Within the last 12 months, Japanese inspired venues have been popping up all over the city. From cafés inspired by the country’s jazz kissa culture to menus dedicated to traditional Japanese food, Liverpool is not short of coffee shop options offering something a bit different to the franchise giants.
Japan is famous for its stunning scenery, historic landmarks and cultural heritage and interest in Japanese culture is experiencing a massive global boom. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, a record 42.7 million international visitors travelled to Japan in 2025, marking the first year for the figure to surpass 40 million.
The admiration for Japanese culture has not bypassed Liverpool and from the city centre to Childwall, Japanese inspired coffee shops are continuing to open across the region. Here are some of the latest additions to the Liverpool café scene.
The Coffee ザ・コーヒー
International coffee brand, The Coffee ザ・コーヒー, opened its first UK café in the Grade I listed Oriel Chambers on Water Street in December last year.
The Coffee on Water Street -Credit:Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo
Founded by brothers Alexandre, Carlos and Luis Fertonani, the brand blends Japanese aesthetics with Brazilian coffee culture – an idea born from their travels in Japan. The chain, which operates more than 150 cafes across 28 countries, has sites in major cities including Barcelona, Paris, Sydney and Dubai.
The first store opened in Brazil in 2018 and measured just three square metres. Described on the company’s website as ‘the best of Brazilian coffee combined with the purity and perfectionism of Japan’, the business has expanded rapidly, with Liverpool its first UK venture.
Hussein Umar, the owner of the Liverpool site, previously spoke to the ECHO ahead of the café’s opening. He said: “There’s a big coffee scene here. Since Covid, I think people became very interested in coffee and a lot of people became home baristas and invested in some kind of at home setup.
“Everyone knows a bit more about coffee so they can appreciate the difference between the mainstream and specialist coffees. As far as I’m aware, this area specifically doesn’t have that many good-quality coffee options, so we wanted to bring a highly specialist experience with our combination of Brazilian beans and Japanese-inspired interiors and aesthetics.”
The café operates from 7am to 10pm daily and serves traditional drinks like espresso and americano alongside a range of speciality matchas and seasonal drinks.
Kiku Hifi
Jade Edwards is a DJ and the head of coffee at Kiku Hifi -Credit:Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo
Kiku Hifi opened on Gradwell Street on July 13, and is a coffee shop during the day and a bar at night. Owner Mike Girling, also responsible for popular Italian-inspired L’Aperitivo and Tokyo-inspired venue Suono, said his appreciation of Japanese culture played a big part in why he decided to create Kiku Hifi.
He told the ECHO: “Suono is built around the idea of a listening bar but it’s more of a club version so with this place I really wanted to lean into the history of jazz kissa, which is where the entire concept comes from.”
Unique to Japan, jazz kissa originated in the 1920s and are listening bars and cafés dedicated to the playing and appreciation of recorded jazz music on high-end audio systems. Mike said: “I liked the idea of coffee shops which can also move into an evening wine bar as well. The daytime traditional version is more chilled and about a slower pace of life and attention to detail compared to the louder, club version which Suono is.
“Everything’s online now and streaming music is so instantaneous so this is about returning to an older, more physical way of doing things. All the music is jazz and jazz-adjacent so that goes into genres like soulful house, soul and R&B and all the albums are played from start to finish on the turntables which feeds into the slower, more mindful way of listening.”
Kiku Hifi is open between 9am-11pm from Sunday to Thursday and 9am-12am on Friday and Saturdays. During the evening, the venue turns up the music slightly and serves a menu of natural wines, cocktails and a small selection of beer. DJ Pooky from Bonsai Hi Fi Sound System will be the resident DJ on Friday nights and DJ PJ Smith, known by his stage name Roy, will be playing records from 11am until mid afternoon on Sundays.
Shokupan
Amir Didarzadeh, 35, is the owner of Shokupan cafe on Aigburth Road alongside his partner Meimei. On the menu, customers will find a selection of coffee, matcha, iced tea, and sweet treats. The cafe also offers a sando menu, including chicken katsu, tofu katsu, tamago and fruit and cream.
Amir Didarzadeh, co-owner of Shokupan on Aigburth Road -Credit:Liverpool Echo
Amir told the ECHO: “I’ve always been a fan of Asian food, and I’m cooking and eating that almost every day. So I wanted to bring that to any cafe or restaurant concept that I build myself. I hope that in the future I’d like to explore more kinds of foods around that.
“The word ‘Sando’ is basically the Japanese word for sandwich. It’s as simple as that. But the thing that makes our sandwiches special is the shokupan bread, which is the name of the shop.
“Shokupan is a Japanese milk loaf. It’s made with a kind of a gelatinized starch star, which is called a yudane or tangzhong. That basically allows it to be very soft, fluffy, and hydrated.”
Typically served in thick slices, it gets its light, fluffy consistency from the tangzhong or yudane technique – a method where flour and liquid are pre-cooked into a paste before being mixed into the dough, helping the bread stay moist and airy for longer.
Alongside its food offerings, the site also has a cosy corner where customers can relax and browse the illustrated novel library. The venue is open from Wednesday to Friday between 9am and 4pm and Saturday to Sunday from 10am to 4pm.
Arbor & Ivy
Stephany Burns and Lucas O’Hare transformed the premises previously used by Florida Property Corner into a coffee shop offering “the beauty of the outdoors” and “the wellness of Japanese culture”. Arbor &Ivy opened near Childwall Fiveways in February this year after a mutual friend, who would become a silent investor, brought the two owners together.
Lucas O’Hare at Arbor & Ivy Coffee Shop -Credit:Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo
Stephany, from Roby, previously spoke to the ECHO ahead of the opening. She said: “We’re trying to bring the outdoors in to create something like a peaceful secret garden where people can come in from the busy road and completely get lost in a garden of love, hope, connection, bringing the community together. When you walk a mountain and you’re on the outdoors, it frees you, doesn’t it?
“But why not have a place in a busy community that gives you that same feeling? You can come in and leave all of your troubles at the door and just get lost in the beauty of the outdoors but indoors. We’re bringing a matcha bar, so it’s bringing the wellness of Japanese culture here.
“We want Liverpool to really experience what matcha should taste like. matcha in its ceremonial grade, not just put on the tin ceremonial grade. We get our matcha from the source. There’s nothing hidden. It’s for wellness.
“And matcha should not taste like grass. It should taste sweet. A sense of coconut, it’s smooth. And it takes you away. It takes you on a journey. It was made for the digestive system, to calm the nervous system. It was made for peace and serenity, really. And, you know, not just that. And I think everyone gets lost in what matcha should actually be.”
The coffee shop is open from Monday to Friday between 8:30am and 5pm and Saturday to Sunday from 9am to 3pm.