Matcha Cafe in Chinatown London: Tsujiri's Late Uji Matcha

Tsujiri keeps its Chinatown whisks going until 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays, which is later than almost any other matcha counter in the West End. The branch sits at 33 Newport Court, London WC2H 7PQ, a short lane between Charing Cross Road and Gerrard Street, and opens at 11am every day. If you are hunting for a matcha cafe near me after a show on Shaftesbury Avenue, this is the one that will still be pouring ceremonial grade Uji matcha when the curtain comes down.

Leicester Square station, on the Northern and Piccadilly lines, is roughly 200 metres away. Take the Charing Cross Road exit, walk north for a minute and turn right into Newport Court, the narrow pedestrian lane strung with red lanterns. Look for number 33 on the lane itself rather than on the main road. Coming from Piccadilly Circus, walk east along Coventry Street, cut through Leicester Square and up Little Newport Street. Either way you are inside Chinatown within five minutes of leaving the Tube.

Most London matcha bars are a few years old. Tsujiri's own timeline begins in 1860, when Riemon Tsuji started the business in Uji, the tea town south of Kyoto, and became known for refining gyokuro, the shaded green tea. The UK company now describes itself as specialising in ceremonial grade matcha from Uji, Japan. That heritage is the real difference here: you are drinking from a tea house with more than 160 years of history, not a brand built around one viral latte.

Start with the O-Matcha, the house name for straight whisked ceremonial matcha, which the branch's Deliveroo listing prices at £5.40, hot or cold. It is the cleanest test of the Uji leaf, grassy and slightly sweet with no milk to soften it. The Matcha Latte and the roasted Houjicha Latte are both £6.10 on the same listing, and a plant milk swap adds 50p. The Yuzu O-Matcha at £6 adds a sharp citrus note that works surprisingly well on a warm evening in the lane outside.

If you came for something more indulgent, the Matcha Ice Blend at £6.80 is a 16oz frozen drink that is closer to a milkshake than a tea, and the Matcha Bubble Milk Tea, also £6.80, nods to the bubble tea shops that line Gerrard Street round the corner. Our honest view is that the bubble tea is the weakest order on the card: the chewy pearls and sweetness bury the matcha, and you can get that drink on almost every block in Chinatown for less.

The Matcha Basque Cheesecake is the dessert to share, priced at £7.50 a slice on the Deliveroo menu, with a burnt caramel top and a dense green centre. If you love it, Tsujiri's official online shop sells the whole cake for £68, and the Matcha Crepe Cake, layered with thin green-tinted crepes and cream, is also £68 whole. The vegan Warabi Mochi, soft bracken-starch jelly dusted with kinako and served with matcha, is £8.30 and is the most traditionally Kyoto thing on the menu.

Matcha ice cream is sold in tubs, £7.20 for 240ml and £12 for 500ml, which tells you how many people take a dessert home after dinner nearby. For home brewing, the shop's Ume no Shiro matcha powder costs £38.50 for a 30g tin. That is a serious price for a serious tea, so taste the O-Matcha in the cafe first and decide whether the leaf is worth bringing back to your own kitchen.

Chinatown is quietest on weekday mornings, so arriving close to the 11am opening is the surest way to walk straight in. The pressure comes after dinner and on weekend afternoons, when the lane fills with diners from the restaurants on Gerrard Street and Lisle Street. A 2025 Yelp reviewer described the room buzzing with a line of people. Late evening is the sweet spot: the theatres are still running, the dinner rush has moved on, and Tsujiri is open until 10pm Sunday to Thursday.

If the queue runs back along Newport Court and you only want a quick fix, do not wait more than fifteen minutes; order a takeaway latte and drink it in Leicester Square instead. If you want somewhere to sit and the room is full, Tsujiri runs other London branches, including Unit 163 at Hawley Wharf in Camden and 6 Aquatics Walk on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, both with the same core matcha menu.

The ground floor is compact, built around the counter and the display of cakes, but the branch has an upstairs loft seating area that many visitors miss. Yelp photos from 2018 and 2024 show the same arrangement, so it is a long-standing part of the room. Head upstairs if you plan to stay, and grab a spot by the window overlooking the lanterns. Students are a big part of the crowd: a May 2026 guide from the LSE halls of residence named this branch, and its matcha soft serve, among the best matcha stops near campus.

The UK business is a franchise. Chin Teow, named as director of TSUJIRI in a 2020 Manchester's Finest article, set it up after a trip to Japan in 2016. The first London branch, in Soho, drew queues around the block in its first six months, and the company followed with a quick expansion into Chinatown. Photos dated March 2018 already show the Newport Court room, so the Chinatown cafe has been serving matcha for well over seven years, longer than most of its London rivals.

Turn left out of the cafe and follow Newport Place to Gerrard Street, then walk west to the Chinatown Gate on Wardour Street. The Qing dynasty style gate was made by Chinese artisans and opened on 25 July 2016. From there, Leicester Square is two minutes south, where the Scenes in the Square film statue trail, installed in February 2020, includes Paddington on a bench and Mary Poppins with her umbrella. It makes an easy ten minute loop with your cup in hand.

Tsujiri Chinatown is at 33 Newport Court, London WC2H 7PQ. Hours on the official site are 11am to 10pm Sunday to Thursday and 11am to 11pm on Friday and Saturday. The upstairs loft is reached by stairs, so anyone who needs step-free seating should plan to sit on the ground floor. Newport Court is pedestrianised, and Tottenham Court Road station, about ten minutes north on foot, has step-free access on the Elizabeth line.

This branch is ideal for theatregoers who want a proper matcha after 9pm, for dinner groups in Chinatown looking for a green tea dessert instead of another round of drinks, and for tea fans who care about Uji provenance. It is less suited to anyone wanting a long, quiet morning with a laptop, because the room is small and turns over fast. Order the O-Matcha and a slice of Basque cheesecake, head upstairs, and watch the lanterns come on.