Tsubame Café is a 13-minute walk from Kamakura Station, nestled in a quiet neighbourhood near the small Nameri River. The 85-year-old wooden Japanese-style building may be rather unspectacular from the outside, but as soon as you step in, you’ll find yourself in a cosy café, complete with traditional tatami flooring, a beautiful wooden ceiling and an indoor engawa porch.
Tsubame Café’s menu is inspired by yakuzen, a cooking method based on traditional Chinese medicine. The concept is also reflected in the interior design, so you can spot an old wooden medicine cabinet at the kitchen counter, old medicine jars repurposed as flower vases as well as lots of dried flowers decorating the space.
Tsubame uses only local and organic vegetables, which means you’ll find just two lunch options on offer. Opt for the yakuzen oden that comes with rice, soup, small side dishes, herbal tea and annin-dofu (nut milk jelly) as dessert, or the yakuzen curry that includes rice and three sides, plus the herbal tea and dessert. We recommend visiting before 1pm on weekends and holidays as the lunch offers tend to sell out fast. If you miss out on the lunch sets, though you can still look forward to puddings, waffles or parfaits.