{ Mercer Brunch }

2013, Mar 5

Miss E (my friend who you frequently see on my blog) and I went to this new restaurant/cafe that opened at the end of last year near Roppongi Midtown. “Mercer” is a restaurant brand and this restaurant is their new concept that serves “brunch” (but they are open for dinner too). The restaurant feels very airy and the tall windows bring a lot of natural light in which is great on a sunny day. As soon as you walk in, you’ll notice the great fire place which is the centerpiece of the restaurant. There’s also a small terrace seating where you can dine with pets allowed but it was a tiny section.

Mercer Brunch is known for their brioche french toast, which was quite good. You get to choose your main dish out of 9 selections (but for some you have to pay additional $$) + french toast for 1600yen. Since it doesn’t include a drink, it feels rather pricey for lunch, but the quality of dishes we got were good so we were satisfied with our meal. The ambiance was nice and cozy, the staff were friendly, and we hardly had to wait so overall it was a good experience. In case you are wondering, we chose the grilled chicken salad and salmon tartar for our main dishes.

Stay tuned for my next post where we went shopping and had a tea break near the same area :)

Address // 4-2-35, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan (map)
Phone Number // 03-3470-6551
Website // n/a

Food:
Decor:
Service:
Cost:

{ Zenkashoin — 然花抄院 }

2013, Mar 2

The above photo source for the sweets: www.zen-kashoin.com

A traditional Japanese sweets shop & tea house from Kyoto, Zenkashoin is located on the 5th floor of Shibuya Hikarie. Since Hikarie is still very much a new mall/building, the stores and shops are pretty crowded but my friend and I got lucky enough to get a seat here for tea time. We ordered the 1150yen tea set that comes with a drink of your choice (coffee, tea, green tea, matcha, etc) and a choice of dessert. The dessert is a small delicate size and it wasn’t too sweet. We liked the matcha castella icecream sandwich more than the matcha circular castella.

If you sit by the window, you will have a nice overview of Shibuya and the rest of the cafe still has a nice zen-like ambiance. They also sell their ceramic plates, tea sets, and more so you could take a look if you’re interested.

Address // 5F, 2-21-1, Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan (map)
Phone Number // 03-6434-1517
Website // http://zen-kashoin.com/store/hikarie/

Food:
Decor:
Service:
Cost:

{ Panino Vino }

2013, Feb 18

Opened on December 25th, 2012 in Omotesando, this cafe/restaurant serves tasty panini’s. From the spacious terrace seating to the entrance way, chairs, beautiful tiled floors, wood ceiling and the nice bathroom, you can tell there was an excellent designer behind this place and no expense was spared. It’s hard to imagine how much all of these details cost but it’s not just beautiful, it’s also cozy. We visited this place on a weekend and they have a different menu than during weekdays (as most places in Japan do).

They give you a choice between two options for the bread on each panini you order, Focaccia or Ciabatta. We ordered the clam chowder (500yen) and the “Salsiccia Verdure Panini” which includes Italian sausage, grilled vegetables, lettuce, rucola and spicy salsa sauce for 1200yen on Ciabatta bread — mmmmmm! We also ordered the “Pollo lattuga Panini” which comes with smoked chicken, lettuce, rucola, and tartar egg on focaccia bread for 850yen. The clam chowder was more watery and different from what we expected but both of the panini’s had such fresh vegetables and ingredients with tasty bread so we enjoyed both of them. The service was also very good. We actually had to wait about 5 minutes before we got seated and they served us free tea. Definitely gets some brownie points for that ;)

PS: Panino Vino is owned by the same owner as AW Kitchen.

Address // 4-5-12, Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan (map)
Phone Number // 03-5772-2896
Website // http://www.eat-walk.com/panino_vino/

Food:
Decor:
Service:
Cost:

{ Patisserie Paris S’eveille }

2013, Feb 12

Valentines Day is coming up and in Japan it’s hard to miss it since all the shops are filled with all kinds of chocolate-related gift boxes. In case you’re not familiar with Japanese Vday, it’s a big day for the ladies to gather up their courage and give some chocolate to that special someone. There’s “Honmei chocolate” – for their true love and also “Giri choco” – obligatory chocolate for co-workers and friends. It can also be a nerve-wracking day for men to see how many chocolates they get on vday, but it’s always interesting to see how many Honmei chocolates you get VS Giri Chocos. How can you tell the difference? They say if it’s homemade or an expensive chocolate gift, it could be Honmei ;)

Anyhow, in honor of Vday today’s post is a sweet one. Pastry Chef Yoshiaki Kaneko, the owner of Patisserie Paris S’eveille, has trained in Paris for a few years at prestigious places such as ‘Ladurée’, ‘Alain Ducasse’, ‘Arnaud Larher’, and ‘Le Daniel’. He opened his own store in Jiyugaoka in 2003 and it’s a very popular patisserie which is always crowded with couples and ladies of all ages. I’ve previously purchased some pastries from here but never had the opportunity to dine-in and try their beautiful cakes so I was excited. I wanted to try everything, but ended up ordering the ‘Gâteau Basque’ and the ‘Isabella’ after going back and forth between many options. The Isabella was executed to perfection but I wasn’t a huge fan of this walnut-based cake even though I usually love walnuts. On the other hand, the gâteau basque was delicious and we liked that both of the desserts we had were not too sweet. It seems that they are famous for their chocolate cakes so I plan to try that next time.

Address // 2-14-5, Jiyugaoka, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan (map)
Phone Number // 03-5731-3230
Website // n/a

Food:
Decor:
Service:
Cost:

{ Moomin Shop }

2013, Jan 20

Opened on December 6, 2012, this Moomin Shop is the first official brand shop to open in Japan. Located inside of Dogwood Plaza in Futakotamagawa, it’s located on the 2nd floor right off the escalator. For those of you who don’t know Moomin, it’s a central character in a series of books and comic strip by a Swedish-Finn illustrator and has been very popular here in Japan for a long time. The shop has the cutest items along with a small coffee corner where you can order lattes for 550yen with a choice of your favorite Moomin character on top of the foam drawn with coco powder. The coffee was surprisingly good so I wasn’t dissapointed despite having to pay 550yen for a latte. This is a great place to come for Moomin fans.

Address // 2F Dog Wood Plaza, 2-23-1, Tamagawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan (map)
Phone Number // 03-5797-5539
Website // http://www.benelic.com/moominshop/

Food:
Decor:
Service:
Cost:

Category Archives: Cafe

{ Mercer Brunch }

{ Zenkashoin — 然花抄院 }

{ Panino Vino }

{ Patisserie Paris S’eveille }

{ Moomin Shop }

{ About }

{ Search }

{ Blog Courtesy }