Kyo Matcha — Restaurant in Columbia

We visited during Kyo Matcha's grand opening weekend. They had buy one get one 50% off soft serve and 20% off cakes for June 1-2.

Food: the matcha soft serve and hojicha soft serve both have a great not-too-sweet flavor, they are super creamy and smooth. Flavor for both tasted authentic to me. You can get it in a cone or a cup and can add toppings for small extra charge. We also tried the matcha towel cake and black sesame cheese mousse cake. Both cakes had very good flavor, texture, not too sweet, super cute top tier presentation. The towel cake tasted like a mille crepe cake but with less crepe and more cream. The black sesame cheese mousse cake had a good black sesame flavor. Personally the matcha and hojicha soft serve was my favorite. If you are not sure what to order, the website has clear photos of every menu item which is helpful.

Atmosphere: This is a really cute cafe that is brand new with super cute aesthetic and many different backgrounds for photo ops! The tables arent packed together too much and there is a bathroom. Part of the glass window wall also opens which is perfect for good weather. They also have really cute disposable wood-looking utensils.

Staff: I didn't interact with staff much but everyone seemed friendly

Parking: Plenty of free parking in an open parking lot as well as a free parking garage. There are also a few parking spots right outside the Kyo Matcha store.

Area: Kyo Matcha is located in a really cute area with restaurants and apartment buildings above them. Theres small open grassy areas which are great for hanging out. My favorite Thai restaurant, Dok Thai, is also right across from Kyo Matcha. Highly recommend going there for lunch or dinner and Kyo Matcha...

First time going to Kyoto matcha ever. The interior is very cute and cozy. They have a door that opens up to outside that can stay open in the summer.

We ordered the Sunrise Green Tea and Strawberry Matcha Latte. For cakes, we had a Strawberry Milk Cap Cake and Passionfruit Crepe Cake.

Sunrise Green Tea: The flavors are good, however the jasmine flavor is too strong. At 100% sugar, it is too sweet for me. My boyfriend thought the jasmine from the green tea is way too strong.

Strawberry Matcha Latte: There is prominent matcha and strawberry flavors. The matcha is not too strong. I would say this drink is probably better than the GongCha version. At 100% sweetness it isn’t overly sweet. However, my preference would be maybe. 75% or 50% sweetness. I wish the strawberry flavor was stronger.

Strawberry Milk Cap Cake: I love the texture of the cake. It is very moist and springy in texture. The flavor of the strawberry milk cap is nice and creamy with some strawberry. There is a decent amount of strawberries on this cake. I would definitely buy it again. The cake is perfect for those who don’t want overly sweet deserts.

Passionfruit Crepe Cake: This cake has a very strong Passionfruit flavor and reminds me of being in Hawaii. I feel the cake has a lot of cream in the layers tho and I would like it to have a bit less. It is quite sweet but also tart from the Passionfruit. I would say avoid this if you prefer less sweet deserts. Mainly due to the Passionfruit sweetness in the jam on top of the cake.

I enjoyed the items I bought however the cakes are a little pricey. I think having them priced near $7 would be ideal. $10-12 for a cake is steep. I will return and try other flavors of cake...

LOVE Kyoto (or Kyo depending) Matcha but for some reason this location when you order the Rose Latte (a Kyoto Matcha signature item) which is usually pretty much the same and UNDENIABLY Real Rose flavored at every other location (I've tried)... But for some UNKNOWN reason at Columbia taste like TOXIC POTPOURRI?!?! So yes I had to deduct two stars from THIS Location. Simply for this ONE item that is my favorite thing I literally go out of my way to order at every location and every time I've tried it at this location it's COMPLETELY UNIDENTIFIABLE and that's crazy BECAUSE most of this stuff from location to location is pretty consistent 🤷🏽‍♀️ I don't know WHAT Columbia is doing wrong? Or WHAT they're doing differently? But I can say with the exception of the Artificial "Rose Latte" everything else was up to standard and impeccable! The new charcoal matcha roll cake was amazing I thoroughly enjoyed the new item. If you've never been, this place is 100% worth giving a try. Just don't judge Kyoto Matcha on this location's "Rose Latte" LOL 😂. Save the $7 (unless artificial flowers is your thing)

I said THIS then went to Towson and found out they're discontinuing the Rose Latte anyways... Not their fault I had "bad timing" My Bad 🤦🏽‍♀️

But if you're like me and loved the original I'll leave this up temporarily as a warning that it's definitely not going to be what you're expecting.... But if this location ends up getting the Sakura...