At Tokyo Weekender we take our coffee very seriously. The Japanese capital, naturally, has a wealth of great coffee spots, from huge chains and small and avant-garde spaces to the more fashionable and edgy types.
Onibus Coffee: Royalty in the Tokyo Scene
Recently, according to new research by gambling and marketing company Betway, Tokyo’s very own Onibus Coffee ranked as the most popular independent café in the world. That’s some accolade for a small company with only seven stores to be found, mostly in Tokyo. Its Nakameguro location seems to be one of the real hot spots and Tokyo Weekender wrote about it a few years ago.
“Tucked away in the backstreets behind the station, Onibus is coffee royalty in the Tokyo scene. From a humble beginning in Kanagawa, it now operates primarily out of this small Nakameguro location and churns out wholesale beans that supply several other notable Tokyo cafés. The café itself is stunning and sits in a converted rice porridge restaurant. In a celebration of traditional Japanese design, the team has maintained some of the original elements and incorporated artisanal ceramic tiling on the interior walls. Customers can also enjoy their coffee from gorgeous, domestically made porcelain cups.”
The Power of Social Media
According to research by Betway, Onibus gained over 500,000 views on TikTok, 82,000 Instagram views and a whopping 178,000 annual searches. That’s not too bad for a small local Tokyo coffee chain. Other top-ranking spots around the globe included Panaderia Rosetta in Mexico City, AMA Cafe in New Delhi and Federal in Manchester.
As the Tokyo coffee scene constantly expands and goes from strength to strength, it will be interesting to see what other Japanese locations hit the top 10 in polls to come in the near future. Whatever happens, TW will certainly be here to share our favorite coffee spots, as well as providing news and updates about the best spaces to check out when you’re thinking of having a coffee, croissant or rest while racing about in this great city of ours.
