Japanese ‘kissaten’ lands in Makati
Key Coffee Kissaten Glorietta is built on that same belief. We call this branch the Ginza Salon — named after those small, carefully run establishments that once lined the streets of Ginza.
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Key Coffee Kissaten Glorietta is built on that same belief. We call this branch the Ginza Salon — named after those small, carefully run establishments that once lined the streets of Ginza.
Chef Mianne Manguiat, Chef Alexa Versoza, Kathleen Joy Chua, Jamieson Chua, Marvin Chua, Bryan Chua, Meri Marino, Yasuhiro Fujita and Hiroshi Sekiguchi.
COFFEE demo.
Key Coffee has been roasting since 1920.
Signature Toarco Toraja
Art lives in the cup, and beyond.
Wagyu Tataki Bento.
Ispahan
Fujita Cappuccino.
Raspberry Cold Brew Soda
Wagyu Tartare Bento.
Berry Cheesecake Citrus Crumble.
There’s a difference between coffee culture and café culture — the former talks about what’s in the cup, and the latter is about place, or what happens around the cup. One place serves up both beautifully.
Over the past two decades, coffee had become a distinct part of the Filipino lifestyle. We have become more interested in locally grown beans, brewing methods and independent roasters. In much the same way beer has grown in local appreciation with boutique breweries rising in recent years, coffee culture has perked up the flourishing café culture around the country.
Not quite a newbie in this realm is Key Coffee Kissaten, a café chain that was launched back in 2017 by Boosterfoods Inc. (BFI) from an idea that sprouted among Bryan Chua, BFI president; Marvin Chua, vice president; and Kathleen Chua, marketing and sales manager whose travels and coffee crawls in Japan introduced them to the old-style Japanese coffee concept, called kissaten. These cafes are like traditional tea houses in that they have a vintage look but a modern atmosphere.
While bringing the concept back home, they strove to marry this iconic Japanese coffee culture with the Filipino’s modern sense and sensibilities. They opened the first Key Coffee Kissaten in 2023 in Mitsukoshi mall, BGC. The flagship coffee shop, according to BFI, brought “the kissaten and Hi-Fi café culture to the Philippines the same way that Key Coffee has been synonymous with these types of cafés in Japan for over 100 years already.”
Next came a branch at Opus Mall in Bridgetowne, and the latest to open its doors was Key Coffee Kissaten in Glorietta 2, called The Ginza Salon.
Ginza is Tokyo’s most famous upmarket destination for shopping, dining and entertainment. Here, cafes are the epitome of Japanese sensibilities, exhibiting quality from the interiors to the menu. Every detail is “taken seriously,” from cup to plate to atmosphere.
“Key Coffee Kissaten Glorietta is built on that same belief. We call this branch the Ginza Salon — named after those small, carefully run establishments that once lined the streets of Ginza, where guests came not for show but for substance: good food, well-made coffee, and the confidence that every detail had been looked after. Key Coffee has held that standard for over a century, and at Glorietta, it finds its fullest expression yet,” BFI notes.
Bryan Chua tells DAILY TRIBUNE that for each Key Coffee Kissaten, they wanted to capture a sense of the community in its location. “For Glorietta, we wanted to serve the Makati crowd. We always think Makati is the financial district, or the CBD of Manila, so we wanted to capture the same spirit of Japan’s Ginza. If you go to Ginza’s kissaten, it’s a bit more upscale; it pays homage to the old cafes of Paris and Vienna, so we wanted to create that kind of space here, while capturing the spirit of our brand, which is a modern kissaten, serving but also food that people know but a little bit elevated.”
Only in the Glorietta store can food lovers enjoy the Key Coffee bentos. “The specialty is Wagyu, A4 Wagyu from Japan, but we do it three ways, served with all the accompaniments,” says Chua.
Therse bento sets are served Teishoku-style, with three carefully chosen sides, each prepared with the same attention as the main dish. “Teishoku is not just a meal format. It is a way of composing a plate with balance, intention and care. Every component on this menu — the sauces, the breads, the condiments — is made in-house, because we believe that real quality cannot be bought off a shelf. It has to be made with purpose.”
Chua adds, “I think the Japanese 100-year-old heritage is quite unique to us and how we modernized it and made it accessible to the palates here. I think we are the only ones in that space at this point.”
Cup-to-farm
Another unique element is that people at Key Coffee believe “great coffee does not happen by accident — it is made on purpose.”
In the Gloriatta café, an in-house microroastery ensures “every coffee served here is not just chosen and brewed, but shaped from the very first decision about what it should taste like.” This is the Japanese philosophy called Shokunin — “the way of the craftsman.”
The craft is upheld, and the process is also quite unique to this modern kissaten. “We start with the cup: a specific flavor, a specific character, a specific result we intend to create. Then we work backward — going directly to farmers and processors to find and develop the beans that can produce exactly that. We call this cup-to-farm. The outcome comes first. The sourcing is built around it. It is a harder way to work, but it is the only way to be fully intentional about what ends up in your cup.”
Try the Coffee Bento, which gives a taste of three distinct roasts, each paired with Omakase pastries chosen to bring out what is already in the cup. “Like the bento sets on our food menu, it is a fully composed experience where every element is chosen and every pairing is considered,” says Chua.
Each sip, each bite derives a deeper flavor in the experience of the place, which is designed unlike any other coffee shop in town. “The light fixtures were drawn by architect Noel Bernardo, and we had it fabricated in China, then we hooked it up with the lighting controller here. It’s quite deliberate,” says Chua. “We wanted to combine the past and new, future and old.”
BFI has collaborated with one of the country’s most respected hospitality designers, architects Noel Bernardo and Yolanda Bernardo of EC Studios, which used “traditional earthen materials and textures but presented in a playful and structured post-modern, future-nostalgic scenery. The space was made to be an inviting café but also features other amenities such as a Japanese washroom, bakery retail, wine and sake bottle shop and a napolitana pizza oven station.”
Chua says, “People look for quality and excitement. Apart from quality, people want to explore the story behind the coffee, not just the taste, but also how it’s prepared, how it goes with food. It’s quite an exciting time for people drinking coffee at this point.”
