diff --git a/plugin-tester-java/build.gradle b/plugin-tester-java/build.gradle
index 683de2a6d..2afc2696d 100644
--- a/plugin-tester-java/build.gradle
+++ b/plugin-tester-java/build.gradle
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ plugins {
   id 'scala'
   id 'com.lightbend.akka.grpc.gradle' version "${akkaGrpcVersion}"
 }
+
 akkaGrpc {
   generateClient = true
   generateServer = true
@@ -37,11 +38,13 @@ repositories {
 
 def scalaVersion = org.gradle.util.VersionNumber.parse(System.getenv("TRAVIS_SCALA_VERSION") ?: "2.13")
 def scalaBinaryVersion = "${scalaVersion.major}.${scalaVersion.minor}"
+def akkaHttpVersion = "10.5.0"
 def akkaVersion = "2.9.0"
 
 dependencies {
   implementation group: 'ch.megard', name: "akka-http-cors_${scalaBinaryVersion}", version: '1.1.3'
   testImplementation "com.typesafe.akka:akka-stream-testkit_${scalaBinaryVersion}:${akkaVersion}"
+  testImplementation "com.typesafe.akka:akka-http-spray-json_${scalaBinaryVersion}:${akkaHttpVersion}"
   implementation "com.typesafe.akka:akka-pki_${scalaBinaryVersion}:${akkaVersion}"
   testImplementation "org.scalatest:scalatest_${scalaBinaryVersion}:3.2.12"
   testImplementation "org.scalatestplus:junit-4-12_${scalaBinaryVersion}:3.2.2.0"
diff --git a/plugin-tester-java/src/test/scala/example/myapp/shelf/ShelfServiceHttpTranscodingSpec.scala b/plugin-tester-java/src/test/scala/example/myapp/shelf/ShelfServiceHttpTranscodingSpec.scala
index b2ff0c758..4b06eb467 100644
--- a/plugin-tester-java/src/test/scala/example/myapp/shelf/ShelfServiceHttpTranscodingSpec.scala
+++ b/plugin-tester-java/src/test/scala/example/myapp/shelf/ShelfServiceHttpTranscodingSpec.scala
@@ -4,26 +4,39 @@
 
 package example.myapp.shelf
 
-import akka.actor.testkit.typed.scaladsl.ScalaTestWithActorTestKit
+import akka.actor.ActorSystem
 import akka.http.scaladsl.Http
 import akka.http.scaladsl.client.RequestBuilding.Get
-import akka.http.scaladsl.unmarshalling.Unmarshal
 import akka.http.scaladsl.marshallers.sprayjson.SprayJsonSupport._
+import akka.http.scaladsl.unmarshalling.Unmarshal
+import com.typesafe.config.ConfigFactory
 import org.scalatest.BeforeAndAfterAll
+import org.scalatest.concurrent.ScalaFutures
+import org.scalatest.matchers.should.Matchers
+import org.scalatest.time.Span
 import org.scalatest.wordspec.AnyWordSpecLike
-import spray.json.JsObject
 import spray.json.DefaultJsonProtocol._
+import spray.json.JsObject
 
 import scala.concurrent.ExecutionContextExecutor
-import scala.compat.java8.FutureConverters._
+import scala.concurrent.duration._
 
-class ShelfServiceHttpTranscodingSpec
-    extends ScalaTestWithActorTestKit(config = "akka.http.server.enable-http2 = on")
-    with AnyWordSpecLike
-    with BeforeAndAfterAll {
-  implicit val ec: ExecutionContextExecutor = system.executionContext
+class ShelfServiceHttpTranscodingSpec extends AnyWordSpecLike with Matchers with ScalaFutures with BeforeAndAfterAll {
+
+  implicit val patience: PatienceConfig =
+    PatienceConfig(5.seconds, Span(100, org.scalatest.time.Millis))
+
+  implicit val serverSystem: ActorSystem = {
+    // important to enable HTTP/2 in server ActorSystem's config
+    val conf =
+      ConfigFactory.parseString("akka.http.server.enable-http2 = on").withFallback(ConfigFactory.defaultApplication())
+    val sys = ActorSystem("ShelfServer", conf)
+    // make sure servers are bound before using client
+    ShelfServer.run(sys).toCompletableFuture.get
+    sys
+  }
 
-  val serverWithHttpTranscoding = ShelfServer.run(system.classicSystem).toScala.futureValue
+  implicit val ec: ExecutionContextExecutor = serverSystem.dispatcher
 
   "a gRPC server with HTTP transcoding enabled" should {