Very peaceful tea house in the middle of a pond. It’s incredibly pretty and quite peaceful. The staff is nice, wears kimonos, and the tea house has tatami flooring. It’s a bit steeply priced and I wasn’t impressed with the matcha, but a good experience overall!

+3

Lovely little tea house with the view of the garden, and the bridge. The matcha is straight with no milk, and very well executed. It worked perfectly well with the sweet snacks that came in the set. It can be quite crowded with lots of visitors. We were there at 9.30am and it was quiet and calm until the tourists reached at 9.45am or so. Then the calm magic subsided slightly. There are seats with tables, as well as floor seatings. Staffs speak English and were very friendly.

There were four of us here at lunchtime. We didn’t have to queue; a short queue formed shortly after we arrived. You only stay here briefly for a matcha and a light snack, then move on. The tea house really has a lot of charm and the location in the middle of the park is lovely. So is the view. You’re given a very warm welcome and it’s clear where you can sit (shoes off and special shoes for the outdoor area). Overall, highly recommended for a quick break

Nakajima-no-Ochaya is a traditional teahouse set on a small island in the tidal pond at the centre of Hamarikyū Gardens, connected to the rest of the park by long wooden bridges. Originally built in the Edo period as one of the shōgun’s resting pavilions, it was reconstructed after the war based on historical plans and today is the only teahouse in the garden that actually operates as a café. Inside, the space is simple and classical: tatami mats, low tables, sliding shōji and wide windows opening directly onto the water and the surrounding landscape. You remove your shoes at the entrance, and if the weather is good you can also sit on benches outside, facing the pond and the Shiodome skyline in the distance. The menu is deliberately modest – matcha on its own or matcha with a small wagashi – but that minimalism suits the place. When I visited, a bowl of matcha was 500 yen, and matcha with a sweet 1,000 yen; at busy times you may have to wait a little before being seated. What stays in memory is not the complexity of the offer, but the way the teahouse frames the garden: the quiet sound of the floor underfoot, the view of the tidal pond and pines just beyond the glass, and the sense that you are pausing for a moment in a space that has existed here, in one form or another, since the time of the Tokugawa.

+3

A beautiful setting and a very simple tea house in the gardens. The menu is very small but executed perfectly. Recommended to anyone in the area

+2