After scoring 111 coffee places in Tokyo, the best cup in the city is at a counter you have to stand at
I've been drinking through Tokyo's specialty coffee properly for a while now. 111 coffee-focused places so far, all visited and paid for myself, each scored on five separate things instead of one number: drink, atmosphere, how it treats you alone, value, and how long you can sit before you feel it.
Splitting those apart produced an argument I'll happily defend.
The best coffee in this city is not at the best cafes.
Highest coffee score I've given anywhere in Tokyo is 9.8, at KURO MAME in Toranomon. Emi Fukahori, 2018 World Brewers Cup champion, no menu, four seats. Its overall score is 8.4 and it isn't in my top tier, because it's expensive, cramped, and not somewhere you stay.
Koffee Mameya is the same story from a different angle: 9.6 on the coffee, 7.4 on atmosphere, because there is nowhere to sit. You stand at a counter and someone hands you something extraordinary.
If you want one number to rank cafes by, you want the wrong number.
The thing nobody tells you: Wednesday is a bad day for coffee here
Of the 29 places that scored 9.0+, five are closed on Wednesdays — iki Roastery, SCHOOL BUS, AOYAMA COFFEE ROASTER, Walnuts, and Iron Coffee. Single O Ryogoku is closed Monday and Tuesday. Tasse closes Tuesdays. Belleville closes the irst Tuesday of the month.
The 29 that scored 9.0+ on coffee alone
Worth planning a trip around
┌─────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │ │
├─────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 9.8 │ KURO MAME, Toranomon — counter seats need a Tabelog reservation │
├─────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 9.7 │ Vannelli Coffee, Kita-Aoyama — irregular holidays, check first │
├─────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 9.6 │ Koffee Mameya, Jingumae — standing only │
├─────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 9.6 │ OGAWA COFFEE LABORATORY, Shimokitazawa │
├─────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 9.5 │ KOFFEE MAMEYA Kakeru, Hirano — reservation required │
├─────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 9.5 │ Nadoya no Katte, Nishihara — Friday to Sunday only │
└─────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Nadoya being Fri–Sun catches people out constantly. It's also, on my scoring, the best cafe in Tokyo overall at 8.8. Plan around it.
The rest, by where you'd actually be
West Shibuya — VERVE Yoyogi Park (9.2), CAFE ROSTRO (9.0), YUSUAL (9.0), Fuglen (9.0). Rostro, YUSUAL and Fuglen sit
within about 100m of each other. Fuglen turns into a cocktail bar after 18:00.
Aoyama / Jingumae — PHILOCOFFEA (9.2), Little Darling (9.2), LATTE ART MANIA (9.1), THE ROASTERY by NOZY (9.0), KOPI
KALYAN (9.0), %ARABICA Azabudai (9.0), Streamer Azabujuban (9.0).
East — iki Kiyosumi-Shirakawa (9.3), SELECTION Nihonbashi (9.2, six seats), Single O Ryogoku (9.0), GLITCH Jinbocho (9.0).
Meguro — SCHOOL BUS Aobadai (9.2), %ARABICA Nakameguro (9.0, takeout only).
Further out — One by One Ebisu (9.3, five seats, Geisha-focused), AOYAMA COFFEE ROASTER Yanaka (9.2), VERVE NEWoMan (9.2), Walnuts Koenji (9.0), Tasse Takadanobaba (9.0), Iron Coffee Gotokuji (9.0), Belleville Shimokitazawa (9.0).
Practical things worth knowing
- AOYAMA COFFEE ROASTER in Yanaka is the value pick of the entire list. 9.2 on coffee at ¥ prices, run single-handed. Cash and QR only, no cards.
- Walnuts in Koenji is open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Almost nothing else at this level is.
- SELECTION has six seats. One by One has five. Go alone or go early.
- %ARABICA Nakameguro is takeout only. No seating at all, despite the river location suggesting otherwise.
- KURO MAME and Vannelli are ¥¥¥ and worth it once. Vannelli's Geisha was ¥5,000. I'd do it again; I wouldn't do it monthly.
What am I missing
Genuinely asking. 111 is a lot but this city is bottomless, and I know my coverage is thin north and east of the centre.
If there's somewhere you'd put above any of these I'd rather hear it than keep being wrong about it.