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