Coffee Arabica

A kissaten that asks you to put the phone away

One house rule sets the tone at Coffee Arabica: photographing the menu or the interior is not allowed. In a city where cafes are often designed to be posted, that reads as a deliberate choice to keep the room for the people sitting in it.

Everything else follows from there. This is a traditional kissaten rather than a grab-and-go counter, and the visit is meant to be a seated pause with a coffee rather than a queue and a paper cup.

Thirty-six seats, arranged for lingering

The room holds 36 seats: six at the counter, 24 at tables and six in a semi-private area. The counter suits solo drinkers, the tables take pairs and small groups, and the semi-private seats take conversation that needs a little containment.

It is non-smoking throughout, which matters more in a kissaten than elsewhere, since these are rooms built for sitting still. The layout, the quiet and the pace are the substance of the place.

How to spend the visit

Treat it as a straightforward Tokyo coffee stop in Akasaka. Arrive, sit, order a drink or a set, and let the time pass; that is the whole design, and no signature dish is demanding your attention.

Coffee Arabica was named in the Tabelog 100 at number 73 for 2022, a serious placing for a room with no gimmick beyond doing the kissaten form properly. Elsewhere in Tokyo, Coffee Kan Benishika and Cafe Casa cover similar ground if the seats here are taken.