The 5 Best Matcha Cafés in Kyoto (2026)

The single most historically significant matcha destination in Japan — and arguably the world. Established in 1854 and now in its seventh generation, Nakamura Tokichi operates its main store in Uji, twenty minutes from Kyoto Station, in a beautifully preserved and renovated old tea factory. The café is surrounded by a traditional Japanese garden, and matcha is served in the usucha style alongside the house signature Matcha Maruto Parfait. No reservations are accepted: visitors must collect a numbered ticket in person on the day. The queue regularly stretches past an hour, and it is entirely worth it. This is matcha at the source — in the fields that grow it, in a building that processed it for over a century.

Founded in 1717 — making it one of the oldest tea merchants in Japan — Ippodo has supplied imperial households, temples, and tea ceremony schools with Uji matcha for over three centuries. The main Kyoto store on historic Teramachi Street attaches the Kaboku Tearoom, where guests can order any matcha from the shop's catalogue, prepared and served in a bowl with a seasonal wagashi sweet sourced from respected local confectioners. This is the definitive place to taste the difference between ceremonial grades side by side: the staff are knowledgeable, the tearoom is calm and beautiful, and the matcha arrives whisked to the precise froth of a skilled preparation. Kaboku Tearoom is arguably the finest institutional matcha experience available in Kyoto city itself.

Established in 1860 in Uji and now headquartered in the heart of Kyoto's most famous geisha district, Gion Tsujiri is one of the most recognisable names in Japanese tea. The Gion Honten (main store) sits three minutes from Keihan Gion-Shijo Station, surrounded by the preserved machiya townhouses and stone-paved lanes of Gionmachi. The speciality is Uji-sourced matcha in both its traditional form — as a bowl of whisked usucha — and as the creative dessert format the café helped popularise: the Tokusen Tsujiri Parfait, a layered construction of ceremonial matcha ice cream, shiratama mochi, azuki red beans, and warabimochi, served in the long evening hours when most of Kyoto's other matcha cafés are already closed. One of very few high-quality matcha destinations open until 8:00 PM.

A modern Kyoto brand that has earned serious respect for its commitment to Uji matcha quality in an elegant, contemporary setting. The Takatsuji flagship — the original and most atmospheric of the six Saryo Suisen locations — occupies a beautifully designed space in Shimogyo Ward, serving matcha parfaits, layered cakes, and whisked ceremonial bowls to a devoted local following. The house philosophy is that Uji matcha deserves the same careful presentation as Kyoto kaiseki: the ingredients are exceptional, the plating is considered, and nothing is rushed. The matcha parfait here is one of the finest in the city — deep, bitter-sweet, and assembled with clear intention. A calmer alternative to the tourist-facing queues at Gion or Uji.

Kyoto's oldest surviving confectionery shop, established in 1716 — predating even Ippodo — and still operating from its original location on the north side of Gionmachi. Kagizen is primarily a wagashi (Japanese confection) maker of extraordinary repute, but the attached tea room is one of the most genuinely traditional matcha experiences available to the public in Kyoto. Guests sit on tatami, receive matcha whisked by staff trained in the tea ceremony, and are served Kagizen's own seasonal wagashi — confections that have been made to the same historical recipes for three centuries. There are no queues, no Instagram backdrops, and no parfaits. This is the Kyoto matcha experience as it existed before tourism: quiet, intentional, and irreplaceable.