Minato City, Tokyo, Japan｜Blue Bottle Coffee - Shinagawa Cafe

This cafe is located on the level right above the Shinkansen ticket office in Shinagawa station. We prefer this brand of cafes rather than Starbucks as they typically feature better coffee machines and more engaged staff, as well as other foods of course. Blue Bottle Coffee is inside a department store and features any type of coffee you would like, as well as various bakery products. We couldn‘t find the brand of the coffee machine, but the flavor was great. You order the coffee in the front of the “island“ in the middle of the cafe. When it is ready, your coffee and order number will be called out. We speak Japanese, but even if you don‘t, most of the staff members speak a little bit of English. There is seating by the window, overlooking the steady stream of people flowing through Shinagawa station, or seats at tables or a long bar-like table inside the cafe. The coffee is carefully crafted and we found it delicious. It is not very bitter, but strong and flavorful with just the right amount of milk in the cappucinos we ordered. Because we like our cappucinos strong we ordered an extra shot of espresso. Since the cups are quite small the extra shot of espresso comes on the side. In fact, this is usually the best way of ordering an extra shot as it isn‘t very common to do so in Japan and often the term “extra shot“ leads to confusion. It is better to simply order a cappucino and an espresso and then dump the espresso in your cappucino or flat white. Flat whites tend to have much more milk than in Europe. The Blue Bottle Cafe does not feature a flat white coffee. Location: 5/5 Ambience: 3/5 (it‘s fine but nothing special, but much nicer than Starbucks) Coffee: 5/5 Staff: 5/5 Price quality: 5/5 (low price, high quality)

Very good Americano, smaller than what Americans are probably used to. The rhubarb pastry had great flavor but the fruit center was cold. Cool place adjoined to the station with a nice view of all the people at the station. Nice vibe and friendly service.

Coffee at blue bottle is reliably amazing. The seats facing the huge windows are awesome since you get to look at all the commuters below. Creates a very nice atmosphere. Monday at 11:30am there’s plenty of space and basically no queue at all.