Branche

Today, was a really warm and sunny day off, so I decided to walk around a bit and stay on my side of town. In one of the "mooks" I bought recently features a section on cafés around Tokyo SkyTree. Since it's only a few minutes away by train, I decided to head that way. I was hungry so I was more concerned with a cute lunch spot than a coffee house. I decided to go to Branche.

It turns out Branche is half flower shop and half cafe. That means the surroundings are quite cozy. There's a big window but it faces the main road and not SkyTree. The food is pretty typical but tasty. I went with the Japanese style mushroom pasta with iced coffee. I think as a flower shop, they specialized in herbal and flower teas. But as the lunch set with coffee was already nearly ¥1000, I decided not to check them out. Anyway, this is another place where the food is good and the atmosphere is nice so it's a good lunch spot. It's also smoke free so it's a bit more comfortable than Cafe Soeur which is in the same general area. The staff here is about the same too. Friendly but not particularly chatty or outgoing.


 Order: Japanese style Mushroom Pasta Lunch Set ¥980
Review: Very cute lunch spot if you're in the area.

Website: 食べログ Page
Access: Oshiage Station (less than 10 minutes from exit A2)

Cafe Soeur

Today I made an important realization. There's a big difference between cafes and coffee shops. While both are nice depending on what you're going for, I'm more interested in coffee shops.

But anyway, today I went to a cafe in Oshiage called Cafe Soeur. It's a really cute two story shop. The interior is country style and is done mainly in blue and whitewash.
Very cute. The two women who run the shop aren't exactly chatty, but they're very nice. One of them even let me have a postcard that I saw and said was cute.

I had the curry rice set with blend coffee. The set included a side salad and a small cup of fruit and yogurt. The curry was amazing! And the yogurt was pretty heavenly as well. The coffee was freshly ground and brewed and came in an adorable heart shaped mug.However, at least for me, the coffee itself was pretty bad. But again remember that I don't really have great taste in coffee.

As for whether or not I'd recommend this place depends on how sensitive you are to smoke. Because it's very open, it's pretty well ventilated. But smoking is allowed and it is still an indoors space, so if someone is smoking, you're bound to notice. But if you don't mind a little smoke or you're a smoker yourself, and you're looking for a nice place for lunch, I definitely recommend it. Especially if you happen to be in the area looking a Tokyo Sky Tree.

Order: Curry Lunch Set with Blend Coffee (900 yen)
Review: Cute and cozy lunch spot but not recommended for people sensitive to smoke.

Website:  食べログ Page
Access: Oshiage Station (less than 10 minutes from Exit A1)