A popular lunch/brunch cafe near Dongmen station. During midday it can be a little busy/noisy. However, the afternoon was definitely quieter and made for a comfortable space to work from. The menu is large, with many food and drink options. There's WiFi, but it was very unstable during my visit. Also note that there is a 2 hour time limit during weekends.
Starbucks located inside the World Trade Center convention center. Fast WiFi, but only some seats have access to power outlets.
A fairly small Blue Bottle coffee shop, but there's quite a lot of seating inside. There are some high tables when you first come in, and there's another large room with regular tables in the back. There's not much sound isolation, so it got very loud when it was busy with people talking. So this is probably best for early mornings or late evenings.
Great for early morning work since the Starbucks opens much earlier than the rest of the LUMINE EST department store in Shinjuku. It was basically empty until around 10am. There's very fast WiFi thanks to the free Shinjuku WiFi. No power outlets though. To access the Starbucks before the department store opens you have to use the escalator available from the road side outside entrance (the underground entrances from within the station are closed).
The outdoor seating area is great for outdoor working when the weather is nice. Other than that this place is just ok. The main drawbacks being the very slow wifi and no power outlets. The high tables are good for standing working, but uncomfortable to sit at.
Nice vibe, but not very suitable for working. There's a 90 minute time limit at all times. There is WiFi, although it is very slow (basically unusable) and very difficult to connect to. I had to manually assign myself an IP address in the range 192.168.20.xxx to get it to work. Drinks and snacks available, although quite pricey.
A small place with two large tables. It is definitely workable, if you can find a vacant seat. Definitely better for solo work as it might be difficult to find seats for a bigger group. The chairs are small hard wooden stools, not very comfortable.
Take the escalator up outside metro exit 2. The space is quite large, but can get very crowded, especially in the afternoon/evening and on weekends. There are no restrooms inside the Starbucks so you'll have to use the public restrooms available in the department store or by the MRT, which is quite a big inconvenience. The seats furthest in overlooking the big intersection have a nice view.
Large worktable and counter seats suitable for working. Very fast WiFi but no power outlets at the seats. I stayed for an hour on a weekday morning, which was fine. I asked if it was ok to use laptops and they said as long as I don't stay "too long". The staff was quite pushy asking if I wanted to order more drinks, so I figured an hour was probably the limit - a bit weird since there was no one else in there. The bathroom door had no lock at the time of visiting (in July of 2023). Hopefully that's fixed by now!