Matcha Cafe Near Me in Ginza: HIGASHIYA's Tea Salon Above Chuo-dori

HIGASHIYA GINZA does not sell a matcha latte. Its tea salon on the second floor of the POLA Ginza Building, 1-7-7 Ginza, pours thin matcha whisked in the bowl, prices a seasonal tea and wagashi set at ¥2,200, and takes last orders at 6pm. It sits beside Exit 7 of Ginza-itchome station, and for now it closes every Monday. If you typed matcha cafe near me while walking Chuo-dori, this is the quiet room upstairs where tea is served the way a Japanese sweets maker thinks it should be.

The POLA Ginza Building stands on Chuo-dori at the Kyobashi end of Ginza, and HIGASHIYA's English shop page puts it right next to Exit 7 of Ginza-itchome station on the Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line. From Ginza station on the Ginza Line, Exit A9 is about five minutes on foot. Take the lift to 2F. The retail counter of boxed sweets and teas greets you at the entrance, and the salon, called the sabo, opens up behind it.

HIGASHIYA started as a wagashi maker, and the salon is built around the sweet rather than the drink. Teas arrive unsweetened and are chosen to sit against bite-size confections made in-house, from steamed yokan to dried fruit. The October menu shows the approach: the shop announced a chestnut steamed yokan on October 15, 2026, and autumn blend teas built on persimmon, five grains and the citrus kabosu, served from October 8 to November 6. It is a seasonal kitchen that happens to whisk matcha.

Matcha appears as usucha, thin tea whisked in the bowl, from ¥2,200. The rest of the list is broad: sencha or bancha from ¥1,980, a house blended tea from ¥2,090 and gyokuro from ¥3,520. For a first visit the easiest order is the seasonal tea and wagashi set at ¥2,200, which pairs the current tea with the current sweet. Our honest note: if you only want matcha, this menu gives it a small corner, and a specialist like Ippodo serves more grades.

The order that shows what HIGASHIYA does best is the saka, five teas with bite-size sweets for ¥5,500, last order 5pm. The evening-leaning shuka swaps teas for five drinks with sweets at ¥6,000. Hungrier visitors can book the samajiki, a three-tray tea meal at ¥7,000 with one tea or ¥8,000 with two teas and a half-size seasonal sweet. These are slow orders, so allow at least an hour and come with an appetite rather than straight after lunch.

Before 2pm the salon serves an ichiju-sansai lunch of soup and small dishes, ¥5,500 with one main and ¥6,500 with two. The most elaborate option is the sajikie course at ¥14,000, a tea-pairing meal that ends on usucha, needs a reservation for at least two people and takes last orders at 1pm. House liquors, sake and wine start at ¥1,430. Note that the kitchen uses fish stock, so it cannot cater for vegans, according to its TableCheck booking page.

Two October additions are worth timing a visit around. The new-buckwheat shiruko, a sweet soup made with this season's soba flour, is served in the salon from October 1 to November 6. The autumn blends, built on deep-steamed sencha, pouchong and kamairi tea, run on the same dates. Both are the kind of short-season items the regulars come back for. If you also want a box of sweets to take home, the shop counter sells the chestnut yokan by the piece.

Book on TableCheck. A gurunavi review from April 2026 describes arriving at 11am on a weekday and being told the room was full until 2pm, then 3pm, so walking in at opening is the move to skip. Bookings are released after 15 minutes without contact, and groups of five or more, up to eight, must reserve by phone. Set-menu bookings allow two hours. If the salon is full, Jugetsudo's tea cafe on the fifth floor of Kabukiza Tower, 4-12-15 Ginza, is a short walk south.

The salon asks guests not to take photos or videos inside and not to use laptops or tablets, which keeps the room calm and explains why there are so few interior shots online. Strong perfume is discouraged because it interferes with the teas. There are no children's chairs or nursing space, and separate bills may be refused at busy times. Expect to be guided through the menu by staff; reviewers mention asking for help choosing between the teas, which is normal here.

The salon seats about 40, with dark wood, soft daylight and a deliberately plain finish that keeps the eye on the tray. Its regulars span visitors on a first trip to Tokyo, afternoon-tea fans, and the working women Oggi magazine found filling the room in 2026. Not everyone loves it: gurunavi reviewers note that the unsweetened teas can taste bland or bitter to some, and one found the service snobby. The take-home wagashi is expensive and expires quickly, so it suits gifts for tomorrow, not next week.

HIGASHIYA comes from the designer Shinichiro Ogata, who founded his studio SIMPLICITY in 1998 with the restaurant HIGASHI-YAMA Tokyo and opened the first HIGASHIYA in Aobadai, Meguro, in 2003. The Ginza salon arrived with the rebuilt POLA Ginza Building, which opened on October 3, 2009, as the brand's first Ginza shop. Today HIGASHIYA Co., Ltd. also runs HIGASHIYA man in Minami-Aoyama and Marunouchi, but Ginza remains the only location with the full sit-down salon menu.

Go one floor up after tea. POLA MUSEUM ANNEX on 3F of the same building is free and is showing Invisible Garden, with work by Asami Kiyokawa and Kohei Nawa, from September 16 to November 8, 2026, open 11am to 7pm. Then walk south along Chuo-dori to Ginza Itoya at 2-7-15 Ginza, the stationery store whose floors of paper, pens and cards open until 8pm on weekdays and 7pm on Sundays, a natural follow-up to a tray of seasonal sweets.

Address: POLA Ginza Building 2F, 1-7-7 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo. Hours are 11am to 7pm, with the salon taking last orders at 6pm and the tea flights and tray sets at 5pm. The salon is closed on Mondays, or on Tuesday when Monday is a public holiday, according to a notice on the Japanese shop page. Salon phone: 03-3538-3240; shop phone: 03-3538-3230. Prices on TableCheck include tax, and no service charge is listed.

This salon suits travellers who want a structured Japanese tea experience without a formal ceremony, food lovers curious about seasonal wagashi, and anyone who wants a quiet hour off Chuo-dori. It suits less well a matcha-latte fan, a group that wants to photograph everything, or a family with small children. Book a weekday afternoon slot, order the ¥5,500 saka flight or the ¥2,200 seasonal set, and finish with the free exhibition upstairs.