Mr. Friendly Cafe

So the last stop on my friend's and my mega cafe adventure was Mr. Friendly Cafe in Daikanyama / Ebisu. This is another one of those places that I'd been dying to go to but just didn't have the chance to go out to. After we left Rosalie, we decided to walk towards Ebisu since I needed to take the Hibiya line to Roppongi that evening. Well, wouldn't you know it, Mr. Friendly Cafe just happened to be on the way! Lucky!

So, I found this in one of my many cafe magazines in the hotcake section. But the unique point here is that the hotcakes are miniature Mr. Friendlies. So cute! I was surprised to find that this is the only location because it's been around for a while and there's a ton of merchandise - cookies, mugs, T-shirts, figurines, bags, etc, etc.

Even though I had just had half a piece of cake, I couldn't pass up the chance to eat those tiny little men. So I order a seven-piece regular set with a coffee. Since I was eating in, I also got to choose a topping. I went with caramel, though I wish I had gone with whipped cream instead. All well, there's always next time. Wait - what? Next time? Yeah, if I'm ever in the area again, I'll be popping over here again. I want to try a sundae or something next time. But anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. My friend ordered the mango yogurt smoothie drink and then we took out seats.

The seating area was small and inviting. Most of the light came in through the huge window which faced the road. The place wasn't really anywhere near the main road so, while it wasn't particularly interesting, it wasn't unpleasant either. And the light was quite nice. There was a rather large stuffed Mr Friendly in the corner of the bench seat that I promptly sat next to.

After a few minutes our drinks and mini hotcake men came out to us. After getting a few pictures, we dug in. (Since I'm such a nice friend, I of course let my friend have a few pieces.) The little Mr Friendly hotcakes were yummy on their own, but I'm a fan of pancakes in general so that doesn't say much. And the caramel dipping sauce wasn't terrible, but like I said, I wish I had made a different choice. My cafe latte was pretty good, and I learned later it was organic coffee, so I guess that's good. My friend's mango yogurt drink tasted an awful lot like a Mango lassie, which is of course not a bad thing either.

I definitely enjoyed coming here. It's a place that plan to come to again. I even bought some Mr Friendly cookies for another friend on the way out. (I'll be honest, I bought myself one mango cookie too.) Out of all the places we went today, Mr Friendly Cafe was definitely the top.

Order: Seven-piece hotcake set (¥263) and  Cafe Latte (¥420)
Review: They'll be seeing my face again.

Website: http://www.mrfriendly.jp/index.html
Access: Daikanyama Stations (a few minutes walk)
Address: 2-18-6 Ebisu Nishi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Rosalie

So, after the iffy cafe in Gakugeidaigaku, my friend and I decided to move on to Daikanyama. This place is also well known for having oodles of cafes. While walking around we happened to notice a rooftop seating area. After climbing up the stairs, we realized it belonged to Rosalie, which as it turned out was a bit of a cafe. We peeked inside, but didn't sit down, because we wanted to sit outside.

The inside was really nice from what we could see. It was clearly designed for the young female crowd. That seemed to be all there was! It made no difference to me, but my friend was in hog heaven. Until I made him join me outside. If I had to say, I would say that the motif was rather Victorian, but I didn't get a real good look, so it's hard to say exactly.

As for the rooftop seating area, it was nice and simple. We sat at a table next to a hedge, so the two of us pale people could get some shade and protection from the sun. We couldn't really get the overhead view from our spot, but my guess is that the view below is just the street, so it's no big deal. But just being out in the sun was enough to make me quite happy.

So, since we had just had some coffee, we decided to go with something different at this place. My friend had a lychee and pineapple smoothie, and I had the citrus herb tea. We also split some strawberry shortcake. The cake was delicious and had fancy silver sprinkles so it definitely gets two thumbs up. The tea took me a few sips to get warmed up to it. The flavor was much more subtle than I expected, I guess. But by the end I was wishing I had more. I would drink that stuff all the time if I knew how to make it actually.

So I will say this place is nice and I would highly recommend it to a group of Japanese girls in their early to mid 20s. But if it wasn't for the outdoor area, I probably wouldn't have come here at all. Looking at the indoor crowd made me feel too foreign, too old, and too uncute. It was also a little pricey for my tastes. But like I said, if you fit that target market, I recommend it.

Order: Strawberry Shortcake (¥700) and Citrus Herb Tea (¥750)
Review: It's not really my scene.

Website: http://www.maisondereefur.com/#/home/cafe
Access: Daikanyama Station
Address: 2F, 24-7, Sarugakucho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Patisserie Potager

Picture from Bento.com

So I've been eying this place for ages. I don't know that it actually qualifies as a cafe, but it's close enough for me. I found it on Bento.com's site on the cafe page, so it must count, right? Anyway, it's more of a sweets shop, but anyway...

As I said, I've been wanting to go here for a while, but being as how it's in Nakameguro, I just couldn't make myself go all the way out there. But, then I found someone who lives in the area, so it suddenly became "no big deal". So my friend who resides in Nakameguro and I hit up Patisserie Potager. Yes!

Now, you may be wondering what exactly is so great about this place. It's just a sweets shop, right? Well, no, not exactly. The sweets here all contain some sort of vegetable. There's cakes with carrots, tomatoes, and spinach in them, among other things. My friend chose pumpkin tiramisu, and I went with avocado cheesecake. What? We also had some organic coffee to go along with it.

So, how was everything? The size of the cakes was a bit small, but being as how I was eating cheesecake, I wasn't complaining. My friend and I, of course, tried a bit of the other person's sweet. The pumpkin tiramisu was good, but I preferred my own. (I love tiramisu, but I love cheesecake more.) The coffee wasn't anything special, but it was rather cheap.

As for the price, I ended up being treated to everything, so I ended up not catching the price or getting a receipt. I will say that I'm pretty sure that everything included (2 desserts and 2 coffees) was no more than about 1500. But I could be wrong, of course.

The cafe itself was nice. They don't have any seats inside, but there's a cute seating area outside. And with the nice weather and the breeze, it was a comfortable place to spend a few hours. I would go here again to try the other sweets if I was in the area. But it seems like the area has lots of other interesting places to check out, so I'll do that first.

Order: Pumpkin Tiramisu, Avocado Cheesecake, Two Hot Coffees
Review: A cute and interesting place to visit on a nice day.

Website: http://www.potager.co.jp/
Access: Nakameguro Station (A few minutes walk)
Address: 2-44-9 Kamimeguro, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan

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)

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 (Ho Chi Minh)

So, Ho Chi Minh has basically become synonymous with cafes for me. Since I decided to just chill while there, I ended up doing nothing but going to dinner and cafes. On my final night, my friend's girlfriend invited me to her house for a wonderful home-cooked meal. But of course, we stopped by a cafe for coffee and desert first. My final cafe of the trip was L'usine.

So, according to the little handout thing that I found in the store, L'usine is not only a cafe, but also a fashion boutique and art gallery. And the building itself dates back to the 1800s (though I doubt it's the original building...). The building has been used as a ballroom, a hotel, apartment building, government offices, and a garment factory. It's a pretty cool and contemporary place now, I will give them credit for that. And there is definitely a feel of "boutique" to the store, especially due to the quite high prices.

But anyway, back to the cafe bit. It was really cozy, but not in that small cute kind of way. It feels like a bunch of university students should be in there studying. It looked like the majority of the people in there were, I'm guessing, expats. The place was open with several communal tables, which I'm sure gave it that "we should be studying" feel. The vases of flowers added to that as well. My friends and I actually had to move our flowers over so that we could see each other and have a conversation.

As for the food and drinks, I think we all ordered cappuccinos. The food was, and I can't express how happy this made me, CUPCAKES! I love cupcakes! There's something about them that just make me so happy. And Japan doesn't believe in them or something. So I haven't had a cupcake since my last day at work in the US. That was nearly four years ago. I had a cupcake! My friends both got red velvet cupcakes. I had to ask what cupcakes were available, and as the waitress was citing the varieties available, I tried to make a decision. Then she said the magic words "Lemon Drop". I love lemon sweets so the decision became really easy really fast.

It was definitely a decision well made. The cappuccino was really good. But the cupcake is the thing that I remember most fondly. It was beautiful to look at and smile-inducing to eat. Now, the cupcake may not have actually been that good. It might have been that I hadn't had one in about four years. But I'm pretty sure that if I lived near this cafe, I'd be all sorts of knowledgeable from studying all the time, but I'd also be all sorts of chunky from eating cupcakes all the time too. Luckily for my waistline, I live in Japan.

Order: Cappuccino and Lemon Drop Cupcake (60,000 and 55,000VND respectively)
Review: Why isn't this in Tokyo? I wish I had easy access to this place...

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

Sozo (Ho Chi Minh)

So, after visiting Cambodia, I went over to Vietnam to visit an old friend. He had to work during the day and he said in the evening there was nothing much more to do than eat dinner and drink coffee. So every day that I was there, there was a cafe visit. The first night we went to a place near his flat. But I was so excited to see him after two years that I didn't pay attention to it then.

The second night we went to a rather interesting cafe in a different district. According to my friend, someone started this initiative where they take in street kids and train them to work in the cafe so that they can make some sort of living instead of just being street kids. And now when he says "kids", he doesn't mean little ones or anything, they're teens or young adults.

We ended up getting coffee and a cake, even though it was before dinner. I know, what rebels. My friend went with carrot cake and I, after some deliberation, went with passion fruit cheesecake. Vietnam coffee for me. Cappuccino for him.

So, I discovered that I love Vietnam coffee but I'm also glad that it's not really available so often on menus in Japan because I would probably end up with diabetes before my next birthday. It's so sweet and delicious, but also quite strong. Perfect! And the passion fruit cheesecake? Basically it was edible happiness. I had a bite of the cheesecake and it was good but I will say that I made the better choice out of the two desserts.

As for the cafe, it was really cozy and cafe like. There were two floors, and since the second floor was air conditioned, we went with that floor. They had three big comfy looking chairs that were all occupied so we sat at a table. In the corner, they also had a bookshelf full of books that you could buy or exchange for. Basically, everything a cafe should be and have.

So we only went there once, but went I visit Ho Chi Minh again, I will definitely revisit Sozo. After all, they're "restoring hope, changing lives".

Order: Vietnamese White Coffee (50,000VND) and Passion Fruit Cheesecake (60,000VND)
Review: Great place with a great cause

Website: http://web.mac.com/sozoasia/Site/Home.html
Location: 176 Bui Vien, District 1, Ho Chi Minh