The world’s gone properly matcha-mad, and the capital isn’t holding back either.
Right, we need to talk about matcha. What started as a slightly try-hard order from your most enthusiastic colleague circa 2019 has, somehow, taken over the entire city. It’s in your oat flat white, it’s in your birthday cake, it’s apparently in your skincare now too, and there is a very real chance someone in your group chat has described it as “a lifestyle” with a completely straight face. We’re not mad about it. We’re just saying: we noticed.
So we did the legwork, because that is, apparently, the job now. Eight of London’s best matcha destinations, from a Hong Kong cult import doing a summer residency in Mayfair to the fashion-house café that was quietly doing matcha before anyone else cared. Consider this your cheat sheet for looking like you knew about it first.
We tried the classics, the unusual ones, and at least one drink that involved wasabi, because someone had to. We looked at sourcing, at whether “ceremonial grade” actually meant something or was just a nice thing to print on a cup, and at whether the food menu could hold its own next to the drinks. Prices and locations checked at time of writing, because London opening hours and matcha residencies both have a habit of moving without telling anyone.
Matchali at The Chancery Rosewood, Mayfair
Best for: the pop-up you need to know about before it disappears
Location: The Chancery Rosewood, Mayfair, until 7 September 2026
Cult favourite doesn’t even cover it. Matchali built a genuine following in Hong Kong before cousins Cara and Laura Li decided London deserved a taste, and for one summer only, they’re set up in the middle of Mayfair. The matcha itself comes from a fifth-generation tea farm in Uji, ceremonial grade and treated with the kind of respect most of us reserve for a passport renewal. The strawberry matcha latte is the one everyone’s queuing for, but don’t sleep on the banana bread version, or the hojicha latte if you fancy roasted over raw. Everything’s made with house syrups and zero refined sugar, so you can pretend this is a wellness choice rather than a treat. We won’t tell. Just don’t wait until September, because residencies have a habit of vanishing the second you’ve finally worked out your order.
Jenki, across London
Best for: the one you’ll walk past whether you mean to or not
Location: Spitalfields, Selfridges, Borough Market, Canary Wharf, Battersea Power Station, Covent Garden
You know Jenki. Even if you don’t think you know Jenki, you know Jenki, thanks to that unmistakable emerald-green shopfront that’s now basically part of London’s street furniture. Launched in 2020 to catch the matcha wave early, it’s since spread to six locations and counting, sourcing its powder from the foothills of Uji. The flat green is matcha’s answer to a flat white, dependable and unfussy, while the rose and collagen latte and the ginger and turmeric version are for anyone who wants their tea to also double as a personality trait. Snack-wise, the matcha snickers and olive oil cake are doing quiet, confident work in the background. Jenki isn’t trying to be niche. It’s trying to be everywhere, and honestly, it’s succeeding.
Tsujiri, across London
Best for: the one with actual receipts
Location: Chinatown, Camden, Stratford, and both Westfield outposts
Founded in Japan in 1860 by Riemon Tsuji, a man who dedicated his life to perfecting gyokuro green tea, Tsujiri has more matcha heritage in one teaspoon than most of this list has combined. That legacy shows. This is a proper dessert tea house, not just a counter with a whisk, and the matcha tiramisu latte is the kind of thing you’ll still be thinking about two days later. Pair it with matcha almond biscuits, matcha chocolates or a matcha madeleine sandwich if you’re determined to make green tea your entire personality for the afternoon. If you want the closest thing to an authentic Japanese matcha experience without booking a flight, this is it.
Blank Street, across London
Best for: matcha beginners who aren’t ready to fully commit
Location: 40+ branches across London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Glasgow
Blank Street did to matcha what it already did to coffee: made it fast, made it everywhere, and somehow made it good. Since launching in 2020 and picking up Best Coffee Chain in the UK and Ireland in 2023, it’s expanded to more than 40 branches, which means there is almost certainly one within stumbling distance of wherever you’re reading this. The blueberry matcha, made with housemade blueberry oat milk, is a gentle entry point for anyone still on the fence about the whole green tea thing, while the Daydream, vanilla bean, honey and cinnamon syrup mixed with oat milk and matcha, served hot, tastes more like a dessert than a drink. It’s not the most ceremonial experience on this list. It doesn’t need to be.
How Matcha, Marylebone and Notting Hill
Best for: the order that makes your friends ask questions
Location: Marylebone and Notting Hill
If the rest of this list is matcha behaving itself, How Matcha is the one with something to prove. Sourced from farms in Kagoshima, its ceremonial grade base gets put through some genuinely inventive combinations: a wasabi matcha shot, a dirty matcha, and something simply called the immune, blending cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, bee pollen and honey. Feeling adventurous? The matcha noir folds in black sesame, roasted chestnut and activated charcoal, while the sunburst brings together strawberry jam, peach puree, banana and turmeric milk. We can’t promise you’ll love every combination. We can promise you won’t be bored.
Wa Cafe, London
Best for: the one that also does dessert properly
Location: Ealing, Covent Garden, Aldgate and Marylebone
Wa Cafe is technically a Japanese patisserie that happens to do excellent matcha, which is exactly why it earns its spot here. The interiors are clean and white in that way that makes you feel briefly more organised than you actually are, and the cake counter alone is worth the trip. Order the matcha milk roll or the matcha mochi an pan, a soft green tea bread filled with sweetened azuki beans, and pair it with a latte made from ceremonial grade Kyoto powder. If you’re feeling adventurous, swap in the hojicha latte for something roasted and a little smokier. This is the one to bring a friend who insists they “don’t really like matcha”. They’ll have changed their mind by the second bite.
Café Kitsuné, Belgravia and Covent Garden
Best for: matcha with a fashion pedigree
Location: 19 Motcomb Street, Belgravia, and Monmouth Street, Covent Garden
Before matcha was cool, Café Kitsuné was already doing it. Born from the Franco-Japanese label behind the fox logo you’ve definitely seen on a jumper somewhere, this is matcha filtered through a genuinely elegant, Paris-meets-Tokyo lens. The powder comes from Uji, and the signature iced strawberry matcha latte, finished with coconut milk if you’re feeling generous, has built a cult following of its own. Pastry-wise, the matcha and raspberry financier and the matcha almond croissant are doing quietly excellent work, all served inside interiors considered enough to practically qualify as a lifestyle statement. This is matcha for people who also care what the cup looks like on their feed. No shame in that.
Kova Patisserie, Chinatown, Soho, Battersea, South Kensington and Aldgate
Best for: the one where the matcha is basically a side dish to the cake
Location: Chinatown, Soho, Battersea Power Station, South Kensington and Aldgate
Kova doesn’t do a little matcha, it does an entire matcha universe, mostly in cake form. The signature is the matcha mille crêpe, dozens of paper-thin layers stacked with light cream until it wobbles, and it’s the kind of thing that makes you understand why people queue outside a shop the size of a wardrobe. The matcha itself is ceremonial grade, and if you want it as a drink rather than a dessert, the iced matcha latte and the slightly unexpected dirty matcha boba are both worth the detour. It’s not cheap, and the queues can test your patience, but Kova has quietly become the benchmark London measures its Japanese patisserie against. Worth the wait. Genuinely.
Eight spots, eight very different matcha personalities, and precisely zero excuses left for ordering a plain oat flat white. Go forth and whisk responsibly.
