[Kobe - Sannomiya] Historical Nishimura's Coffee and Kitano (Old Foreigner Settlement)

Nishimura's Coffee is a historic coffee house in Sannomiya, which makes it a great place to go before a stroll in Kitano.

If a lot of that is foreign to you, let me break it down for you.

Sannomiya is a main area in Kobe and it serves as a transportation hub (Kobe, Shin-Kobe, and Sannomiya stations are all in this area). There are tons of shops, restaurants, bars, cafes, etc.

The easiest way to get to Kitano, which is a well-known and preserved foreigner settlement in Kobe, is walking uphill from Sannomiya. This is where the Western traders and diplomats settled in the 1800s when they settled in Kobe.

Kitano is known for its Western-style houses and development style. It's located at the base of Mt. Rokko (I also recommend checking out the views from Mt. Rokko and Mt. Maya).

You can visit some of the residences in Kitano for a small entrance fee and many of the houses are still resided in to this day.

In the area, there are plenty of restaurants and cafes (cafes are more easily found in Motomachi area, which is adjacent to Sannomiya).

So, ever since I lived in Kobe, I had wanted to visit Nishimura's Coffee. Nishimura's is the oldest coffee house in Japan. It serves a wide selection of in-house roasted beans.

The building is quite historical in and of itself and the decor also evokes a early 1900s sort of style.

So, I had planned on just stopping for a coffee, but the price was about 800-1000 JPY for just a coffee, so I decided I may as well make it a lunch set.

I got the sandwich set with a green salad. The sandwich was very Japanese style. It was an egg, ham, and white bread. It was good, but probably not my first choice going forward.

The salad was fresh, but sadly, it was just pretty much iceberg lettuce.


This is the coffee. I like the cup style, but the coffee itself...I would have been quite disappointed by it if I had paid 800-1000JPY just for a cup of coffee. It was good, but not as good as other coffees I've had in other cafes in Japan, or even in Seoul! I only say Seoul because it's not exactly known for its great black coffee.

The menu is below - the cakes were pretty popular when I looked around me.





As you can kind of glimpse, this is the style of the coffee house.

All in all, I probably wouldn't go back. It was good and fun to say that I have been to the oldest coffee house in Japan, but other than that the food was not worth the price.

However, the service was GREAT! The servers were so attentive. But, they did not hover, which I greatly appreciated.
After eating my somewhat sad lunch, I went on a slow stroll around the neighborhood.

Check out this cute mural.


Here's a look at some of the houses in Kitano. Check out my other post about Christmas in Kitano (complete with Santas).



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