Matcha Cafe Maiko — Restaurant in Charlotte

Hands down the best matcha place in NC.

I've been trying to find a good matcha ice cream/soft serve for a while amd everywhere I went to matcha wasn't real matcha. They were all milky and super sweet and no matcha flavor at all. I've been disappointed for so many times even though I went to the Asian-owned cafes hoping it'd be close to what I had in Asia but still no one could do matcha the way Asian people do back in Asia.

Then I stumbled upon this shop while I was looking around. In Google Maps. It'd take me almost 2 hours to get here but I looked at the images and reviews and had high hopes that this could be the place where I could finally have real matcha taste. I decided to plan the trip to CLT and make this one of the stops and it was the best decision ever!!!

I ordered the Maiko Special which is the parfait I used to have back home. It's got red beans, mochi, corn flakes, jellies, chestnut, matcha cakes, and brown sugar sauce/syrup. All of them were amazing. The soft serve was everything I hoped for in a matcha soft serve. I love extra strong matcha so personally it's not too strong for me yet but dang it was soooooooo good.

It's just so perfect with all the toppings especially when soft serve got into the matcha cakes texture it's just next level yummy.

I'd love to come back for other flavors especially during summer where they have...

Wow! My friend recommended this place and I’m so happy that we drove to this area to try it out. It’s one of the very few places that actually has ube soft-served ice cream, which is a Filipino purple yam and is in a majority of Filipino desserts.

Service: Friendly and attentive staff.

Environment: The cafe is very well-designed with chic, rustic decor. I love all the color details, backsplashes, free formed wooden table, and even the mermaid floor tiles in the bathroom. There are two black benches and a front seating area with patio chairs and two tables outside. The entryway has 4-5 bar seatings, and a couple of tables inside. It was our first time in this retail area. If you walk behind the building, there’s a small lake full of geese and ducks. You can walk around the lake and it has a lot of bench seats. There was also a boba tea place in the same area.

Food: We got the matcha and ube soft serve, on a waffle cone, which was super creamy and delicious. My husband got their matcha tiramisu, which they prepared when we ordered. I found out that they also have milk bread toast with various toppings. It looks like a super, fluffy French toast. I’ll have to try it next time. They have that with avocado toppings, banana nutella, berries, and kinako mochi. They serve floats, coffee, teas, frappes, and other...

Great place for matcha lovers, and good for everyone else too! They are now open on Mondays despite the sign out in the front, and I had a great time! The servers are around high school age, and a young man in a bucket hat helped me and was very kind to my friends and I and was very patient with us as we went over the menu. He helped us look at all the items, and I felt bad for taking so long to sample everything but he took all of our orders very nicely and got us our items rather quick. This place uses authentic matcha it seems, they have the bowls and whisks and it tastes great - very different from other places. My friend got the soft serve, and it was very pretty. I recommend Ube flavor, it is their seasonal right now. The place was very clean, and a very cozy feeling on the inside - good if you are looking to get work done or meet up with friends and colleagues. My only complaint is that the prices are rather high. I get that is probably out of owner's control, but the ice creams cost up to 10 dollars with tip and tax, which is a bit much. Our server was kind and offered us his recommendation of the floats, though, and I would say those are nice because they have both the latte and ice cream for the price of one. They have coffee and refreshers too but I...