Chanoma

Chanoma invites you to linger. This Ikebukuro café is housed in a renovated kominka, or traditional Japanese house.

What is Chanoma?

Chanoma is an elegant café nestled in a quiet quadrant of Ikebukuro, known as the Nishi-Ike Valley to locals. The menu here is concise, with a curated selection of coffee and tea-based drinks, and popular desserts that sell out by mid-day.

The real draw, however, is the peaceful, traditionally styled atmosphere, complete with tatami mats, a tokonoma, and a kamidana curtained by zigzig streamers commonly found at Shinto shrines.

The café is particular about the matcha, served blended into a creamy matcha latte. “We used to get our matcha from Nishio,” manager Hiroshi Kato told us during our visit in April 2025, referring to Aichi’s premier matcha-growing region. “After the supply ran out due to foreign demand and the matcha boom, we began sourcing from Wazuka in Kyoto. The quality is very high.”

What to know before you visit Chanoma

Do you need reservations for Chanoma?

Chanoma does not take reservations.

However, the space is used for tea-ceremony practice sessions in the evenings every other week. If you want to participate, you’ll need to register ahead of time and pay a fee. Find more information here.

by Aarohi Narain