Before dismissing this as another coffee place, you should try out their Sumibi charcoal roasted coffee and decide for yourself. Wysgal described it as a “poor man’s” UCC and she loved their Matcha (Green Tea) so that’s a second reason to try out this place in Greenhills promenade. I would also agree with her that the restaurant selection in promenade was well thought of and will become a destination place for men and women. Historically, I would avoid greenhills because I detest shopping specially walking several tiangge shops with no guarantee if its good quality or not.
Kohikan was established by Mr. Kunio Manage way back April 1970 in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. Its aim was to develop a multitude of coffee shops across Japan for it wishes to share its great coffee and service to the public (what a generic vision, though). We decided to check out the coffee…
My brother loved coffee and like to try out new places too. We were undecided on what coffee to order since there was a mixed of description of bodied, sour, sweet, smooth, mild. On occasions like this, one should ask what is the bestseller in the house and just ordered it. Although, I would have preferred a blogger raving about something before trying it out. In the absence of a reliable opinion, we go for the safe bestseller.
The ambiance is pretty standard and reminds you that you are in a japanese place because of the japanese characters on the wall. There is an interesting painting or photo of an alley and the interesting lighting setup which made the place comfortable. It was crowded and lacks the elegance of UCC or even Starbucks.
The coffee was priced like starbucks and we tried both Sumibi and Emerald mountain. At first, description of bodied as being bitter and sourness like a sinigang was juggling in our minds but we took the leap of faith to just try it out.
The service was fast and the presentation in a nice white cup oozing with the smell of freshly brewed coffee was the best part of the experience. It definitely tasted great and using charcoal to roast it gave it a different distinctive taste. Its like noticing the difference between wooden fire pizza and an oven pan baked one.
Of course, it is not worth it to just go to promenade for Kohikan, (there is a second branch in Diamond hotel), but be sure to check out instead of the two Starbucks facing each other in the Greenhills mall.
Hey Anton your photos are great … what kind of camera do you use?
Kohikan also has the only decent hand dryer in the whole country. Are you frustrated by the weak hand dryers used in most restaurants and malls? …those that are too weak that you have to use them for more than 5 minutes to be effective? Try the one and Kohikan. It’ll dry your hand in seconds. I swear.