Matcha Cafe Near Me in Omotesando: Sakurai's Eight-Seat Tea Counter

Sakurai Japanese Tea Experience has eight seats, and every one of them faces the person making your tea. The counter sits on the fifth floor of the Spiral building at 5-6-23 Minami-Aoyama, a minute from Omotesando station, and a bowl of thin matcha, called o-usu on the menu, costs ¥2,600 with an opening tea and a seasonal wagashi. Anyone searching matcha cafe near me around Aoyama should know this is a booked counter with a 90-minute seating, not a place to grab a latte and leave.

Spiral is the white Fumihiko Maki building on Aoyama-dori, and its own access page puts the entrance right in front of Exit B1 of Omotesando station on the Ginza, Hanzomon and Chiyoda lines. Exit B3, a minute further toward Shibuya, has a lift and escalator, which helps with luggage or a pushchair. Walk past the ground-floor gallery and take the lift to 5F; the tea room is at the end, with a small retail corner of tins and roasted leaf by the door.

What separates Sakurai from the matcha bars of Harajuku is the glass-walled roasting room near the entrance. The company describes itself as a tea roasting research laboratory, and the hojicha on the menu is roasted in-house shortly before it reaches the pot. Staff explain each tea as they pour it, from the leaf's region to the water temperature, and the conversation is half the reason people book. There is no syrup, no milk foam and no oat-milk upcharge anywhere on the menu.

Order the o-usu if matcha is the point of your visit. The ¥2,600 set starts with a small welcome tea, then a whisked bowl of Kyoto matcha, served with a seasonal fresh sweet chosen to sit against its bitterness. The matcha is whisked in front of you at the counter, so watch the hand speed and the foam. Sencha, a freshly roasted hojicha or the house seasonal blend are ¥2,500 each in the same format, which makes the hojicha the cheapest way to taste what the roasting room does.

Gyokuro, the shaded leaf brewed at low temperature, is ¥3,250, and the special-grade gyokuro is ¥4,250. The tea course at ¥5,950 strings gyokuro, a blend, hojicha and o-usu together with a wagashi, which is the best introduction to the range. A longer course with two gyokuro is ¥9,200, and a tea and tea-liquor pairing is ¥6,760. Our honest view: first-timers should skip the ¥9,200 course. Two gyokuro back to back blur together, and the ¥5,950 course already ends on the matcha.

On weekday evenings the counter becomes a tea bar. The official bar menu lists a matcha martini and a gyokuro martini at ¥2,200 each, a night tea course at ¥5,000 and a tea-cocktail course at ¥6,000. A matcha beer is ¥1,650 on the bar menu and ¥1,750 in the daytime. After 7pm a seat charge of ¥500 per person applies, and every guest needs to order at least one drink. The late session is the calmer way to try the place without committing to a full afternoon course.

Reservations run through TableCheck. Groups are capped at four, seats cannot be chosen, and the seating lasts 90 minutes. A booking may be released if your whole party has not arrived 15 minutes after the slot, and a same-day cancellation costs ¥2,500 per person. Video is not allowed, photography can be limited, and guests in heavy perfume can be turned away because scent ruins the tasting. If the counter is full online, book the Ippodo Aoyama tea room at 4-23-6 Minami-Aoyama instead, a short walk up the same district.

The official access page gives weekday hours from 11am with the tea room open to 11pm, last order 9:30pm, and weekend and holiday hours from 11am to 8pm, last order 7pm. There is no fixed weekly closing day; the shop closes on irregular days and took a New Year break from December 29 to January 3. Weekday late afternoons are the easiest window for a solo seat. On October 24, 2026 the counter hosts a Japanese-language tasting session for eight people at ¥8,800.

The room is built around one wide black counter set in a neat square, with tea tins lined up behind the staff and low lighting that keeps attention on the cups. Champ magazine and Wanderlog credit the interior to Shinichiro Ogata, the designer behind the Higashiya sweet shops, and the restraint shows in the empty walls. Regulars include couples on a long Aoyama afternoon, solo travellers taking notes, and tea people who return when the seasonal blend changes. Voices stay low, and phones mostly stay face down.

Shinya Sakurai opened the shop in Minami-Aoyama on December 3, 2014, and celebrated its 11th anniversary in December 2025. According to the official About page, he previously managed the Japanese restaurant Yakumo Saryo and the sweets shop Higashiya before setting up on his own. Time Out describes 14 years of training before he became a tea master. His company also runs Choukeikyo in Daikanyama and SOUEN in Wakabayashi, but this Spiral counter remains the flagship and the place where the roasting happens.

Walk southeast along Minami-Aoyama's quieter streets to the Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum at 6-1-19 Minami-Aoyama, the artist's former studio and home designed by Junzo Sakakura, open 10am to 6pm except Tuesdays, adult entry ¥900, with a special exhibition running until November 23, 2026. Further along, the Nezu Museum at 6-5-1 Minami-Aoyama opens 10am to 5pm, closed Mondays, and its stroll garden and NEZUCAFE are open to museum visitors, a calm pairing with a morning tea course.

Address: Spiral 5F, 5-6-23 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo. Phone: 03-6451-1539. All menu prices include tax, and the menus mention no service charge, only the ¥500 seat fee after 7pm. Children must order their own drink or sit on a parent's lap. The menu is ordered at the counter once you are seated. Summer items such as hojicha shaved ice are listed only on the June menu, so expect the warmer autumn line-up of hot teas and fresh wagashi in October.

Sakurai suits anyone who wants to understand matcha rather than just drink it: travellers with a free afternoon in Aoyama, couples looking for a quiet date, and tea fans who will happily spend ¥5,950 on a guided flight. It suits less well a group of six, a family with toddlers, or anyone who wants a sweet iced matcha latte to carry down Omotesando. Book the 90 minutes, take the hojicha seriously, and leave room for the Okamoto museum afterwards.