As shops around the city race to reinvent the humble art of shaving ice for a smattering of social media shares, Cafe Lumiere, a small bohemian outpost overlooking Kichijoji Station, has left its competition in the dust with a truly radical approach: set the ice on fire. The kakigori at Cafe Lumiere is coated with a fluffy meringue by the time it arrives at your table.

Soon after, you’re visited by a server wielding a jigger of Myers’s rum and a lighter. You can imagine what happens next. Yes, the sight of flames engulfing an alcohol-soaked mound of ice is equal parts exhilarating and arbitrary, but the real reward is revealed once the small inferno fades away. Beneath all the pomp and circumstance of Cafe Lumiere’s pyromaniacal impulses lies a truly fantastic dessert.

Address: 1-2-2 Kichijoji Minamicho, Musashino-shi 4F
Distance: 2 min. walk from Kichijoji Station
Instagram: @cafe_lumiere_kichiyoji

If you’re looking for more kakigori places in Tokyo, there are plenty more of that. Check out our full article here.

Note: This article was written on December 5, 2023, by Joshua Harvey and last updated on December 1, 2025, by Metropolis Japan.