Michelle Mackintosh's guide to the best coffee in Kyoto

Melbourne-based author and book illustrator Michelle Mackintosh has been travelling to Japan since the ’90s, drawn by Kyoto’s café culture. 

Having fallen in love with Japanese design at university, author and book illustrator Michelle Macintosh says Japan was first on her list once she had saved enough money to travel.

Michelle and her husband, Steve Wide, spend at least three months of the year travelling in the country and have co-authored Hidden Pockets in Kyoto, the latest in Hardie Grant’s Curious Travel Guides.

“The history and tradition drew me there and the crafts, gardens, food and gentle pace kept me coming back,” she says.

“Making a coffee pilgrimage each morning or afternoon is as much of the Kyoto experience for me as a pilgrimage to a temple or shrine.”

Michelle Mackintosh at Walden Woods cafe in Kyoto.

Here, Michelle shares her favourite coffee destinations in Kyoto:

Nijo Castle neighbourhood

The best area for coffee is around Nijo Castle. Clamp Coffee Sarasa makes superb coffee down a little laneway surrounded by like-minded retailers, Lader and Cotoha. Usagi Coffee is a mad mix of a rabbit-themed interior, Japanese garden and quirky merch, and I could spend hours at lovely kissaten (tearoom) La Madrague dreaming of Kyoto in the ’60s.

Clamp Coffee Sarasa Kyoto.

Salon de thé François

Bakery Salon de thé François gives a glimpse of life in Kyoto in the early 20th century. Opened in 1934, it’s hidden in the back streets just off Shijo-dori and is a take on early 19th-century Europe, with a backdrop of antiques and red velvet. I love getting cosy in one of the booths and ordering a café au lait and a crème caramel. My husband, Steve, cannot go past the coffee jelly.

Salon de the Francois dates back to 1934.

Blend Kyoto

Blend Kyoto is the perfect experience for a coffee lover or designer. Housed in a refurbished machiya (townhouse) with a spartan but beautiful array of antiques and adornments, the coffee varieties are named after typefaces such Optima, Baskerville and Helvetica. The service and coffee here is impeccable. However, this is a place for travellers with a Zen timetable. Your coffee will arrive only after your barista has made sure it is perfect.

Blend Kyoto is all about pefection.

Stardust

Visiting Stardust in the deep north is almost an otherworldly experience. It’s part plant-based café, part curated retailer, and all atmosphere. Whatever they serve is always made with local ingredients and thoughtfully put together. I love their soup for lunch, the raw dessert or homemade cake, and a cup of one of their specially selected teas, decaf coffees or organic wines.

Michelle Mackintosh at Stardust.

Michelle Mackintosh’s travel highs and lows

Public horror

I was in Kamakura with a Japanese friend when I started to get a migraine. It’s the busiest time of year with cherry blossom crowds. The horror of publicly being sick on a moving train in a polite and manners-based society was magnified by the brutal pain in my head.

Welcoming locals

I once visited a suburban Osaka onsen. Rows of naked women lined up to rub honey on themselves and I joined them. Back in the change room, I was offered home-made onigiri (rice balls) and green tea from a flask. This kind of hospitality, when I’m visiting somewhere new, means so much to me.

Originally published as Michelle Mackintosh's guide to the best coffee in Kyoto