Kōrakuen & Akihabara
With hammock-style chairs, free wi-fi and plugs for computers and smartphones, this is a popular cafe with the digital generation. Manga and anime are a…
Must-see nightlife in Tokyo
Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
Several storeys under a parking garage, Contact is as much a place to see and be seen as it is to dance. Come after 1am on a Friday or Saturday night to…
Kōrakuen & Akihabara
A visit to Akiba isn't complete until you've sipped a cappuccino topped with a frothy bear design in a maid cafe where the waitress is dressed in a French…
Roppongi, Akasaka & Around
A feel-good alternative to Roppongi's bars, Ōizumi Kōjō specialises in kombucha, a fermented type of organic tea that has a natural fizz and many health…
Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
This is Shibuya's most popular karaoke spot for two reasons: it doesn't have the same dated look as the generic chains and you get the first hour free …
Harajuku & Aoyama
Secreted in the back of a flower shop is this fairy-tale teahouse with flower beds running under the glass-top tables and more overhead, plus cut blooms…
Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
Winning the award for most literal name, Shimo-Kitazawa Cage is a fenced-off cube under the Keiō Inokashira Line tracks. Get beers and snacks (from ¥400)…
Asakusa & Sumida River
Dandelion makes it's own single-origin bean-to-bar small-batch chocolate right here in Kuramae, a neighbourhood long known for light manufacturing (and…
Roppongi, Akasaka & Around
This Scottish craft brewery's Tokyo outpost is nestled off the main drag. Apart from its own brews, there's a great selection of other beers, including…
Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
Ghetto – the name comes from the characters for 'moon' (ge) and 'light' (to) – is one of the small bars inside Shimo-Kitazawa's iconic (and rickety)…
Asakusa & Sumida River
In the former Yanagibashi entertainment district, this cafe, bar and gallery was once the home of geisha and popular singer Ichimaru. Rotating exhibits by…
Harajuku & Aoyama
Baird’s Brewery is one of Japan’s most successful and consistently good craft breweries. This is one of three Tokyo outposts, and you can sample more than…
Kōrakuen & Akihabara
Sake brewery Kiuchi has been brewing its excellent range of Hitachino Nest craft beers since 1996. At this dedicated outlet you can have a very merry time…
Harajuku & Aoyama
Following a long-standing Tokyo summer tradition, this corner of Meiji-jingū Gaien becomes a loud and lively beer garden with seating for 1000 around a…
Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
Rhythm Cafe is a fun little DJ bar secreted among the windy streets of Shibuya sub-district Udagawa-chō (known for its record shops). It's run by a record…
Ginza & Tsukiji
Cafe Paulista is Tokyo's longest running cafe, in business since 1911 (though the building has been redone), and has seen decades' worth of celebrity…
Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
Your Shibuya pit stop for green-tea lattes, fresh-brewed ice teas, earthy hōjicha (roasted green tea) and more, all made from organic leaves harvested in…
Ueno & Yanesen
Exploring Yanesen can be thirsty work so thank heavens for this craft-beer bar, a cosy place with some outdoor seating. It's part of a charming complex of…
Roppongi, Akasaka & Around
As well as serving coffee from local third-wave roasters Little Nap, this super-stylish cafe casts a beguiling spell with its creative range of doughnuts…
Asakusa & Sumida River
This stylish coffee shop has an interior that mixes traditional Japanese dark wood with more modern features. In addition to hand-drip coffee, light meals…
Kōrakuen & Akihabara
This charming cafe, which also sells alcohol, is stacked with antique goodies, including rocking horses, clocks, puppets, old photos and beautifully…
Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
Teeny-tiny Tight is always a good bet in Nonbei-yokochō, the narrow nightlife strip along the elevated JR tracks. Like the name suggests, it's a tight fit…
Tokyo
This coffee counter looks like it could be the work of Studio Ghibli: a wooden cottage secreted in the woodsy fringes of Inokashira-kōen concealing a…
Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
Lively, loud and filled with bohemian characters, Never Never Land is a long-running fixture on Shimokita's bar circuit. It's a good place to wind up when…
Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
Pretty much everything here is chipped, frayed or torn – and none of it is artifice. This well-worn and well-loved bar, open for some 40-odd years, is…
Ebisu, Meguro & Around
Another 8 is part of a wave of cool new bars turning an eye not just to craft beer but to small batch sake as well, with a changing line-up of eight of…
Tokyo
Sub Store is many things: used-vinyl store, sometime art gallery, Indonesian restaurant (the original Sub Store is in Jakarta) and always a great place to…
Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
Beat is a dive in the best sense of the word, comfortably shabby with cheap drinks (from ¥600), no cover, late hours, lipstick (blood?) red walls, random…
Roppongi, Akasaka & Around
Stare out from this serene tea lounge across the beautiful late-16th-century garden, hidden behind International House of Japan. There are plenty of…
Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
Oath is a tiny space covered in gilt and mirrors, dripping with chandeliers and absolutely not taking itself seriously. It's a very popular spot for pre…
Roppongi, Akasaka & Around
Coffee making is treated as an exact science at this sleek stand in Toranomon Hills. Here you'll find gleaming espresso machines, test tubes of coffee…
Ueno & Yanesen
In business for over two decades, this authentic pub is the rare expat hang-out on the east side of town. There's live music most weekends and on some…
Kōrakuen & Akihabara
Tokyo's third-wave coffee scene is seeping into the old student haunt of Jimbōchō. The speciality here is single-origin beans, roasted very lightly in…
Tokyo
Cocktail Shobō is part used-book store, part cocktail bar, and 100% a labour of love, in a vintage wooden house where the bar counter doubles as a…
Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
On some weekend nights, indie livehouse WWW goes into club mode, hosting appropriately indie DJs who play to the kind of fashionable Shibuya crowd that…
Ueno & Yanesen
This vintage 1930s coffee shop (the building is actually from the ’20s) in Yanaka is a hang-out for local students and artists. Come early before 11am to…
Asakusa & Sumida River
Hailing originally from Oakland, California, this third-wave coffee outfit has set up its main Tokyo roastery in the Kiyosumi area. Fuel up on an…
Asakusa & Sumida River
Set in a 19th-century wooden warehouse that beat the 1923 earthquake and WWII, this wonderfully cosy space serves coffee, tea and, after 6pm, cocktails…
Shibuya & Shimo-Kitazawa
Mother is a classic Shimo-Kitazawa bar with a soundtrack from the ’60s and ’70s and an undulating, womb-like interior covered in mosaic tile. It does…
Asakusa & Sumida River
This delightful cafe is combined with a boutique selling the quality leathergoods of Tamura Kosuke. There's good coffee and smoothies to go with some…
