Around Meguro station you can find a bunch of Starbucks, St Marc café and Doutor. Among all of them, a simple small old café: Itoh-ya, one of my favorite spot for a good filling-you-up breakfast with delicious coffee. We are for from the showy flamboyant style of the bubble economy kissaten I usually love. Here, no kitsch, no red velvet, no chandelier and no huge bouquets. However, Itoh-ya has a lot to offer…

Itoh-ya (伊東屋)
Since 1952 (Showa 27) 
 Smoking
No Wi-Fi & no power outlets 
 Lively
Recommendation: morning set (sandwiches and coffee blend)
Japanese/English Menu
Alone, couple or with friends
We love: the coffee blend specially made by the coffee, woodworks
Special points: you can get soymilk with your drink 
 Drinks prices: 650-800 yen

The place is simple, no extravagance, but still cute in a certain way with the counter, small tables and woodworks. Regular customers are coming here for a very good coffee that you can drink at home as well: Itoh-ya is also selling their blend coffee. You can get a bag for 840 yen and you can choose among 3 kinds.

You will not find a huge choice of cakes here (even if I heard about their strawberry cake being quite good) ; but instead, you will have a very nice morning set : your choice of sandwiches, small salad and drink.
The last time I went there, I decided to get the cheese sandwiches set with a ice coffee for 700 yen. For once I didn’t get « sardine toasts » which is my favorite things EVER here.
But it’s quite hard to choose sandwiches/toasts as they have a lot of different things and everything looks so delicious! I’m so sad you can’t see on the picture how cutely they were arranged on the plate… You’re also missing the nice smell of freshly toasted bread… I wish you could smell it, really!

And if you can’t get up to enjoy the breakfast, don’t worry, there is also a really nice lunch set for 1000 yen with spaghetti or sandwiches. I tend to avoid lunchtime because the place is getting extremely crowded; a lot of salarymen working around love this place for a nice lunch break with coffee.

The menu offers a lot of different drinks: obviously coffee (3 different kinds of coffee blend for 650 yen each or arranged coffee, hot or cold), but also cocoa, few kinds of tea, juices etc… And something I really want to underline (because it’s quite rare for a kissaten), they carry soymilk!
The coffee here is strong but balanced. My Husband really loves ice coffee and I heard him complaining so many times about a « diluted, watery coffee with a weak coffee taste ». At Itoh-ya, the ice coffee is far from that, still refreshing but with a strong taste; it’s definitely a 10/10 according to him.
Personally I’m more into hot drinks, and if their blend coffee is quite good, I have something for the Vienna coffee here. I always said that a good kissaten couldn’t cheat when it’s about cream. If I want to judge the quality of a place, I order a Vienna coffee… Strong but balanced coffee and fresh homemade cream is a winning combination for me. No need to say that if I’m always getting a Vienna Coffee here, it’s because Itoh-ya successfully passed the test! But I wouldn’t say no to a little bit more cream on my drink…

I really do love this small table near the picture window, but unfortunately when we arrived that day, someone was already sitting there. I always want to sit there!

The only bad point maybe is the fact that you can’t keep a table more than 1 hour and half…The place is a little bit small so… But I think it’s fine, Itoh-ya is not the kind of cafe where you want to nest (yes, I want to nest in comfy café with velvet seat…) and spend hours in. But the place is still a must-try for the breakfast! I actually have this small ritual of coming there at the opening, and then going to walk along Meguro River during Hanami to enjoy sakura before the place gets too crowded…

Itoh-ya (伊東屋)
Address: 1 Chome-2-22 Shimo-meguro, meguro-ku, Tokyo
(東京都目黒区下目黒1-2-22 セザール目黒 1F)
Phone: 03-3491-4194
8:00～22:30 [monday to saturday]
8:00～21:30  [sunday & public holidays]