponipirica is particularly popular. Hailing from Hokkaido, soup curry is characterised by a flavourful broth infused with a bounty of spices, tender chicken cooked on the bone, and laden with a rainbow assortment of fresh vegetables like baby corn, lotus root, pumpkin, turnip, sweet potato and aubergine.

Ballon D’essai’s café latte is difficult to drink, but this has nothing to do with the taste. In fact, according to Susumu the barista, the latte is made from secret blend of five beans, and it’s as mellow as the jazz wafting out of the speakers. The flavour is smooth with just a hint of bitterness; the balance between milk and coffee is just right.

What stops you from sipping your cuppa straightaway is the cute latte art adorning your drink. Whether it's a coffee or matcha latte, you can request designs for an extra charge – but we recommend that you leave it to the barista for a surprise.

From baguettes and croissants to melonpan and aromatic herb focaccia, all the goodies at this vegan bakery are free from eggs, milk, butter and honey. We recommend the amazake roll, which has a naturally sweetened white bean paste mixed with amazake (a sweet fermented rice drink) in the centre of a satisfyingly chewy bread roll.

Designed to look like Totoro – the beloved character from the Studio Ghibli movie ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ – these charming choux cream pastries are come in seasonal flavours, which range from strawberry to peach and chocolate. It’s almost painful cutting into these cuties as they really do look too good to eat.

Opened in 1980, Trois Chambres feels a world away from the busy streets of Shimokitazawa. Antique cups line the shelves, regulars strike up conversation over the counter and the corner tables are practically always occupied by someone reading a book – time truly appears to stand still at this kissaten, which might even feel a little intimidating for first-timers. But fear not: the cheesecakes here are heavenly and the coffee comes with a free refill.

If you're on the hunt for a reasonably-priced wine bar, head straight to Hagare. It's run by the popular imported goods store Kaldi, where Tokyoites go to get their hands on  international wine, cheese and other foreign goods.

Hagare comes from the Japanese word for 'peeling', and it refers to the condition of the wine bottles here, many of which have labels with minor imperfections. However, this doesn't affect the contents of the bottles, which is just as good to drink.

Try craft beer from around the world at Shimokitazawa’s Coaster Craft Beer and Kitchen. Boasting 15 taps in total – five from Europe, five from North America and five from Japan and Asia – there’s no shortage of unique brews to try. Pair your beer with either lunch or dinner; the open kitchen serves up classic hamburgers and sandwiches as well as buttermilk fried chicken and barbecue pulled pork.