In August 2009, Shibuya Channel’s cafe column visited cafe ano — then Tokyo’s Czech home-cooking cafe inside a renovated ~45-year Western house at Shibuya 1-20-3 (cafe ano Building 1F), up the slope past Cat Street between Urban Research and Royal Flash off Meiji-dori.
Czech chef cooking covered jernofbuky canapés, knedlíky, guláš, and potato branborák (six variants including sausage, camembert, and spinach-egg). The sausage branborák used specialty ham-factory sausage from Ibaraki. Branborák was framed as Czech street comfort — crisp outside, chewy inside — usually eaten smaller as snack food at home.
Beer and culture upstairs
The drink board leaned Czech: Pilsner Urquell, Budweiser Budvar, Bernard Special Dark, and other Czech bottles (six on offer), plus Japan-brewed Heart&Beer PILSNER by Czech-born Jiří Kotýnek, a 2008 international competition gold. Owner-facing voice Renata Prašilová asked guests to come for culture and mood as much as dinner; upstairs Gallery ano held Czech culture exhibits.
Closing note on the move
The page’s postscript: cafe ano would pause 29 August, relocate to Omotesando, and reopen 4 September 2009. Treat Shibuya 1-20-3 details as the pre-move snapshot this backlink pointed at.
The Meiji-dori–Cat Street slope still drains toward scramble density on the Shibuya Crossing live camera. Cafe hops belong in a trip budget — see average trip to Japan cost.
