% ARABICA coffee — Restaurant in Kyoto

My order: Latte 8oz w/ Oat Milk, Kyoto Latte 12oz w/ Oat Milk Food/drinks: the Kyoto Latte is a normal latte but with condensed milk. I do believe this drink gives the illusion that it tastes creamy so it was very much to my liking. The sweetness wasn’t overpowering but definitely there; a very nice balance. The coffee itself tastes good as well. I do wish the normal latte was more creamy but most of the oat milk drinks taste this way so it’s far from bad,, just preference. Atmosphere: we came around 4 pm and at first the whole seating area was packed but it soon started to filter out and after most of the people left it was a nice area. They are all counter style seats and space may be a little limited. Overall a very clean and nice place without the crowd. Service: the staff member that took our order seemed to be a bit tired but that was about it. The rest was neither good or bad. Overall: might be more of a take out place for me. The coffee is pretty good too so definitely might come back. It’s just the location might be a little out of the way to access since it is inside of a mall but overall good!...

Where to begin.

The best coffee in Japan.

As a barista from Australia/New Zealand I tend to stay away from being critical of coffee when I travel the world as a general rule of thumb is it won't be as good as back home.

I stand corrected.

Who would have thought a kiosk in a mall in Kyoto would produce a coffee that if not rivalled my own then bettered it.

Flavour, milk texture, balance in extraction-- it was flawless. Not to mention seeing the little in-house competition between barista's as to who could pour the best pattern (I know oat milk doesn't always behave).

I sometimes have a sugar to cancel out the bitterness in coffee and as good as those little raw sugar cubes looked, I could not bring myself to taint the cup that I had in my hands.

I returned for another a day...

This branch is located in the department store on level 1. Unfortunately at the time we went, there was construction /set up close by in the department store is the atmosphere was a bit lacklustre.

The seating area for the coffee is kind of like a plastic long igloo. It has benches and stools. It might not be the easiest to access if you have a wheelchair or stroller or lots of shopping bags.

The COFFEE! I jumped at the chance to have coffee at an actual Kyoto location - home of % ARABICA - since I often have it where I live and it is an extremely popular brand.

It did not disappoint. It was THE BEST coffee we had in the whole of Japan in the three weeks we were there (Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Nagashima, Okinwana - just to name a few places we went to). I ordered the Kyoto Latte and it...