Basho Cafe

This is one of the cutest cafes I have ever been to! I love everything about it from it’s matcha theme to the tiny treats to the cute, Japanese-​style décor.
Matcha is the star here and the matcha lattes take a while but they are worth it. Each one is handcrafted and it’s not too sweet, like most places. You can sweeten it more if you want after. There’s also tiny treats for about $ 0.50−1. I tried the matcha muffin and the squash muffin. They are each about one bite and have that Japanese charm I love about it. Again, it’s not too sweet and the squash is just a wee bit savory. They also gave us a free matcha madeline cookie and it was fresh and oh-​so-​soft. Be sure to take some treats and matcha (at a great price) home too!
This place is small but super cute and there’s a lot to look at. It’s a feast for many senses: sight, taste, smell. Mmmm! We flipped through some Japanese magazines while we waited and enjoyed every moment here!

Basho is a dainty Japanese café with loads of character. Ranging from coffees to teas and unique sweets like the miso dark chocolate browine. They also sell their own take away loose leaf teas and powdered matcha at very affordable prices. They serve limited plates of lunch on Tuesdays to Fridays.
I went at 2pm for the afternoon tea but was told that the promotion was no longer available. I guess the café had enough publicity and didn’t need deals to draw their customers in which isn’t a bad thing.
I ordered the matcha latte with sweets consisting of the dark chocolate miso browine, white chocolate match browine, matcha and chocolate mochi muffin, kaboucha muffin, nut mochi, soft matcha chocolate chip cookie, white chocolate and match thumbprint cookie. The owner was very kind enough to give me an extra chocolate almond cookie.
The matcha latte was done well and complemented the sweets. Notes of bitter matcha and the smoothness of the milk balanced each bite of the sweets I ordered. Proper matcha lattes shouldn’t have any additional sugar and I enjoyed drinking it in a lovely clay cup. The cups they used made a difference in presentation and keeping the warmth of the drink.
Overall the best items:
Browines: it had the perfect fudgey and chewy texture. However the white choclate one was a bit sweet.
mochi muffins: it had a soft and chewy texture. Not overall sweet and flavours of matcha and chocolate were prominent (this is a must order)
Cookies: there wasn’t much of a surprise with the cookies as they were very 2 dimension with flavour. All shortbread based but for the prices ranging from 50 cents to $ 1 each, I’m not complaining. The soft matcha chocolate cookie didn’t have much matcha flavour though.
Nut mochi: a mouth full of textures as it had walnut pieces and a coating of powered peanuts. Definitely a not so sweet option and would be very lovely if paired with tea lattes
I would definitely come back to try their different drinks and savour more of their little pastries. I would recommend parking in the neighborhoods as one would not have to worry about pay parking and there are plenty of parking there.

Basho is so charming. You feel like you’re in a cozy home, not a café. Everyone is so sweet and nice too.
I’ve been a couple of times and had the tuna tataki lunch set (comes with soup, salad and a few sweets) which is the perfect way to sample Basho’s food. Tea is included but for a couple bucks more you can upgrade to a specialty drink. Try the matcha latte!
Seating is first come, first serve and you might be sitting communally. Since this place is small and popular, be nice and don’t dawdle. There’s nothing worse than standing awkwardly for a table watching people who are done just chatting and taking their time.
Before you leave, snag some sweets to go. When I ordered a variety of sweets, she threw in a couple extra on the house. Nice!
Pro-​tip: when I was there in Dec, I noticed a sign stating food service would only be on during the weekdays.

It’s a tiny little café, that has delicious food and über cute pastry!
My boyfriend and I went a while back, and managed to snag a table by the window. Food is reasonably priced, and takes awhile to come during it’s busy periods.
I’ve been meaning to come back and try their matcha lattes. For the longest time I’ve known they were open from Tuesday– Friday 10 – 5 (or something likehat) recently I just found out they’re open 10 – 5 on Saturdays as well!

Sweet little Japanese café on Hastings. Very unique. I tried the breakfast very simple maybe not one of their best selles. I need to give it another try.

Vancouver could use more Japanese restaurants, right?
If you said yes, normally I’d not a agree, but Basho represents something beyond all of the usual sushi and ramen.
Imagine sort of a cozy hipster coffee place on Commercial being merged with a Japanese (note, not sushi) place, and excuted extremely well and add a Japanese bakery.
The bowls and salads are great, a bit small but like everything hipster,. all organic etc. so that sort of is par for the course.
This place will especially be appealing for fans of anything Matcha.

I fell in love with Basho the minute we stepped in. Basho Café reminds me of the cafes I would go to in Japan — warm and fuzzy ambiance, cute decorations and silverware, delicious desserts, snacks and drinks.
Having had to cut down on my coffee intake recently, I opted for their Hojicha latte — a sweet, oven-​roasted type of green tea. When I got to the counter, I also saw all of the desserts they had and ended up ordering four of their heart-​shaped cookies, a chocolate miso brownie and a mochi mochi matcha pastry.
Everything IS SO GOOD. The desserts — all handmade — aren’t too mind-​numbingly sweet and are just simple yet very delicious. The Hojicha latte was also the perfect balance of sweetness and fragrance from the tea… really, really wonderful.
My only regrets? Not having ordered even MORE desserts, and not having been hungry enough for their tuna tataki, which I saw a lot of patrons ordering. If only there were a Basho Café in Seattle!

Very cute Japanese Café, with good tasting lunches and a lovely authentic matcha latte. Great lunch or afternoon tea spot, I do suggest you go during «off-​times» instead of the peak times. It gets quite crowded. Food takes a while to come out though.
Food — ⁴⁄₅
Price — ⁴⁄₅
Mood — ⁵⁄₅
Service — ⁴⁄₅
Overall, ⁴⁄₅!

Matcha galore!
I love matcha. It’s surprisingly difficult to find a good matcha latte that’s not already presweetened. You’re given the option to sweeten the drinks on your own if you’d like. The matcha latte is absolutely potently matcha green tea without being watery or bitter either.
Furthermore, they have a decently wide selection of cookies and pastries, of course, mostly matcha flavored! They do have a red bean mini muffin, very moist, very mini. They have an assortment of matcha sugar cookies, biscuits, etc. My favorite pastry would have to be the matcha mochi mochi muffin. While it looks like a muffin, the inside texture is all mochi. Love it.
While this is a little out of the way from downtown Vancouver, this place is definitely worth the drive out.

This Japanese Café sells coffee and breakfast/​lunch. It’s quite unique on East Hastings in Vancouver. However, it is closed on Sunday and Monday.
I like their fresh baked sweets and pastries. Each one of them is like bite size or small overall, but all of them are tasty. One of their favourite drinks is matcha latte. I order it. Very delicious! It doesn’t disappoint me. Yum!
The café is busy most of the time. People order the food at the counter and find seats afterwards. Sometimes there are no seats, so we need to bear with «waiting». Other than that, it is worthwhile to go back to eat and drink at this café.

What’s not to love about this place.
This place is so cute I just want to put them in my pocket (:
I’ve had Basho café in my list to check out for a while now. Its located in East Village which sometimes gets lots in all the lovely small local cafes and restaurants in the area.
I found a 1 hour street parking in the front, which was bonus. When I entered the café I was automatically transformed to my happy place. And thought to myself Im going to need more than an hour to enjoy this place.
Small place with handful of seating. I walked up to the counter to put in my order. Recommended by Unilocalers I got matcha latte and the tuna tataki. And I’m glad I did.
You can tell this place is a family owned and ran place, just speculating. A really delightful lady took my order and payment (which Im guessing is mom) In the back a younger barista (son), and a gentleman making the food (dad?). For all I know they are all not related and are just co-​workers but I like to think they are.
I ended up seating at the communal table. I love the small details of this place, the little succulent plants on the table, the mini cookies and treats on display, handmade crafts, and the different tables and chairs. Its all in the little details. It was a rainy day when I came and this place just felt cozy.
When my matcha latte arrived it was so pretty I didn’t want to drink it. I also had it with a crescent cookie. The matcha was divine I rarely get it but one of the best I’ve had. The cookie was also very good not too sweet went well with the matcha.
The tuna tataki was amazing! I mean Ive had them before at other places but not like this the salad was fresh great light dressing mixed in. The big chunks of tuna was peerrrrfecct! I almost licked the plate it was that good. Its been over a week and a half since Ive been to Basho and all I keep thinking about was that salad. I never day dream about salads, but this one has left a mark. I will have you soon enough.
This place quickly got busy (lunch time) by this time Ive taken as much as I can of this place I was done my matcha and salad. I got up and gave my spot to someone else, Im hoping they will also have an amazing experience as I did.

I met up with one of my friends here for lunch today. I wasn’t so hungry as I ate at home beforehand, so I only ordered the tea set at $ 5. She ordered an iced matcha latte and a cheese toast. They actually gave us one extra (I’m not too sure if that was a mistake or not) so that was pretty good. The café itself was so cute!
The tea set was ok. It came with a matcha cookie, a mochi brownie, and a little apple cake. I liked the macchiato coffee I ordered that came with it the best. It was small, cute, and had a very strong flavor that was perfect with the little pastries. I would get married to it! However, I didn’t find the desserts so appealing on their own. The cookie was… Meh. The brownie was the best, I loved the mochi. The apple cake was another miss. Just didn’t taste like anything special.
The cheese toast was just greasy, and it tasted kind of like pizza. I could only finish half of it before the grease got to me. Oh well though, I did receive it for free.
I will probably come back for the tuna tataki salad. I would have gotten one but they had sold out.
The ambiance is what really gives this place four stars. It was homely, the service was amazing, and I left with a smile on my face! ⁴⁄₅ for Basho Café.

Super sweet Café. It’s known for their green tea lattes and tuna tataki!
It’s super good and I tried the butter toast (they have a cheese option too) with a hard boiled egg and cantaloupe on the side. It also came with the option of an americano or drip coffee. I also got the opportunity to try the tuna tataki. This came with an option to make it a lunch set (add $ 3). It included a squash soup and three baked goods. My fave was the MOCHI MOCHI muffin. But that’s cuz I like MOCHI.
So good I wanna go again!

Basho is unlike any other café in the Vancouver area. There’s enough Japanese restaurants in Vancouver to satisfy an entire Japanese city and enough cafes to satisfy a nation of hipsters, but a Japanese café? Unheard of.
This place is matcha heaven. Think matcha lattes, matcha cookies, match mochi. Matcha on matcha on matcha. And the tuna tataki was alright. Although I would go somewhere else for the food and just come here for the sweet stuff.

Came back for their matcha latte, houjicha pot of tea, and a few baked goodies. Not that I’ve had too many matcha lattes in my time, I usually like it, and while everyone says this is the real deal — it fell flat on my tastebuds. Well, it was a bit on the bitter side, and my friend had to get some sugar for the both of us (this is coming from someone who doesn’t like to add much sugar to my drinks!).
That aside, maybe I’ll try it again as a chilled latte drink, which I might like a bit better.
The goodies were just delicious. I ordered another kabocha muffin, which I had last time and is a definite win in my books. I also had the baked mochi mochi matcha bite (and there are a few other ‘mochi mochi’ items), but it was so good! I thought it was gonna be cakey at first, but once you bite it, you get a chewy texture, like mochi but not as sticky. I was in loooove.
Everything is just so cute in here, down to the little handmade fabric coasters and place mats. I spent the last 10 minutes perusing the handmade goodies, and they were reasonably priced for what they were (around $ 10-​$ 15 for 4 – 6 vintage Japanese print cloth coasters). Super cute, I wanted them all to myself!

I didn’t expect their pastries to be so tiny. Many of them are bite sized. They have two-​bite pound cake type loaves. Very cute.
We ordered about 10 pieces. The lady was so nice to throw in a complementary coffee flavored madeleine fresh out of the oven! My favorites were the matcha white chocolate cookie, kabocha muffin, and matcha brownie. Skip the mochi with nuts. Nothing was too sweet and went wonderful with tea.

Basho, your cuteness factor is really really high.
I came here for lunch with a friend and fell in love with the concept of Japanese cafes! This is new to me. Don’t come here expecting your usual Japanese fare including sushi, tempura, and that stuff. The café focuses coffees, teas, lattes, and sweets, but they do have three food/​lunch items as well. My friend ordered the tuna tataki on salad and I had the teriyaki pulled pork on rice. The other option is the ‘basho veggie’ but I’m not sure what exactly is in that (but I’m sure it’s delicious).
My friend and I met around 1pm and were lucky enough to grab a couple seats on the social table. The café isn’t super big — there was a line-​up from the counter to the door at different times during our meal. I’d be more conscious of what time I’d come in next time or be prepared to wait.
We both added on the ‘set’ to our meal for an extra $ 3 which only increased the cuteness factor! It included a mini side of cooked veggies, three pieces of mini matcha pastries, a small cup of broccoli soup, and a small cup of tea to wash everything down. Take note that everything is cute and mini. The winner out of our two dishes was definitely the tuna tataki salad. The ginger sauce they have placed on top of each piece of tuna was fresh and tasted like it was just made. Very light and refreshing meals that did not make you feel heavy afterwards.
Good service as you pay at the counter, no one was rushing you or peeking over to see if you were done, and dishes were cleared immediately as you were leaving for the other people to sit. You can definitely tell everything here is homemade with love and I wouldn’t hesitate to return and recommend.

Basho Café Vancouver on East Hastings, a block east of Victoria Drive. Basho is a cute, cozy Japanese café specializing in lunch sets: rice bowls, salads, and sandwiches. This «place» offers a selection of house baked sweets focused on matcha green tea flavors, mochis, and mini kombucha muffins. This little café restaurant is family owned by Miju Kawai, Hiroshi Kawai and their daughter, Moeno.
The shop is adorable with all sorts of cutes. Most everything is handmade by the family. Pottery, quilts and knits are made by Miju. Plates, cups and glassware are either handmade or locally sourced.
Basho Café made it to the top 24 restaurants foodies couldn’t stop talking about in 2014. We wanted to come here to see what it was all about. But their hours are impossible. Tuesday to Saturday from 9am to 4pm. But I don’t get off until 5pm?
Tuna Tataki 10.50 + Salad or Rice Bowl 3: Beautiful thin slices or tuna with a nice sear with fresh crisp greens. Topped with a ponzu vinaigrette with grated ginger, green onions and Shichimi. Shichimi is a Japanese seven spice power. This is a very light lunch and possible better if you made it into a lunch set which comes with soup, mini sweet and a cup of tea for $ 20.
Instead I optioned for a match latte. They had initially forgotten about my order, but it was delicious when it did arrive.
Terri Pulled Pork Rice Bowl 12: The pulled pork itself was less appealing than the tuna tataki dish. The pulled pork was dry. All we could think about it was that pairing it with rice made it even more dry. The teriyaki sauce was nice as it wasn’t too sweet. It was nothing special however.
Matcha Cookie with White Chocolate 1: Made with no eggs. A nice delicious treat that is less sweet. Be careful, it is extremely slippery on the tiny plates. You could easily lose it on the way to your table!

When I first stepped into Basho Café, I noticed right away that, for a smallish place, they didn’t jam it tightly with seats. There’s room to move near the counter, and the tables and chairs aren’t so tightly packed that you’d lose legroom or privacy. That was a good sign from the get-​go, and Basho Café did not disappoint. And you get the sort of service-​with-​a-​smile like you would from a kindly neighbour who remembers old school courtesy.
I dropped in late afternoon for a meeting, so I really only ordered something out of courtesy. Turned out to still be really decent!
Looseleaf Tea ($ 2.85 «to stay»). At first, I thought, WTH, $ 2.85?! Turns out it’s a POT of tea, and no extra charge if you ask for an extra cup to share. Even came with a tea cosy — you don’t even get that from some afternoon tea places. If it takes a bit longer than Starbucks it’s because they are preparing it in the pot and they serve it to you steeped and ready to drink instead of just dumping a spoonful of tea leaves and drowning it in hot water.
Kabocha mini-​muffin ($ 1). Size of a ping pong ball. Normally I don’t order anything that looks like it’d been sitting in the counter all day (and having walked at around 2.30 pm, all them muffins in the counter were sitting there all day already), but this turned out really nicely. Kabocha is basically Japanese pumpkin, and this muffin was moist, with even moister patches where there’d probably been a lil’ lump of pumpkin.
Flavourful without being at all oily or heavy-​feeling by being too rich with oil/​butter. And bonus points for not being crumbly when I tore it in half with my fingers. Overall, a really decent muffin.
At $ 1 a piece, the price is not that bad since if you bought 3 it would have added up to a regulation sized medium muffin.
Cozy ambiance, warm service, tasty food, and reasonable prices all adds up to a rare 5 stars.

After making Mashable’s list of 24 restaurants foodies couldn’t stop talking about in 2014, I had to make it over to Basho and see what the fuss was all about.
I see it now. The décor and inside alone is all sorts of cute and impossibly adorable. As for the grub, I had the signature dish, a tuna tataki rice bowl in its lunch set combo including broccoli soup, salad, assorted mini sweets, and a cup of tea.
The meal was delightfully presented and everything tasted very good and full of mild flavours. However, the donburi was a little tricky to eat served on a plate instead of a bowl, but I digress.
The small little counter eatery and Japanese café was packed with seating at every little corner, nook, and cranny.
It’s a charming spot full of character and quaint charm serving light meals and snacks. I can see how it’s worth a try. And FYI, they’ll be open Saturdays starting in the new year.