If you haven’t seen Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman on Netflix, you need to rectify that immediately. It’s basically a sitcom crossed with a food/travel show, all filtered through a lens of grade-A Japanese weirdness. It’s delightful.
Every episode finds Kantaro traveling to a different dessert shop in Tokyo and eating some seriously delicious looking food.
Hey, I’m in Tokyo. I like dessert. Let’s see how many Kantaro-approved sweets I can cram into this trip.
Up first: Kanmidokoro Hatsune, a traditional Japanese dessert shop that’s been around since 1837.
There isn’t a word of English anywhere in the restaurant, so it’s a good idea to come prepared. Obviously I knew what I wanted: Kantaro visits in episode 1, and he gets the shiratama ogura anmitsu, a dessert featuring red beans, agar jelly cubes, fruit, and chewy mochi balls. You can get it with either black or white syrup; I (and Kantaro) went with white.
There might have been a language barrier in ordering, but as soon as I (very awkwardly) asked for the shiratama ogura anmitsu, the shopkeeper asked “Kantaro?”
I nodded, and that was that.
It’s really, really good. The beans have an amazingly meaty texture (they definitely didn’t come from a can), the jelly is nice and firm, the fruit is ripe and sweet, and the mochi balls are pleasantly chewy.
There’s a really great variety of tastes and textures, and the sweet syrup brings it all together. It’s the perfect level of sweetness.
With desserts of this calibre, it’s easy enough to see why this place has been around for so many years.
Location: 1 Chome-15-６ Nihonbashiningyōchō, Chūō-ku, Tōkyō-to 103-0013
How to find it: There’s no English anywhere, but look for the display of wax desserts in the window.
Featured in: Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman — Season 1, Episode 1