Matcha Cafe Near Me in Covent Garden: TOKKIA's Korean Matcha House

TOKKIA at 3 Monmouth Street, London WC2H 9DA, only lets people who have ordered inside, which is why the queue forms on the pavement while the room itself stays almost silent. Opened on 4 December 2025 and billed as London's first Korean matcha house, it whisks a £4.80 matcha latte from leaf grown in Hadong and on Jeju Island. If your matcha cafe near me search lands you in Covent Garden, this is the one that changes how you think the drink should taste.

Monmouth Street runs from Shaftesbury Avenue up to the Seven Dials junction, a short street of Georgian brick shopfronts. Tottenham Court Road station, on the Central, Northern and Elizabeth lines, is about 200 metres away, and Covent Garden on the Piccadilly line is a similar walk in the other direction. You will usually spot the shop before you read the number, because of the line of people along the pavement and the hand-painted timber sign at the entrance.

Founder Sooji Im sources all of her matcha herself from Hadong, said to be the birthplace of Korean tea, and from Jeju Island, where the subtropical climate gives the leaves a vivid colour. In her words to Wallpaper, Japanese matcha tends to be rich and umami, while Korean matcha is softer and nuttier, with subtle toasted undertones. That difference shapes the whole menu. The lattes are lighter and less grassy than many London matcha bars, and the hojicha drinks lean into roasted, almost caramel flavours rather than bitterness.

The October menu keeps things short. A Long Matcha, the purest option, costs £4.30 hot or cold. The matcha latte, hojicha latte and mugwort latte are each £4.80, and a cold Sparkling Matcha is also £4.80. The Injeolmi Vanilla Matcha Latte and its hojicha twin cost £5.80, named after the Korean rice cake dusted in roasted soybean powder. Korean Green Tea and Persimmon Leaf Tea are served hot at £4.00. Dairy, oat, coconut and hazelnut milk are all free, so you never pay extra for a plant milk here.

The seasonal special this autumn is the Apple Cinnamon Brown Sugar Matcha Latte at £6.00, served hot or cold. It is the most dessert-like drink on the board and the one most people photograph. Our honest call is to skip it on a first visit and order the Long Matcha or a plain latte instead, because the sweetness of apple and brown sugar hides exactly the nutty, toasted character that makes Korean matcha worth seeking out. The Infatuation's critic liked the regular iced latte with a touch of agave for the same reason.

If matcha is not your drink, the mugwort latte is the wild card. Mugwort, or ssuk in Korean, has an herbal, slightly bitter, almost sage-like flavour that is common in Korean rice cakes but rarely seen in a London cafe. Persimmon Leaf Tea is the gentlest thing on the menu and works well in the late afternoon if you are trying to avoid caffeine.

TOKKIA's bakery item is sogeum-bbang, Korean salt bread: a soft, buttery roll baked with a crisp, salted base. The Original costs £3.00, the Matcha Cream salt bread with matcha white chocolate ganache is £5.70, and the seasonal Apple Cinnamon Brown Sugar version is £6.00. The Original is the best value thing in the shop and the right partner for a Long Matcha. Salt bread sells through over the day, and the Infatuation advises getting there early enough if you want one, so morning visits have the best chance.

Opening hours are 10am to 7pm Monday to Thursday, 10am to 8pm on Friday and Saturday, and 10am to 6pm on Sunday. The Infatuation describes the queue as almost always long, snaking down the Covent Garden pavement, but the orderers-only rule means it moves steadily and nobody inside is camping on a table with an empty cup. Opening time on a weekday is the calmest moment, and it is also when the salt bread trays are full. Late Saturday afternoon, when the West End shopping crowd peaks, is the time to avoid.

If the queue stretches past the next shopfront and you are short on time, walk west across Charing Cross Road to TOKKIA's bakery-led second site at 40 Berwick Street in Soho, which opens 11am to 8pm Monday to Saturday and 11am to 6pm on Sunday. If you would rather drink Japanese matcha instead, JENKI's Covent Garden bar is at 50a Long Acre, a few minutes south. Either way, give up on the Monmouth Street line once it is past twenty people.

The name translates as hey bunny in Korean, and the brand's mascot, a rabbit called Hazelnut, explains the design: the shop is meant to feel like a modern burrow. Stephenson-Edwards studio designed the interior with lightly lime-washed walls, terrazzo-toned tiled matcha stations and matching floors, and staff in sage green jackets whisking every drink slowly and deliberately. It is a tiny room. With only people who have ordered inside, it feels, as the Infatuation put it, like a matcha monastery while the street outside carries on.

Before TOKKIA, Incheon-born Sooji Im studied at the London School of Economics and worked in project finance, then opened Be-oom, a much-loved Korean tea house on Exmouth Market. Fans of that shop were the first to queue when TOKKIA opened. Hot Dinners reported that the first 100 guests on each of the opening days in December 2025 received a free matcha. The Soho site on Berwick Street followed in July 2026, which tells you how quickly the idea caught on.

Make the queue part of a short loop. Monmouth Coffee's original shop is at 27 Monmouth Street, WC2H 9EU, on the same street, open 8am to 7pm Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday and card payments only; it has been making filter coffee here since 1978. Then walk up to the Seven Dials sundial pillar where seven streets meet, browse Neal Street, and loop back down to Covent Garden piazza. The whole circuit takes about twenty minutes without shopping.

TOKKIA does not publish a phone number; the contact email is hey@tokkia.world. All milks cost nothing extra, and the shelves sell house teas, bespoke ceramics and Korean gifts, so you can take a pouch of matcha home. The menu asks you to speak to staff about allergens, which matters because injeolmi drinks involve soybean powder and salt bread is a buttery wheat roll. The Infatuation rates it in its highest price band, and a matcha latte with a Matcha Cream salt bread comes to £10.50.

TOKKIA is for matcha drinkers who think they know the drink and want to be surprised, for anyone who prefers a calm, quiet cup over a buzzy cafe, and for fans of Korean baking who have missed salt bread since their last trip to Seoul. It is less suited to groups who want to sit together for an hour, or anyone on a tight schedule at the weekend. Come at 10am on a weekday, order a Long Matcha and an Original salt bread, and taste the difference.