Dessert Cafe Yuta

Today I went to Kagurazaka for a language exchange meeting. I arrived in the area an hour early so I decided to wander around. I had been here before with my friend but I couldn't remember which direction we had gone to find all the cafes. So I just picked a way. It ended up being the wrong one for finding the interesting part of town, but it still worked out in the end. While wandering the streets, I happened across a bright yellow shop front with a sign that said "cafe". I was definitely going in there!

And in there I went. The name of the place is Dessert Cafe Yuta. And as one might expect from the name, they specialize in sweets. I looked through their all Japanese menu and decided to splurge a bit on a nice swan Chou cream puff set. And because it was a rather warm day, I decided to go with ice coffee.

While I waited for my order, I took in my surroundings. The front seating was rather narrow yet cozy. There were two tables with 3 chairs each and a couple chairs at the counter. I didn't go to the back part so I have no idea how big it was or how many seats were back there. I should have checked, but I was too busy with being lazy.

Anyway, the cafe decor was cute. The lighting was rather dim and the coloring was warm and inviting. At first it didn't seem like there was too much in the way of actual decorations but the more and more I looked, the more and more I felt I was in a cat lady's home. There weren't any real cats, but there were plenty of cat decorations - pictures, figures, mobiles, and so on. As a cafe, it was cute. As a person's home or kitchen, it might have been a little sad, I think. Good thing it was a cafe.

Now when my order finally came, I was more than a little pleased. My swan Chou cream puff was beautiful. And the little fruity ice cream treat was really delicious. My coffee came in a cool cup but the presentation was slightly ruined by the big red straw that also came with it. I realized later that I should have just sucked it up and gone with the hot drink because, according to pictures I later saw on the Internet, there's latte art here. It probably would've tasted better too. All well, this was a dessert cafe and the dessert was pretty amazing. Another place I'd be willing to revisit if someone else wanted to go. 


Order: Swan Chou Cream Set (¥650)  and Iced Coffee (¥600)
Review: Delicious but maybe a bit too cute.

Website: http://blog.dessert-cafe-yuta.com/
Access: Kagurazaka Station (5-10 minutes from Exit 2)

Glorious Chain Cafe

As you may know from reading previous posts, or knowing me in person, I love buying cafe magazines. I have more than I could possibly need and I'll probably buy more. But there's one in particular that I really like and find very useful - Tokyo Cafe Book 2012. They've got such enticing pictures in there. One in particular has been calling to me and I found myself with some free time, so I finally made it to the place to which the picture belonged.

The cafe is called "Glorious Chain Cafe". The subscript says "by Diesel". According to the magazine (if I translated it correctly), Diesel Shibuya is a concept store (it doesn't say how or in what way), and at the same time that they opened it, they opened the cafe. The manager, 鐘ケ江仁 (maybe Hitoshi Kanegae, but I'm not sure....), took a team around the world to hand select dishes to put on the menu. According to the magazine.

So anyway, I went because of the picture of Eggs Benedict in the magazine. And though I was tempted by other choices, some of which were cheaper, I decided to get the Eggs Benedict. That's what brought me there after all. The lunch set came with a choice of tea, coffee, coke, or ginger ale. I decided to go with ginger ale and then maybe order a coffee later.

The eggs Benedict looked as nice in person as they did in the magazine. I was actually a bit surprised. And they tasted really great! Now, I have to admit, this was my first time to actually have eggs Benedict, so it's possible that they're the worst ones ever, but if you're not comparing them, they're definitely delicious. I was quite please. But as a result, I ended up inhaling them and giving myself the hiccups.

Since I scarfed the food down so quickly, I had some more time to kill, so I did go ahead and order some coffee. I went with the "Flat White", after looking up what that was first. It's a choice that I both regretted and celebrated. It was creamy and delicious. But I can't actually drink much milk and I usually go with soy milk in my coffee drinks. So my mouth was super happy and my stomach hated me.

I would definitely come here again for food, but I'd probably go over to "On the Corner" instead, because the coffee is better and the staff are a little friendlier. And cool without being pretentious. I felt like the staff at Glorious Chain Cafe thought they were cool and I didn't really like that vibe so much. But the food was good and the cafe itself is pretty cool and chill. Maybe a cool spot for a date? Or a place to take someone in general that you want to make think you're cool?


Order: Eggs Benedict lunch (¥1200) and Flat White (¥600)
Review: Cool and chill cafe, but maybe a bit too stylish for me.

Website: http://www.diesel.co.jp/cafe
Access: Shibuya Station (across the street from exit 13)

Straw Hat Cafe

My birthday was this week, and since my friend and I were off on the same day, we decided to celebrate. We went to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. It was quite cute but there were tons of kids. I really liked the building itself and I want it to be my house someday. But I haven't seen any of the main Ghibli movies so I couldn't really appreciate some of the attractions. But anyway...

The cafe! There is a rather cute place in the museum called the Straw Hat Cafe. We were both looking forward to going in but there was quite the queue. We were surprised to see that there was a special waiting area with seats and books and such, and that there was a queue for that! We had to wait to wait? I guess all in all we waited about 30 or 40 minutes or so. And then we finally got in!

The place is cute, as expected. It's got a nice country cottage feel to it. My friend and I were sat at the counter, which looked directly into the kitchen area. That meant we got an interesting view that we could both look at without craning our necks. We could also nonchalantly take pictures.

My friend has decided to "man up" and start drinking coffee. So instead of tea, he also got a "coffee with foamed milk". But we mainly chose this drink because we heard that it came with some sort of art on top. We were excited about that, as you can probably guess from some of my previous posts. They basically painted a cute image on the top with chocolate. I was a bit worried because I don't like chocolate coffee but there wasn't enough chocolate to affect the taste. It was pretty good, by the way.

Also since it was my birthday celebration, I decided that I was going to eat cake too. So we ordered the day's seasonal chiffon cake - chocolate fig. They gave us a huge piece so the two of us were able to share it and still be full. I'm not really a fan of chocolate cake - I don't dislike it, but it's not my favorite - but this was quite nice. It was really airy and fluffy. The flavor was also quite light, so perfect with the coffee.

So, it was a really cute place with nice food and coffee and everything we saw served to other people looked amazing. I wouldn't recommend going to the museum for the cafe, because that would be inconvenient and pricey. But if you're going to the museum, definitely stop in.



Order: Coffee with foamed milk (470yen) and Chocolate Fig Chiffon Cake (500yen)
Review: A great addition to the museum

Website: Museum's page
Location: Ghibli Museum, Mitaka

L'usine (日本語訳)

Original English Post

ホーチミンと言えばカフェを思い出す。ホーチミンではリラックスしたかったので、何もしないと決めていた。でも、結局は友達と一緒にカフェと夕食に行くことになった。日本へ帰る前に最後の夜、私の友達の彼女がうちに美味しい家庭料理に誘ってくれた。もちろん、コーヒーとデザートのため、まずカフェに行ったんだ。この旅の最後のカフェは L’usineというカフェだ。

さて、その店で見つけたパンフレットによると、L’usineはカフェであるだけでなく、ブティックでもギャラリーでもあるそうだ。建物は１８００年代に遡り、（もともとの建物というわけではないと思うけど…）ダンスホール、ホテル、庁舎などとして使用されていたけれど、今現代的なところになったとも書いてある。やっぱり、L’usineは現代的なところだと言える。L’usineの店の値段は高いし、「ブティック」という感じがしたとも言える。

とにかく、カフェについてブログなので、カフェの話題に戻りましょうね。カフェはそんなにかわいいわけでも小さいわけでもないけれど、居心地はよかった。少し驚いたことには、外国人が多かった。友達は ここは知る人ぞ知るカフェだから、お客さんはみんな現地に住んでいる外国人かもしれないと言っていた。そうかもしれないけれど、このカフェは広いし、長い共同デーブルがあるし、勉強している学生が多そうな雰囲気だったんだ。それに、花が入っている花生けでもそれを感じられる。私たちはお互いに見えて、話せるように、花生けを横に動くした。

飲み物についていえば、たしかみんなカプチーノを注文したと思う。（よく覚えていないんだ…）食べ物には…説明できないほどうれしいことにカップケーキだ！私はカップケーキが大好きだよ。カップケーキはなんとなく私をうれしくさせる。日本には、なぜかわからないけど、カップケーキはほとんどない。それから、アメリカを出てから、一個も食べていなかったんだ。前回は約４年間前だ。このカフェでカップケーキを食べたよ！2人の友達はレッドベルベットを一個ずつ注文したけれど、私はどんな味があるかわからなかったから、店員さんに聞いてみた。店員さんがカップケーキ味を列挙している間、選ぶようにした。それで、彼女は「レモンドロップ」と言った。私はレモン味のスイーツが好きだから、レモンドロップを選んだ。

レモンドロップカップケーキにしてよかった。もちろん、カプチーノも美味しかったけれど、カップケーキこそ良い思い出になった。見た目がかわいいだけではなく、微笑ませるほど美味しかったんだ。でも本当は、美味しかったかどうかわからないんだ。4年間も食べていなかったおかげで、美味しくなったかもしれない？このカフェの近くに住んでいれば、よく勉強して頭が良くなるかもしれないけど、カップケーキを食べ過ぎて太ってしまうかも！？私は日本に住んでいるから安心なんだけどね！

注文: カプチーノ（60,000VＮD）と　レモンドロップカップケーキ（55,000VＮD）

所見: どうしてこのカフェは日本にないの？ 東京にあって欲しいな。

Website: http://lusinespace.com/
Location: District 1, HCMC

(Thanks to Kairi for helping with this translation)