Swimpond coffee

On a short walk from philosophers path in North-East Kyoto and Ginkakuji is the lovely and peaceful ‘ Swimpond coffee ’ cafe. The cafe opened its doors on 13 November 2019 and is run by a friendly husband and wife.

The café sits on the ground floor of a narrow renovated building, with the couple living on the second floor. The exterior is simple grey stucco with the café façade consisting of a semitransparent corrugated plate and a glass sliding door on the right. Inside you will find a narrow interior with the kitchen on the left and a long beautiful wood counter with chairs along side on the right for up to eight customers. The interior is mostly white with a concrete floor and has a minimal contemporary design.

Inside the café has a peaceful atmosphere and with the use of the corrugated plate as the outer wall allows natural light from the outside shine inside the café creating smooth wavy shadows and giving it a warm atmosphere, it’s absolutely wonderful.

The menu has a morning set (from 08:00 – 12:00) consisting of butter toast, boiled egg and a coffee for only 650 yen. There is also individual toast (butter, honey, cheese or eggsalad), a hotdog or cheesecake. We recommend the cheesetoast but everything is absolutely delicious. For drinks they have coffee (hot/ice, cafe aulait, coffee milk or coffee float) that comes in various blends or milk, banana juice, apple juice and even heartland beer. Everything is carefully prepared and placed on a flat metal sheet tray giving it a even more elegant look.

Swimpond coffee opens early morning and serves delicious food or drinks in a peaceful setting. It’s a great choice for breakfast before an outing to Ginkakuji or the nearby philosophers path. We heavily recommend it.