Specialty coffee in Tokyo
50 cafés, 21 roasters, 21 neighbourhoods
In 1888 Tokyo got a coffee house called Kahiichakan, and the kissaten, the classic Japanese coffee house, took shape between 1912 and 1926. This page has both sides: Trois Chambres, a kissaten since 1980, and Cafe de l'Ambre, roasting since 1948, next to roasters that opened in the 2010s. In Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, where Blue Bottle opened its first café in Japan, many cafés and roasters are close together.
The cafés, by neighbourhood
For 22 of the 50 cafés we know whose coffee they pour. The neighbourhood with the most cafés is Harajuku & Aoyama.
More about these labels
- In-house
- The coffee is the café’s own roast.
- Regular roaster
- The café pours this roaster’s coffee. Cupd researched this, mostly on the café’s or the roaster’s own website. Once a café has claimed its profile, it can confirm or remove the roaster.
- Roaster not listed yet
- Cupd does not know yet whose coffee the café pours. Cafés can add their roaster for free, and guests can report it in the app.
Harajuku & Aoyama
6 cafés
Chop Coffee
Chop Coffee has two shops: Omotesando, a roastery café in a quiet spot set back from the busy street, and Cat Street, a café in a traditional Japanese house renovated in a modern way.
Little Darling Coffee Roasters
Little Darling is a coffee roaster café in the middle of the city, with a green open space, an industrial interior and art. They select, roast and brew their own specialty coffee.
PHILOCOFFEA
Philocoffea was founded by Tetsu Kasuya, who came up with the 4:6 brewing method, and the name combines philosophy and coffee. Each coffee gets its own roast profile, and they roast every day.
Sarutahiko The Bridge
Sarutahiko's idea is to be a coffee shop where a single cup makes you happy. The Bridge is one floor up inside Harajuku Station.
Streamer Coffee Company Harajuku
Streamer opened its first shop in Shibuya in 2010. The Harajuku Barista Pro Shop followed in 2012: three 20-foot shipping containers stacked on top of each other.
The Roastery by Nozy Coffee
Nozy Coffee opened its first shop in Mishuku in 2010, built around single origins. The Roastery sells only single origin coffee and roasts beans bought around the world on the machine in the shop.
Ginza & Tsukiji
4 cafés
Bongen Coffee Nihonbashi
Bongen started in Ginza as a stand that was mostly takeaway. This Nihonbashi café followed in April 2025 with plenty of room to sit, and its interior draws on Noh theatre, with a counter clad in glossy black burnt cedar.
Cafe de l'Ambre
Cafe de l'Ambre has served nothing but coffee since 1948, roasted in-house and brewed through hand-sewn flannel filters. There are always a few aged beans too, and the choice changes daily.
Glitch Coffee Ginza
Glitch Coffee & Roasters opened in 2015 in Jimbocho, where Japan's kissaten culture lives on, as a single-origin specialist. They roast light and want each cup to show what makes its origin special.
Turret Coffee
Kiyoshi Kawasaki opened Turret Coffee in 2013. The name comes from the turret mini-trucks that used to zip around the nearby Tsukiji fish market.
Kuramae
4 cafés
Coffee Counter Nishiya
Before this, the owner ran Coffeehouse Nishiya in Shibuya, which had queues every day until he suddenly announced its closure in December 2021. He reopened here in February 2022, deliberately smaller and under a new name: no chairs, just a single-plank wooden counter where about 12 people stand.
Coffee Wrights Kuramae
Coffee Wrights roasts here every two to three days and keeps six single origins in rotation. One of the founders spent several years at Blue Bottle Japan before opening Coffee Wrights with a friend.
HATCOFFEE
At HATCOFFEE, Kohei Matsuno does the latte art. Show him a photo of your favourite character or animal and he recreates it on your drink, flat or in 3D.
Leaves Roastery Kuramae
Yasuo Ishii opened Leaves Coffee Apartment in 2016 and started roasting as Leaves Coffee Roasters in January 2019. Today they roast on a Probat UG15 and a Stronghold S7X, aiming for a clean cup with a pleasant balance of acidity and sweetness.
Meguro
4 cafés
Good People & Good Coffee
Barista Tomoshi Okamoto works here with his own blends. He makes coffee in almost any style, from pour-over to Seattle and Italian, and whatever catches his curiosity is what he makes. There is a vintage Pac-Man game in the corner.
Onibus Coffee Nakameguro
Atsushi Sakao set up Onibus in 2012. They visit producing countries, check quality before they buy. Onibus is now a certified B Corp.
Switch Coffee Tokyo
Switch does all its roasting here at its original Meguro shop. Their single-origin beans are meant for brewing at home: the owners believe that with the right beans, home-brewed coffee can be just as good.
Woodberry Coffee
Woodberry buys directly from the producers they visit, and since 2022 they have rented a plot on a farm in Guatemala to produce coffee with their own process. This shop opened in March 2022, mainly for beans, with brunch too.
Sangenjaya
4 cafés
Film Coffee & Things
Obscura Coffee Roasters
Obscura runs shops in Sangenjaya and Hiroshima and also sells its coffee wholesale. This is their Laboratory, where you can buy freshly roasted beans and take a coffee with you.
Sniite Coffee Roaster
Tokyo Coffee Lab
Shibuya & Ebisu
4 cafés
About Life Coffee Brewers
About Life is a tiny stand from Onibus Coffee that opened in Dōgenzaka in May 2014. When it opened, it poured Switch Coffee and Amameria Espresso next to Onibus, plus guest beans.
Cafe Accueil
Rec Coffee Shibuya
Rec comes from Hakata in Fukuoka and roasts its own specialty coffee. They see themselves as an easy-going neighbourhood coffee shop that has long been brewing specialty coffee.
Tinto Coffee
Ikebukuro
3 cafés
Coffee Valley Ikebukuro
Coffee Valley roasts its own beans, choosing higher-grade specialty coffees and roasting them to get the most out of each one. Taste is personal, they say, so instead of following trends they suggest a way of enjoying coffee that suits you.
Mermaid Coffee Roasters Ikebukuro
Mermaid's beans are roasted in small quantities. As you walk in, there is a table with all the current beans and a small decanter where you can taste each roast.
Reels Seiyo Tsuriki Coffee
Kiyosumi-Shirakawa
3 cafés
Arise Coffee Roasters
Taiju Hayashi opened Arise in 2013. When Sprudge visited in 2014, the roasting machine stood in the corner among sacks of green beans, and there were around nine coffees to choose from.
Blue Bottle Coffee Kiyosumi-Shirakawa
This was Blue Bottle's first café in Japan, and it also roasted the beans for their cafés across the country. When it reopened as a flagship café in October 2019, it got Blue Bottle's first training lab and their first full table service.
Koffee Mameya Kakeru
Kakeru is in a former book publishing warehouse, with counter seats facing the baristas. Coffee comes as tasting courses, and service ends with a pour-over in a specially designed tasting cup.
Shimokitazawa
3 cafés
Bear Pond Espresso
Bear Pond opened in 2009. When Sprudge visited in 2016, it served an espresso called Angel Stain, and Katsuyuki Tanaka was the only one who ever touched the espresso machine.
Ogawa Coffee Laboratory Shimokitazawa
Ogawa Coffee has been making coffee in Kyoto since 1952. Its Laboratory shops came to Tokyo in 2020 with Sakurashinmachi, and this one in Shimokitazawa followed in 2021.
Trois Chambres
Trois Chambres has been a kissaten since 1980. Antique cups line the shelves, and regulars strike up conversations across the counter.
Toranomon & Akasaka
3 cafés
% Arabica Azabudai Hills
In September 2014 the founder of % Arabica opened a roastery in Kyoto. Before that, he bought a coffee farm in Hawaii and started trading green beans from around the world.
Kuro Mame Tokyo
Kuro Mame was started by baristas Emi Fukahori and Mathieu Theis, who also run cafés in Switzerland, and Tokyo is their first location outside it. They roast their beans in-house, and the space works more like a tasting room than a café.
Yogen Cafe Akasaka
Yoyogi
2 cafés
Fuglen Sangubashi
Fuglen started in Oslo in 1963 and came to Tokyo in 2012. Sangubashi opened in January 2024 with a pared-back menu: coffee tasting courses and a special hand-brew, aimed at the essence of the beans.
Little Nap Coffee
Other neighbourhoods
10 cafés
Paddlers Coffee
Paddlers started in spring 2013 as a tiny coffee stand in a corner of a restaurant in Sangubashi. What they care about is creating spaces for people to gather and share.
Servo Coffee Ichigaya
Pharos Coffee
Pharos is the first Japanese outpost of a café from Taipei. The menu is short, around five coffees as hand-drip, cold brew or cold brew latte, and one side of the room is a gallery with rotating exhibitions.
Light Up Coffee
Light Up opened in Kichijoji in July 2014, and the team built almost everything themselves in a month, from the walls to the counter. They roast on a Probat UG22 in Mitaka and grow coffee together with local producers in Bali and Da Lat.
Rokumei Coffee Co.
Rokumei Coffee was founded in Nara in 1974. This shop inside Tokyo Station opened in July 2024 and was their first in Tokyo.
Raw Sugar Roast
Raw Sugar Roast started as a wholesaler of roasted beans and opened this café in 2022. It is run by Masashi Oda, who roasted in Australia, the UK and at Glitch Coffee & Roasters. Their motto: seed to cup.
Amameria Espresso
Toshiaki Ishii, a certified cupping judge, opened Amameria in the summer of 2010. They roast their own beans and sell them in the shop.
Cafe Bach
Single O Ryogoku Roastworks
Single O is a Sydney-based coffee group that has been in Tokyo since 2014. Ryogoku is their roastworks café, built to quadruple their roasting capacity for growing wholesale demand, with room for quality control and training.
Kayaba Coffee
Roasters poured in Tokyo
21 roasters across the cafés above, by how many of them pour each one.
Roasters from Tokyo
Onibus Coffee Nakameguro
Onibus has committed to more transparency and traceability in how specialty coffee is produced and traded.
Amameria Espresso
Arise Coffee Roasters
Cafe de l'Ambre
Cafe de l'Ambre aims for a clear cup without off-flavours, and they fire up the roaster as night falls.
Chop Coffee
Coffee Valley
Coffee Wrights Kuramae
Glitch
Glitch roasts light and focuses on single origins, to show what makes each origin special.
Koffee Mameya Kakeru
Leaves Coffee
Leaves roasts for sweetness and aroma, to bring out each origin's character.
Light Up Coffee
Light Up roasts for a clear cup in which each bean shows its differences and the sweetness lasts as it cools. The green coffee comes from various importers and sometimes from farms in Asia they help run.
Little Darling Coffee Roasters
Mermaid Coffee Roasters Ikebukuro
Raw Sugar Roast
Raw Sugar Roast sources its own beans and roasts them carefully to bring out their character.
Rec Coffee Shibuya
Single O Ryogoku Roastworks
Switch Coffee Tokyo
The Roastery by Nozy Coffee
From elsewhere
Questions
Which roasters can I find in Tokyo’s cafés?
This page lists 21 roasters, among them Onibus Coffee Nakameguro, Amameria Espresso, Arise Coffee Roasters, Cafe de l'Ambre and Chop Coffee. Next to each roaster it says whether the coffee is the café’s own roast and where Cupd got the information. The labels are explained above the list.
How up to date is this list?
It is a copy of the Cupd app as of November 11, 2026. Cafés and guests keep the app current, so open Tokyo in Cupd to see what has changed since.
A café is missing. How does it get on here?
In the app, search for it and tap “Missing a café? Tell us”. If it is your café, claim it for free on the page for cafés and enter your roaster. It shows up here with the next update.
Where the café texts come from, read on November 11, 2026
- % Arabica Azabudai Hills: arabica.com
- About Life Coffee Brewers: sprudge.com, onibuscoffee.com
- Amameria Espresso: timeout.com
- Arise Coffee Roasters: sprudge.com
- Bear Pond Espresso: sprudge.com
- Blue Bottle Coffee Kiyosumi-Shirakawa: ryutsuu.biz
- Bongen Coffee Nihonbashi: timeout.com
- Cafe de l'Ambre: cafedelambre.com
- Chop Coffee: chopcoffee.com
- Coffee Counter Nishiya: timeout.jp
- Coffee Valley Ikebukuro: coffeevalley.jp
- Coffee Wrights Kuramae: timeout.com, sprudge.com
- Fuglen Sangubashi: fuglen.no, fuglen.no
- Glitch Coffee Ginza: shop.glitchcoffee.com, shop.glitchcoffee.com
- Good People & Good Coffee: timeout.com
- HATCOFFEE: timeout.com
- Koffee Mameya Kakeru: timeout.com, sprudge.com
- Kuro Mame Tokyo: timeout.com
- Leaves Roastery Kuramae: sprudge.com, leavescoffee.jp
- Light Up Coffee: lightupcoffee.com
- Little Darling Coffee Roasters: littledarlingcoffeeroasters.com
- Mermaid Coffee Roasters Ikebukuro: timeout.com
- Obscura Coffee Roasters: obscura-coffee.com, obscura-coffee.com
- Ogawa Coffee Laboratory Shimokitazawa: oc-ogawa.co.jp, oc-ogawa.co.jp
- Onibus Coffee Nakameguro: onibuscoffee.com, sprudge.com, sprudge.com, onibuscoffee.com, onibuscoffee.com
- Paddlers Coffee: paddlerscoffee.com
- Pharos Coffee: timeout.com
- PHILOCOFFEA: en.philocoffea.com, philocoffea.com
- Raw Sugar Roast: timeout.com
- Rec Coffee Shibuya: rec-coffee.com, rec-coffee.com
- Rokumei Coffee Co.: news.mynavi.jp
- Sarutahiko The Bridge: brand.sarutahiko.jp, brand.sarutahiko.jp
- Single O Ryogoku Roastworks: worldcoffeeportal.com, singleo.com.au
- Streamer Coffee Company Harajuku: streamer.coffee, streamer.coffee
- Switch Coffee Tokyo: timeout.com
- The Roastery by Nozy Coffee: tysons.jp, tysons.jp
- Trois Chambres: timeout.com
- Turret Coffee: timeout.com
- Woodberry Coffee: woodberrycoffee.com, woodberrycoffee.com
- Glitch: shop.glitchcoffee.com
- Leaves Coffee: sprudge.com, leavescoffee.jp, leavescoffee.jp
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