Lonich, Coffee Omakase Experience
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If there’s one thing I love, it’s fancy coffee. We use a fancy pour-over setup at home, along with a fancy Moka pot, and buy fancy coffee beans at Kaldi or get them sent to us from Japanese Coffee Co. I care very much about the difference between a cortado and a Gibraltar.
Unfortunately, Japan’s fancy coffee scene can be hit or miss. Don’t get me wrong, there are some great places, including those that allow dogs, but some coffee shops only do pour-over (no lattes), and others are allergic to oat milk despite the fact that it’s humanity’s greatest achievement.
Eriko and I went to one fancy coffee shop (name omitted, but it’s in Asakusabashi) that charged as much as $35 for a pour-over in a environment that was one degree away from “prison cafeteria,” and after being told how I was and was not allowed to have my coffee, it tasted like absolutely nothing.
Another time, I went to a fancy coffee store (name omitted, in Iidabashi) where they had a huge menu of beans. I asked for help selecting which beans to go with, and the young lady looked at me like I was the dumbest person alive (I know the look because I get it a lot). I told her I usually like darker, richer flavors, and she said, “We only do light roast.” Well, then, what is the point of your store? You charge $10 for a latte and let me choose my own beans, but they’re all the same? Yeesh.
What I’m saying is that there’s a culture of expertise here where the fanciest coffee shops have removed the fun and comfort from coffee. You can choose a relaxing coffee shop with Wi-Fi and enjoy good drinks, or you can sit nervously in a sanitized OCD wonderland while the barista tells you that you aren’t allowed to have your drink how you want it.
Nevertheless, when I hear about fancy coffee, I usually come running. And when I heard there was a place in Tokyo offering a coffee omakase experience, I knew we had to go.
Lonich, storefront in Kuramae
Lonich, (yes, the comma is part of the name) is found in Kuramae, relatively close to Asakusa. The neighborhood is actually pretty cool. It’s an urban area, but has the feel of a gentrifying inner city, with lots of cafes and stores that sell upcycled clothes or things that smell good.
Lonich, is known for its coffee omakase experience. Omakase is a type of dining where you pay for a set menu that is determined by the chef. Usually, it’s a lot of courses made up of small dishes featuring seasonal ingredients, and the chef is careful to organize the entire meal around certain themes, paying attention to the flow and shape of the experience. It’s usually expensive, and usually just for food. Coffee omakase is something I’d never heard of before.
You can get regular drinks at Lonich, but if you want to do the omakase, especially if you’re going on a weekend, it’s recommended that you book in advance. We originally booked this for the day we went to L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele and Cozzyy Coffee, but they had a problem with their electricity and weren’t able to serve that day, so we rescheduled for a Saturday around our anniversary.
The space has the look of a laboratory: there are no decorations on the walls, everything is in little bottles and eye droppers, the counters are bare, and the staff (2 dudes) dressed in all black with masks on. We were 6 minutes early, and they looked panicked that we had arrived so soon, even though there was no one in there but us. They had us wait on some uncomfortable benches in the front instead of at one of the counter seats in the back that looked way more comfortable, despite the fact that there was no one sitting in them.
We waited long enough that I asked Eriko if she wanted to leave. This place was raising all sorts of red flags, just like those other unfriendly shops I’d mentioned. They were taking themselves way too seriously. Eventually they brought us back and we were allowed to sit. There was one other guy there at the same time as us, sitting by himself and doing the coffee omakase alone.
There were two menu choices: a “Creative Course,” for 7,000 yen ($45) that included four “signature drinks” made with Chinese tea and Chinese coffee, both light roasted and dark roasted. The actual coffee omakase, the “Collective Course,” was 14,000 yen ($90) and included two pour-overs, an espresso and latte served together, and one signature drink.
Now, I know we like to make a show of the fancy hotels we stay at and the fancy restaurants we’ve been to, but I do not earn “spend $180 on coffee” money. I did not want to pay that much, even if the coffee was super fancy. I told Eriko this, and she agreed we would go for the Creative Course. The guy told us we could choose different things, which is nice: most fancy restaurants tell you that if you get the tasting menu, you all have to do it, but not here, so if only one person is a coffee snob, the other can try other stuff.
Oh, and before we get to the drinks, I should mention the bathroom. It’s gross. A place that gives you multiple coffees needs a good bathroom, and this one does not have that. It looked like a school bathroom, old and broken down, and the lock on the door was super weird and hard to find. Overall, Lonich, was fulfilling every suspicion I’d had: an unwelcoming space where they took themselves too seriously and treated the customer as an afterthought while they enforced unexplained standards about their coffee. So how were these drinks that were costing us $11.25 each?
Drink 1: Chinese tea with Chinese coffee essence
I wasn’t thrilled about the fact that our drinks were only partially coffee-based, and the first one didn’t seem overly creative: it was a cup of Chinese tea with some coffee added on top from an eye dropper to make it smell like coffee. It did smell like coffee.
As for the taste, Eriko said she thought it tasted like tea from Taiwan, which is the best kind of tea (sorry, Japan). We enjoyed the drink (Eriko enjoyed it more than I did). But was it worth $11? Absolutely not. It was maybe worth 300 yen, if that. Probably “give it to me for free at a Chinese restaurant” would best describe it. Perhaps I’m being harsh, because we did like it. I just don’t see why this one was part of it. But we weren’t done.
Drink 2: coffee with black currant and gold flakes, cream cheese, and rose syrup
The second drink definitely had coffee in it, from a big fancy grinder and a big fancy espresso machine built into the counter. It looked like a cocktail, with the coffee mixed with black currant syrup and shaken up. It was a thick, foamy drink, topped with unnecessary gold flakes. It was served with two bits of cream cheese covered in rose syrup. If you watch British Bake-Off, then you know rose is a dangerous ingredient.
The barista told us that the coffee brings acidity and bitterness, the black currant sour, and the cream cheese sweetness and also umami, meaning it should hit all five of your tastebuds at once. He was not kidding.
The flavor of this thing was incredible. The drink was delicious on its own, but when I ate a piece of the cream cheese and took a drink, it really did feel like I was tasting everything at the same time. A remarkable drink that was made much more memorable because of the pairing that gave us something we’d never considered before.
I would absolutely get this again, and totally see why it was included in an omakase experience. It only tasted a little like coffee because of all the other flavors, but the coffee flavor that came through was good, and the drink was well-mixed so that it wasn’t too fruity. This is what we’d come for.
Drink 3: frozen milk, super-concentrated coffee, and dark chocolate
The next concoction involved milk that had been frozen, which set off alarm bells when he showed it to us. Icy, frozen milk? Why? Well, it was to be mixed with super-concentrated espresso. Normally, they use 20g of espresso to make 40g of coffee. But this time, they were using 22g of espresso to make 10g of coffee. Not sure how that’s done, but the numbers do appear to suggest it would be more concentrated.
After adding the espresso to the milk, he delicately shaved dark chocolate on top in such a way as to leave a huge ring of chocolate shavings on the counter. I wish I could have licked them up. Gregg likes dark chocolate.
This drink was the highlight of the experience. I couldn’t believe how good it was. It wasn’t too cold or too hot, but juuuuuuust right. It was as though the flavors existed in layers rather than mixing together. I tasted the milk, the coffee, and the chocolate as separate entities. We were amazed.
I would drink one of these every day. I would drink one the size of an Olympic swimming pool. It’s a good thing Lonich isn’t in our neighborhood, because I would go bankrupt. Just incredible.
Drink 4: yogurt-strained coffee, elderflower, and non-alcoholic gin
The final drink was a small cocktail made with coffee that had been strained through yogurt - like, there was yogurt on the filter - along with elderflower syrup and non-alcoholic gin. Again, this did not sound like something I would want to drink, and yet, because everything was perfectly proportioned, none of the elements overpowered anything else. The guys here are definitely expert mixologists when it comes to these specialty coffee drinks.
Verdict: is Lonich coffee omakase worth its exorbitant price?
In the end, we were happy with our choice. I would rather have tried four expertly-crafted drinks over an afternoon of just coffee, and our guy did a great job mixing all those drinks with such precision. That said, it cost 14,000 yen for the two of us, or $90. I could get 8 or 9 coffees at my local place for that amount. So if you just want coffee, I’d say this place is not for you.
It’s also a weird environment that’s not conducive to conversation because there’s no one there, the music is quiet smooth jazz garbage, there’s no decorations, and the lights are on like it’s a science lab. If you’re going on a first date, do not choose this. I also wouldn’t recommend going alone unless you want to awkwardly sip coffee drinks all afternoon by yourself. But if you’re a couple like my wife and I are, this is a fun experience that’s different from what you normally do with your Saturdays. It was our anniversary, so we didn’t mind spending 90 bucks. That isn’t always true, which is why this definitely won’t become a regular spot for us.
In short, I totally get why someone would avoid Lonich, but we had a good time. We might try it again, but will definitely wait for a special occasion. Until then, I’ll stick to making affogatos at home.
Where to find Lonich, in Tokyo
Address: 〒111-0051 Tokyo, Taito City, Kuramae, 1 Chome−7−4 Ｋビル 1F
Hours: 9am-7pm
Website: Lonich.official.ec
Instagram: Lonich_jp
Reservations: Lonich Square Site
Lonich, has locations in Tokyo and Fukuoka. You can drop in and order coffee, but to do the omakase experience, it’s best to get a reservation. The Tokyo location is in Kuramae, and there is a great Chinese place called Dragon that we went to afterwards and had superb dumplings and some of the best chicken I’ve eaten in a long, long time. You can drink a bunch of coffee and then eat there. We did. Be like us.
