Tsubakiya Coffee — Restaurant in Urayasu

TLDR: Go here, you won't be disappointed. Ignore the reviews from 5 years ago from people who don't understand coffee.

Tsubakiya Coffee is a standout cafe in Tokyo Bay Shin Urayasu. It's like if a British High tea was mixed with a Japanese tea house.

Is it a western style cafe? No of course not. But it's endearing and comfortable. It's Japan.

The food was superb. It was tasty, hearty and rather impressive. We had the Beef Stroganoff, sandwich plate, Curry, French Onion soup, plus several slices of cake, plus various coffees including the ice coffee, cappuccino, matcha and a chocolate milk shake.

The sandwich plate was bloody mind blowing. For a Japanese cafe to make a western dish this good was just bizarre. It's like walking up to a hot dog vendor in NY and getting the best ramen noodles of your life.

For people moaning about coffee you have to understand that Asia does not have big herds of milk cows like Australia, NZ, Europe and the US has (although you wouldn't know it considering how crap milk is in the US).

Anyway in your 250ml cup of coffee you have a 30ml shot and 220ml's of heated milk (not to 100c), which if the milk is placed in a whirlpool like rotation it'll stretch the proteins, which to the human palate makes the coffee sweeter (meaning you don't need to add sugar). Something like 80-90% of your coffee is milk. Which is why US coffee sucks (because 80-90% of the cup is bitter percolated grounds diluted with hot boiling water, through a machine that's never been clean and that has stale coffee oils all over it). Ultimately the milk is super important.

The point of this is to explain that although coffee in Japan is ok, serviceable, especially in winter, it's never going to be as good as what you experience in Europe, Australia or NZ. They just don't have the same crazy fresh milk that western countries have access to (although it does my head in that 500grams of Wagyu is $25 AUD when in Australia it's more like $100 - just shows how ripped off we're getting from the big supermarkets).

So in this light was the coffee good at Tsubakiya? Yes, it wasn't made with UHT (like the majority of milk drinks across Asia are made with). The coffee was extracted well. The water wasn't boiling hot. It was a good (in the above context). In Australia it'd be a 6 out of 10 coffee. Something you find in a food court. But in Japan it was a 8 out of 10 coffee. I did not find a better coffee in fact. If they want to improve their coffee I'd strongly recommend finding a good supply of fresh milk and experiment with stretching it.

All the drinks were good, but the food, as i've mentioned was a stand out for our trip. We had fancy sushi in Ginza (all over in fact), fancy hotel meals, noodles everywhere, we traveled all over the place and yet this little coffee tea place in Tokyo Bay was just hands down the best meal we had.

The piece de resistance was the cake. I've not had cake this amazing in some 15 years. It was the lightest most tastiest cake...

I saw a review saying to ignore the rating, so I decided to try it for myself and it was totally worth it! Both the coffee and cake were genuinely delicious. The cake had a unique flavor I’ve never tasted anywhere else, and the coffee was excellent. Service was also really good. If I stay in this area again, I’ll...

Was here to visit Disney land and walked past this cafe in Aeon Mall. I see they roast their own beans and looks really pro. Ordered a cafe latte for 630¥ It was bad, though the latte art look OK. The coffee is not well extracted, burnt taste at the end notes. Coffee tasted bland and light. Disappointed. Do...