EMBER espresso — Restaurant in Takayama

We stumbled upon this café in Takayama and were immediately impressed—not just by the coffee, which was exceptional, but by the deep knowledge and passion the staff had for it. However, what truly set this place apart was what happened next.

While chatting with one of the team members, we were invited to join a nature experience—and it ended up being the highlight of our time in Takayama. This is exactly the kind of experience we came to Japan for: stepping away from the typical tourist route and truly connecting with the natural beauty of the country.

We did a short trek of about 1.5 hours, walking along a riverbed formed by ancient lava flows. The scenery was stunning, peaceful, and completely off the beaten path. After the hike, we enjoyed a freshly brewed coffee and a delicious sandwich in the heart of nature.

It was an unforgettable experience—genuine, local, and absolutely unique. Highly recommend if you’re looking to see a different...

This cafe has sooo much going for it. Beautiful location, exquisite inside with a really chill vibe and outlook on a garden. The staff are all super friendly and the coffee!! Wow! I totally appreciate coffee is very subjective when it comes to critiquing but for us, it was the best coffee we had in Japan. We visited about 7 times in our 3 weeks stay and we still talk about those coffees :) One constructive bit of feedback would be to humbly offer the suggestion to review / refine the ordering process as the staff struggled at times. Our order was forgotten on 3 visits with one instance being asked if we had paid. I guess every place has its moments but overall this cafe is exceptional. It will be our first port of call when we arrive back. I...

Amazing speciality coffee place, they really take care to make your experience here with coffee enjoyable! We've gone through a few coffee places in Takayama to finally find this one. We've returned here 3 times and enjoyed both cortados (served in very cute small glasses) and flat whites - perfectly balanced taste and silky smooth texture of the steamed milk (or oat milk). We've also tried their tiramisu, which was delicious too, not too sweet, a lot of cocoa, with some pieces of dark chocolate inside. Their matcha cookie was a bit dry. The spices cake is amazing. The atmosphere here is also very nice, we liked the warm lights and how to whole place looks. The experience is accompanied with some gentle music in the background,...