10 Reasons why I love Komeda Coffee in Japan

It took me four visits to Japan and a visit from my darling husband to discover Komeda’s Coffee. When I studied in Nagasaki, there was a Komeda’s Coffee right under my nose at my tram stop, and yet… I wasn’t convinced until my husband spent an hour or so there when he picked me up from lectures.

Some night, returning from a day trip, we were both tired and wanted some quick inexpensive meal, not a full sit-down dinner, so my husband repeatedly suggested Komeda’s Coffee. I ate an egg salad sandwich and matcha kakigori, and am hooked on them since. No place, whether the famed konbini nor a fancy cafe, does an egg sandwich as good as Komeda’s. I rarely eat eggs now, but there is no Japan trip without at least one trip tp Komeda’s. So, don’t feel like they only serve coffee and sandwiches there, even though my photos are pretty much biased towards egg sandwiches, coffee and kakigori!

1. They’re established and got the track record

Komeda’s Coffee has been in existence in Japan since the 1960’s when they started out as a single coffee shop in Nagoya. According to their website, they have always had “relaxation” on the agenda, and relaxation features a lot on their agenda. Cue spacious booths in quiet wood-clad dining rooms, comfy banquettes, light and space. Since then, they have expanded and mostly kept a stable number of shops on all four main islands of Japan.

The most northerly coffee shop is in Asahikawa on Hokkaido, and the most southerly is in Okinawa. While I can probably claim to have been to the most westerly one, at Plat Mall in Nagasaki. You can also find them in Taiwan, but no other country outside Japan to my knowledge.

2. Convenient locations

Starting with Nagoya, there is a Komeda’s Coffee at literally every corner. Sadly, the first ever Komeda’s Coffee location has closed, but you can visit the second-oldest one, and thankfully, it still has plenty of trendy Showa Retro atmosphere.

In fact, you will never be far from a Komeda’s Coffee in Nagoya, as there about 20 cafes in Greater Nagoya alone. Kyoto and Osaka have at least ten each, including some city centre locations.

3. Komeda’s Coffee actually has good Coffee

The house blend is a really nice coffee, a low-acidity, relatively strong black coffee. I prefer it to 90% of German coffee shop coffee. From what I read, most of their coffee is grown in Brazil and bought from long-term partners, while supporting sustainable growing methods and careers especially for women in coffee in Brazil.

So while I don’t know where many of the other coffee shop chains get their beans from, this appears to a certain extent a fair practice, resulting in really consistent product. You can choose between the Komeda’s blend and one or two premium blends like Sophia and then some standard Western style drinks like Cappuccino, Cafe Latte and a variety of dessert-like sweet coffee drinks with jelly and cream. For me, the standard blend is my to-go, in the 1.5x portion size, either hot or iced depending on weather.

Also, they reuse nearly all their coffee grounds, usually as compost.

 3. Komeda’s Coffee opens early and closes late

Maybe you know the problem if you’re travelling from the West: You are up at 4am due to jet lag – and even though you are in a big city, nothing opens before 10am for breakfast. Well. You can either go to the convenience store and the coffee there is not bad) or you look up your nearest Komeda’s Coffee. They are usually open every day, all day, opening at 7am and closing between 21.00 and 24.00.

So many times, when I could not sleep due to jetlag, have I been up early, walked or cycled around a bit then headed to a Komeda’s Coffee for breakfast when they opened. Days in Japan tend to start much later than here in Germany, so 7am is when the cafe is usually quite empty, and very quiet.

They do fill up at lunch, so be prepared to wait. Evenings can be busy, depending on location, but they are quiet for a break any time of the day or a late snack or dessert.

4. Komeda’s Coffee shops are welcoming and have great service

The company puts customers “relaxation” as a high priority, and I think in Japan, drinking coffee is often associated with relaxation. So, at Komeda’s Coffee, you get a warm and somewhat bland interior with plushy semi-private banquettes, niec lighting, relaxing music, and power outlets at every seat and free and decent WiFi.

It makes such a huge difference, especially when you come in after a morning of sightseeing and walking to be able to put your bag somewhere, recharge your phone or camera, and have some comfort food that arrives quickly.

Don’t expect English to be spoken. But usually, especially if you are in a place with many tourists like central Kyoto or Tokyo, they will send the person that speaks English to your table, and they really make an effort to communicate. In those touristy places, they will bring an English menu without prompting. And if they don’t have one, just log into the free WiFi, and their menu comes up, with several language options.

5. There are some Vegetarian Options – and loads of dessert

Since I don’t eat meat and my day-to day diet is plant based, I sometimes struggle to find vegetarian restaurants in Japan and I tend to visit a lot of dessert restaurants for that reason. While I am not claiming Komeda’s Coffee to have gourmet offerings, they serve some very solid Western-Japanese comfort food along with some nice desserts. Something for everyone!

Their morning sets are straight and small and usually consist of toast, a spread, salad and yoghurt, but of course, you can have the full menu even in the mornings! So, if you want Spaghetti, curry or gratin for breakfast, you can have it. For vegetarians, there are chips, cheese toasts and sandwiches. Or go straight for the sweets with the “Shiro Noir” which is a giant cronut with soft serve on top.

6. Cool air and the cheapest and largest kakigori in summer

I learned to love Komeda’s Coffee through their kakigori. Looking for something sweet after dinner, my husband dragged me to a shop in the retro Hanamachi Shopping Arcade in Nagasaki one night, and I had an Uji matcha kakigori with red bean paste and ice cream for about 1000JPY. It was so huge, a meal in itself, I was barely able to finish it.

It was good – and, the Hawaiian and Southeast Asian versions of shaved ice aside, my first introduction to kakigori. Until I sought out specialty kakigori cafes where a portion would easily cost double, Komeda’s kakigori was my favourite default kakigori. Note that they only serve it seasonally, unlike kakigori specialty restaurants, where you can get the icy delicacy all year round.

I would not say it’s the best kakigori around, but it is relatively middling. No match on specialist dessert or kakigori places I tried for my Kyoto Dessert tour, but definitely decent and in very large portions. You can customize it with sweet beans, ice cream and the like, and I would say the half size is plenty for one person.

7. Could they possibly have the best egg sandwich?

And since sometimes you cannot live on kakigori alone, I tried other dishes, too. Well. A few. Having eaten the occasional convenience store sandwich, I thought I try the egg salad sandwich at Komeda’s Coffee. Now I rarely eat eggs, preferring to know the hens that laid my eggs, but this was a great sandwich.

So, I have them, when I visit Japan, as a special treat. The sandwiches are made from thick fluffy bread baked in house, with a very generous filling of egg mayonnaise salad, then cut into little strips that are still too thick to eat comfortably – the filling is so thick, I normally need a knife and fork.

I also took a bite from my husbands fish burger, which was tasty and which I would consider eating should I ever get sick of the egg sandwich. If you eat meat, your choice will be much bigger, from all sorts of sandwiches to curry and pasta and burgers.

 8. Even my mother loves them

Ans that says a lot. My mother is picky, and more often than not, we have totally different tastes when it comes to pretty much everything. When we went to Kyoto this year on our cherry blossom viewing trip, the bus happened to drop us at a Komeda’s Coffee, and it was lunch time…

So we took lunch at Komeda’s at Nijo Station, which is probably my least favourite Komeda’s branch, because it’s small, often crowded, and there was no WiFi and it looked a little less neat than the other branches, but it was still good. You know how critical parents can be sometime. But even my mother enjoyed her introduction into the Japanese coffee shop with just enough Japanese flavour on her second day in Japan, and we did return to a Komeda’s Coffee for breakfast a few times.

 9. Welcoming but not hyped and still under the radar

What surprises me is that it still isn’t that well known among visitors to Japan. Even in big touristy cities, I rarely see any foreigners in there. Well, it’s fine by me. I prefer the soft tinkling music and quiet hushed conversations, and I know the menu well enough to just order my favourites, and I know enough Japanese now to get by in a restaurant.

It’s not that they are not busy – my friend said during the working day you definitely get queues and waiting lists in Tokyo locations. I never had to wait even a minute in Tokyo, Kyoto or Nagasaki for a table, even in places like Nishiki Market. City Centre locations are often a little hidden on first or second floors of buildings or in malls, so if you are unfamiliar with the orange and blue logo, they’re easily overlooked.

I also never have seen anything go “viral” over Komeda’s Coffee, and I hope it stays that way because I don’t need hordes of influencers rushing there and noisily filming themselves. 

 10. The superb value “Nagoya Breakfast”

When you order a cup of coffee before 11am, you get a mini breakfast thrown in, totally free! And being the early riser and wannabe crowd-free sightseer cycling the empty streets of Kyoto at dawn, I usually turn up for breakfast quite early. Like, 7.30 am, after a coffee in the comfort of my room or the convenience store, I am ready for something substantial after the first few kilometres.

So, coffee and a fairly substantial bite to eat will cost you around 600-700JPY (about 3.50 Euro). You will be lucky to get a single coffee in a cafe for that in Germany. I usually choose the ogura toast, but you can also get a boiled egg, egg salad, jam. If you feel abit hungrier, add-ons cost as little as 250 JPY, just over one Euro.

Staying near a Komeda’s Coffee 🙂

Friends, I admit it, I have recently started to take monetisation a little more serious so that this blog can fund itself. I don’t run ads in this blog, I don’t have a coffee pot donation thingy, I don’t do Patreon or paid collaborations, and it is still my hobby. But, to pay for the running of this blog, let me insert the odd Booking.com affiliate link for places I actually stayed at and that I love.

As hotel breakfasts in Japan can sometime be a bit of a hit-and-miss and for me, often more of a miss, (looking at you, Toyoko Inn), staying near a Komeda’s Coffee that opens early and offers some great breakfast options is a total winner if you are into early sightseeing.

So, a couple options here near some very good and very convenient Komeda’s Coffee shops. 

Tokyo

First up, Tokyo Ueno. My Japanese teacher told us that Ueno Station used to be the main terminus for intercity trains to Tokyo (pre Shinkansen, so a long time ago) and the area used to be totally full of very cheap hotels for departing and arriving travellers.

Well, that has changed a bit, but Ueno is still a great place to stay for early departures and late arrivals, especially when flying out of Narita, for the humongous Uniqlo in Okachimachi and the nice geen Ueno Park with its museums and the pleasant districts of Asakusa, Nezu and Yanaka and, let’s not forget, Nippori Fabric Town.

The camera shops of Akihabara are not far, either, so for me, travelling on a Hokuriku Arch Pass on a detour to Kyoto, Ueno was a perfect place to stay.

The good old days where staying at the excellent Annex Katsutaru Ryokan for 6000JPY (It’s still there, still great, but prices have gone up) were definitely over, so I scored a capsule at Smart Stay Shizuku for 5000JPY – my first proper capsule stay, and not a bad one at all! It had the added advantage that not only could I easily walk to Ueno Station and Aaakusa, but that there was an excellent Komeda’s Coffee about 200m from the hotel, which welcomed me with lovely breakfast after I had checked out, and got me ready for a long day of walking in Tokyo.

And since I have been to Tokyo only once in the past ten years, this concludes my Tokyo explorations of Komeda’s Coffee. 

Kyoto

Moving on to Kyoto, where I would spend every single day of my holiday of I could.

My favourite Komeda’s Coffee is in Kyoto on Karasuma Imadegawa, next to the wonderfully empty Shokokuku-ki- Myoken-ji and Shiramine Shrine – a great place to visit if you like “The Makanai” but don’t love the crowds in Gion. There isn’t too much in terms of hotels near Karasuma Imadegawa, and I have not stayed in this area yet, but I have two recommendations.

Just a block away is the modern Western Style Kyoto Brighton Hotel – five stars for just under 150 Euro per room per night ( I checked dates for August 2025) are a complete steal, though, and the hotel looks lovely with its large light-flooded rooms and subtly feminine blond wood interior design.

A little further down the road, near Go-o (“Wild Boar”) Shrine is the lovely Hotel Ninja Black, new, three stars and around 70 Euro per room per night. Also, you can park your bicycle here and rent bicycles from the hotel!

My second favourite Komeda’s Coffee just a few kilometres down the road at Karasuma-Gojo, is very conveniently located for all modes of transport. This is a branch I actually used with my mum a fair bit when we stayed at the nearby Kyomachiya Ryokan Sakura Urushitei which is one of my favourite Kyoto hotels overall. It also has the excellent J-Cycle nearby if you are considering cycling in Kyoto. Other hotels I like there are Hotel Resol Kyoto Shijo Muromachi, another modern hotel with Western style beds in otherwise Japanese styled rooms – I have not stayed there yet but booked to stay on my next trip.

The Small Print

 I visited several places in Japan between 2023 and 2025, paying for all expenses myself except receiving a contribution towards tuition fees from my employer when I studied in Nagasaki. So what you get here is my totally unbiased opinion, no freebies, no discounts for good reviews.

My only monetisation of this blog at the time of publication is affiliate links to Booking.com, which is my preferred (and only) hotel booking site when I am not booking directly. If you use one of the links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, but trust me, this blog is 99% a hobby, meaning I work a regular job and all my travel money comes from working full time. PLease refer to my Terms and Conditions for further details.

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