ATELIER MATCHA — Restaurant in Tokyo

🌿 Atelier Matcha – Tokyo Rating: ★★★☆☆ (7/10) Visited: on Wednesday

Arrived at 3:00 PM and started lining up right away — waited about 30 minutes to order. Got my Iced Matcha Latte (M-size, ¥790), along with the Tasting Course (¥1,500) after around 15-20 min. which was worth it for sampling different matcha types of Yamamasa Koyamaen if you plan to purchase one and aren't sure which one you like best.

The space is simple, clean, and aesthetically pleasing. During my visit, 95% of customers seemed to be foreigners. Nice touch: there's a water station available while waiting.

🍵 Tasting Notes – Yamamasa Koyamaen:

Matsukaze: pleasantly bitter, not overly umami-heavy, fresh yet full-bodied. Likely great as a latte with some sweetness. Not grassy.

Ogurayama: rich in umami, barely any bitterness, light but still round in flavor. Great for beginners. Also not grassy. ✨ My personal favourite.

Tennouzan: intense and full-bodied, with deep umami and a slightly nutty note. Might have a hint of bitterness. Excellent quality but possibly a bit much for some.

The Matcha Latte was nice too, not too sweet and you can taste that its more high quality which isn't always necessary for a Latte. Not the best one I've had yet but not at all bad.

Overall, a lovely spot for matcha lovers or the matcha-curious. If you're interested in high-quality ceremonial grade matcha in a modern fashion. I probably wouldn't come again just for the Latte since the wait is too long but this place is definitely...

Both the quality of service from the staff and the products they deliver are excellent. I’ve worked in specialty coffee and I know the trade offs between delivering quality vs customer service vs speed and the staff here delivers on all accounts! I could tell that their drinks are all made from scratch—they were delicious. My drinks came out pretty soon after I ordered but, if you are on vacation, just plan a bit of buffer between your plans. This business is quite popular, so there could be a bit of a wait.

I’ve seen people claiming the matchas are whisked with a tool and it alters the taste. From what I saw, it looked like every drink is whisked with a chasen, they just use a tool that they put the chasen in to help speed up the process and probably help keep from damaging their wrists.

Despite how busy it was, all the employees carried a calm and pleasant demeanor. Imagine if you had to serve customers back to back with a line out the door before you even open and had to also switch languages back and forth? I thought they all did a great job despite the difficult task. And the employee taking orders remembered us and thanked us for coming in again. That was so sweet and made my day!

And if you’re here looking to buy matcha to bring home, come early! There is very limited supply right now, that is not the fault of the business. Please be kind and patient, working in the service industry can be...

The staff wasn’t very clear about how seating worked. There was a machine to take a number and empty seats, so I took a number and waited to be addressed and it took like 10~15 minutes for them to tell me that I could just sit anywhere.

You have to order at the front of the restaurant which I did not really enjoy. Since it’s kind of pricy, I would at least like to sit down and flip through the menu— not order like I’m getting something from McDonald’s.

I ordered a matcha milkshake of some kind and it was pretty and good but it didn’t blow my mind or anything. I’ve gotten matcha drinks that taste as good or better for half the price and since the experience in the restaurant wasn’t that great I was kind of disappointed.

Unlike a lot of places in Japan, the cafe doesn’t have seating designed for people eating by themselves. If you’re a part of one, hope there is a window seat open or be prepared to awkwardly stare at the rest of the customers or a wall. (There is no bar or anything like that, just tables for two.)

I was really curious about this place but it fell short of expectations for me personally.

(Basically, the food was good but not special & the experience in store ruined anything else they had...