Onibus Coffee Nakameguro

A coffee shop named after a bus

Onibus takes its name from the Portuguese word for bus, a nod to the idea of coffee as a way to connect people. Its founder, Atsushi Sakao, first found a different kind of coffee in Australia, where he discovered a cup that was not bitter and a cafe culture built around community. He later trained at Paul Bassett in Shinjuku, then opened the first Onibus near Okusawa Station, in a residential neighborhood rather than a retail district.

The Nakameguro shop opened on January 21, 2016, as the second location. It was chosen partly because the company needed another place to roast.

The room

The shop sits a short walk from Nakameguro Station, beside a small park. It is a narrow, traditional wooden house with a semi-outdoor seating area. The interior was designed by Kazufumi Suzuki and keeps much of the building’s original character, including timber ceiling slats. Tokoname tiles and ceramics by Yumiko Iihoshi were made for the cafe, and the local artist Chalk Boy drew on the back wall.

Upstairs, the room runs the length of the building under an open A-frame roof, with wooden floors and plastered walls. Windows look out on the trains passing every minute or two. There is power for laptops, but no Wi-Fi.

How Sakao roasts

Sakao began roasting at home on a Fuji Royal, then moved to a Diedrich. He has described choosing Diedrich machines for their clean flavor, and as a way to stand apart from shops using Probat. He has also named Stumptown and Tim Wendelboe as inspirations.

The roasts are light, with beans typically pulled shortly after first crack. Staff hand-sort the cooled beans, and the team cups every day. Sakao talks about traceability and letting the coffee’s own flavor show, rather than imposing a house taste.

Sourcing is the other half of the work. Onibus buys roughly a year ahead and offers an espresso blend alongside three to five seasonal single origins from South and Central America and Africa. Staff visit the farms they buy from, and the company has been traveling to Rwanda for years. In his words: “You can’t make good coffee without good beans.”

Roasting has since moved to a larger roastery in Yakumo, in Meguro, which houses a 22 kg Probat and can be viewed through windows. Nakameguro remains the place where the story started to scale.

Ordering and what to know

You order and pay at the front hatch. Pour-overs are made at a second hatch on the side, where a few stools let you watch the V60 work. The espresso menu is short and built around one house blend, and a latte made with it has been singled out as excellent. Single origins come as pour-overs, and the seasonal offerings change as the coffees do. There is a small selection of cake, plus bags of beans and brewing equipment to take home.

The address is 2-14-1 Kamimeguro, Meguro-ku. Onibus operates a second Nakameguro shop near the station and other branches across Tokyo, so check which one you are walking into. The wooden house is the one with the trains and the upstairs window bar. Go in the morning, when the street is quiet and the park is empty.

Sakao has said he prefers improving service and quality over rapid expansion, and also wants barista work to be a sustainable, long-term career. The company is now a B Corp, certified in 2026.