Nana’s Green Tea
Japanese sweets restaurant · Belltown ·
Matcha parfaits, lattes, and traditional Japanese sweets
Matcha parfaits, lattes, and traditional Japanese sweets
"Nana's in South Lake Union is another great option for matcha soft serve. It’s quite balanced—the bitterness of the green tea is toned down perfectly without being sickly sweet. We love it especially when swirled with vanilla and/or eaten with an entire slice of matcha pound cake shoved on top." - aimee rizzo, kayla sager riley
"Sometimes, the only thing that will make you feel better after a long morning is to sit alone, stare into an empty void, and eat a waffle cone full of soft serve topped with an entire slice of cake. Nana’s is the matcha-themed bakery that’s there for you if you need lunch to be an ice cream parfait, and we love that the earthy green tea flavor is perfectly pronounced without making the whole thing taste like a fistful of lawn mower clippings." - aimee rizzo, kayla sager riley
"Matcha is the heart of the menu at this downtown cafe. Diners can indulge in items like roll cake, cheesecake, tiramisu, and more; the matcha cream puff bursts with a massive amount of matcha custard cream, while the parfaits are monumental masterpieces. Drinks range from lattes to frappes to sodas, though the matcha americano might best show off the quality of Nana’s matcha. (Other featured flavors include hojicha, yuzu, and black sesame.) The Bellevue location has additional pastry offerings, while the Seattle spot serves up savory dishes like curry and tonkatsu." - Jay Friedman
"Sometimes, the only thing that will make you feel better after a long morning is to sit alone, stare into an empty void, and eat a waffle cone full of soft serve topped with an entire slice of cake. Nana’s Green Tea is the matcha-themed bakery that’s there for you if you need lunch to be an ice cream parfait." - Aimee Rizzo
"Located at the base of a brand-new Amazon building at 1007 Stewart St. in Denny Triangle, I’m looking forward to the opening of Nana’s Green Tea on November 29 — the chain’s first continental U.S. location (it already has sites in Hawai’i and Vancouver) — and the store is taking reservations for an early test drive with limited hours through November 28. The shop, owned by Jessmin Lau, features an evocative interior: a large custom concrete tea bar meant to evoke a stone basin and an eye-catching deconstructed wooden tea-house structure with beams that are wood on one side and mirrors on the other to reflect sunlight and simulate being in nature, all under high ceilings. Nana’s centers on green-tea varieties grown and processed by the company, especially matcha and a roasty, cocoa-noted hojicha; the extensive drink menu offers them hot, cold, sparkling or as floats, and includes eight matcha lattes, four hojicha lattes, four red-bean lattes, matcha latte frappes, and lattes with an unsweetened base that can be doctored with whipped cream or caramel. Desserts and parfaits are a highlight: slender parfaits built on tea agar (jello) and soft serve with toppings like sweet bean paste, several kinds of mochi, brown-sugar syrup, and chocolate sauce, plus ice-cream flavors such as hojicha, matcha, and black sesame; soft serve is also available in a cone. Seattle’s shop will bake more pastries on-site than any other Nana’s — including tender matcha and hojicha roll cakes, chocolate gateau matcha cake, and yuzu cheesecake — and will offer a sizable food menu (available to go after the first week) of Japanese comfort items: rice bowls (tuna avocado, salmon sashimi, chicken soboro), rice plates (chicken nanban, salmon cutlet, tofu teriyaki), two chicken curry options (katsu and karaage), three salads including a creamy potato salad, and the chain’s first savory breakfast pitas filled with salad and a choice of chicken karaage, tofu, or salmon cutlet. Owner Jessmin Lau hopes matcha skeptics will find their proprietary blend mellow with little bitterness, and in a test of first-time tasters more than half preferred the roasty hojicha; starting November 29 the planned hours are Monday–Friday 9 a.m.–8 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m.–8 p.m., with breakfast served until 11 a.m." - Suzi Pratt