SAMAA_ Coffee Sangenjaya
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Readers, it’s time I come clean about something I’ve kept hidden from you: I love coffee. I know you think of me as Gregg, the guy who never drinks coffee and never writes blogs about fancy coffee shops, but in reality, I have been enjoying coffee like a snob-jerk this entire time. In fact, despite what I may have led you to believe, I go to fancy coffee shops all over the world and make up every excuse I can to visit fancy coffee shops in Tokyo. I am a coffee boy.
Phfwhew. Glad I got that off my chest. By the way, according to How Not to Age, you can drink up to six cups of coffee a day and it’s still good for you. That’s good, because I often fit right in in that 5-6 cup window, from the pour-over in the morning to single-serve in the later morning to instant coffee after lunch to ice lattes from the Moka Pot in the afternoon to sometimes even decaf after 9pm (or the pour-over my father-in-law is making me as I write this at 9:24 pm on a Saturday).
I rarely use my milk frother anymore, sticking to cold milk drinks while at home. A nice latte, cappuccino, macchiato, or Gibraltar (from anywhere fancy enough to know what that is) has become a wonderful treat when I go out. Sadly, up until recently, I’ve had to walk for almost five minutes to get to the nearest fancy-pants coffee shop, even being forced to cross a street at a crosswalk. But no more. A new fancy coffee place just opened in our neighborhood, so close I can taste it (genuinely, any time I want). Let’s go.
Welcome to SAMAA_ Coffee in Kamiuma
Samaa is a new coffee shop in the Kamiuma neighborhood of Sangenjaya, which is in Setagaya City, part of Tokyo. It appears the capital letters and underscore are part of their name, but I'm not doing that every time, so for the rest of this post it will be known as Samaa. Somehow, I don't think they'll be too brokenhearted about it. And if they are, they can tell me the next time I walk by with my dog, which is every day because it’s right by my house and Ricky likes to walk past there.
Samaa is the brainchild of a dude who used to work for Blue Bottle Coffee. Housed in a 70-year-old building, it has a cool, modern aesthetic: big windows, visible scaffolding, and that cafe-that-looks-like-a-factory vibe you’ll find everywhere from Pasadena to Assadena. Best of all, it’s dog-friendly, meaning there are often little doggies inside waiting patiently while their owners eat bagels and drink upscale coffee. That was enough to sell me on it, so Eriko and I went by to give it a try.
Visit #1: Coffee and specialty drinks (and a cookie because I’m a good boy)
The Samaa people must have done some incredible promotion prior to opening, because the shop was packed every time I walked by the first week. We went around 4pm, and there was one table empty. I’d say this place doesn’t quite have enough tables for the amount of customers it seems to regularly have, or enough food: their food menu is mostly bagel, and several kinds were already sold out. We wanted to try some food for this review, so we got a chocolate chip cookie. It was soft and delicious.
The staff is really on their shtuff - they hand you a menu while you wait in line, ring you up quickly, and you aren’t forced to wait long for your drinks, which they will bring to your table or give you to go. The menu says you can sub oat milk for free, which is great because most places charge for it. Unfortunately, they were out of oat milk that day, so I went with an espresso.
The espresso looked great, the little cup was great, and it was the perfect temperature. The drink was nice and creamy with a great depth of flavor. I make fancy coffee at home all the time, and drinks like this remind me that I have no idea what I’m doing. I very much enjoyed sitting there, sipping my drink, and reading Ulysses. Yeah, that's right. I’m reading a fancy college-boy book.
Eriko ordered two of their specialty drinks: the Super Milk Brew, which apparently involves soaking coffee in milk for either 10 minutes or 10 hours, but to me mostly tasted like milk, sort of like a latte macchiato in Italy (where we’ve been because we fancy). We also tried a Jamu shot, which is a health drink featuring turmeric and a bunch of other stuff but I’m not sure what because all I tasted was turmeric. I’m glad we shared it, because it would have been too strong for me to drink it all. If you’re not a coffee person and need a healthy pick-me-up, I can see this being a good option.
Overall, our first visit was very nice, and we walked away thinking we would definitely come back soon. But the real test would be whether our four-legged friend would approve of Samaa.
Visit #2: Ricky’s first trip to the coffee shop
After learning that Samaa is dog-friendly, we knew we had to bring the little genius along at some point. Unfortunately, this cafe is so popular, every time we walked by, it was too full to take him inside. Each night, I would walk Ricky past the giant windows of Samaa, and each time, it would be full: no available seats, line to (and sometimes out) the door, even people and dogs waiting outside. He seemed indifferent to the dogs, but very much wanted to see the people and possible get whatever he smelled in there.
Finally, on a night when Eriko was home, we took a trip to introduce Ricky to the world of fancy coffee. He had a little trouble entering because there’s a tiny step up on the way in, so I had to pick him up and set him down. I also picked him up while we were in line because I didn’t want him getting into too much mischief. He had a lot of things to sniff on the floor.
All the food was gone except one kind of bagel, and yet again they were out of oat milk. Eriko and I each ordered lattes. There were two types of gluten-free dog biscuit to choose from: pumpkin or sweet potato. We went with sweet potato because he often gets sweet potato treats and loves them.
The register lady asked, in English, why Ricky was shaking.
“He’s never been here before,” I said. “I think he is worried this is the vet.”
“Don’t worry!” she told him. “This is fun place!”
I set him down and we made him do his tricks for treats. He is capable of sitting and O-te-o-kawari, the Japanese version of shaking hands where he has to do it with each paw before getting his treat. The staff was friendly to Ricky and we felt like we’d have no problem taking him there again.
As for how he felt about the biscuit, I think it’s safe to say he enjoyed eating it. On the walk home, he kept looking up at us like, “I’m a good boy, right? Maybe you give me more of those?” Now I’m worried he’ll try to walk me there every day. But since it’s a fancy coffee shop, maybe I’ll be the one walking him there every day.
Verdict: Does SAMAA_ live up to the hype?
The minuses on Samaa seem easily fixable: they run out of food and have never had oat milk when I’ve been there. It’s also a bit small, but aside from the lack of seating, all these things feel like they can be improved easily. They do all the standard coffee shop things really well, the staff is friendly, and best of all, the drinks are top-notch.
The espresso was some of the best I’ve ever had. The specialty drinks, though neat, weren’t something I’d try again, and the latte wasn’t quite as good as the one from Verve Coffee. But in our neighborhood, this is definitely the best coffee around, and it also happens to be the closest, which means I’m going to go there a lot. And I’m going to bring my dog. He likes biscuits.
Where to find SAMAA_ Coffee in Tokyo
Address: 1 Chome-33-7 Kamiuma, Setagaya City, Tokyo 154-0011
Instagram: Samaa_Coffee
Hours: 10am-10pm every day of the dang week.
Samaa is just a short jog from Los Tacos Azules, one of Tokyo’s best restaurants. I’d recommend getting tacos there, then going to Samaa for an after-meal coffee. You really can’t go wrong here. Sangenjaya is awesome, and so is this place. Check it out.
Oh, almost forgot: it’s cashless. You cannot pay with money at this place. Get yourself a Hilton Surpass and buy so much coffee you end up with Diamond Status. That’s what I’m gonna do.
