Rainy Sunday, so I took a book to Kimino in Ashgrove. It’s a Japanese cafe. The space isn’t big, but the view out is wide. Most people get sent here for the matcha, and I was no different.
White sign out the front with a big blue dot on it and KIMINO in black letters. Brick shopfront, and the door was propped open. From the footpath you can see the espresso machine, and a wooden shelf by the door with bags of coffee beans and some ceramics on it. Next door is an architecture office.
The pastry counter
The pastries sit on small marble slabs along the counter, each one with a paper label and a price. A lot of the labels say GF, and a few say V as well. There’s an iPad on the counter, and a paper menu with hot and iced drinks and a toasties section.
What was out:
- Matcha financier, $4 (GF)
- Financier, $4 (GF)
- Canelé, $6
- Matcha and vanilla pound cake, $5
- Mango and mascarpone Swiss roll, $6.50
- Florentine, $4.50 (vegan, GF)
- Chestnut cream sand, $6.50 (vegan, GF)
- Weekend citron, $6.50 (vegan, GF), a little lemon-glazed cake with pistachio on top
There were cookies on a cake stand at the end of the counter as well.
The matcha
The matcha list isn’t long, and it isn’t fancy either. Most of the menu is coffee. A matcha latte, a matcha financier and a plain canelé. Rain and matcha went together better than I thought they would. The bitterness in the financier was easy to taste, and the canelé was on the sweeter side, so eating them together balanced it out. The matcha latte was good, and the staff gave me a small bottle of brown sugar syrup to mix in.
The rest of the food
The butter sando wasn’t very sweet, which suits coffee or tea. The spicy grilled chicken sandwich was very good. The canelé is sweet but doesn’t get heavy. The coffee leans sour, and it goes well with the handmade desserts. They also do hand-drip coffee.
The shop
They sell tableware, tea products and magazines, mostly Japanese. There’s nothing much nearby to wander around. It was busy on a Sunday, and the whole small cafe was full of people.
Parking isn’t easy. It’s the one thing I’d mark it down for. It’s a rare find in Brisbane to see a cafe that’s this Japanese.
Where it is
71 Wardell Street, Ashgrove. It was opened in late 2024 by a Kyoto-born owner, and the coffee beans come from Weekenders Coffee and Cavalier Coffee Roasters.
Another Brisbane cafe we’ve written up is Snug in Coorparoo, and there are more under our dessert cafes category.