Unlike pretty much every other place from Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman, Esse Due Akasaka is a full-out restaurant, not just a dessert shop. It’s an Italian joint that specializes in pizza and pasta, and based on what I saw from my table, everything looks quite good.
Ohagi is a traditional Japanese dessert that typically features a ball of glutinous rice surrounded by a sweet red bean paste. Takeno To Ohagi is admirably focused; they sell seven rotating varieties of ohagi, and that’s it.
I think the thing that stands out the most about Kooriya Peace — a place that specializes in elaborate shaved ice desserts — is the ice itself.
The savarin at Cafe Recherche might have been the booziest dessert that I’ve ever had. If you like liquor-infused desserts, then this is something you’re going to need to try. If you don’t, you might want to stay away.
I don’t think I’ve ever wished that I liked matcha quite as much as I did while I was eating the matcha Bavarian cream at Kinozen.
Rue de Passy actually does a pretty great job of recapturing the vibe of a Parisian patisserie (apparently the owner learned to make pastries in France).
Yes, technically Kantaro eats three bowls of mamekan in this particular episode, but I don’t think I quite have the stamina for that, and I definitely don’t have time to visit the three restaurants over multiple days. As much as I wish I had unlimited time in Tokyo, the clock is ticking.
When you think about it, it’s odd that we consider pancakes to be breakfast when really, they’re obviously dessert. I mean, “cake” is right there in the name. They’re doused in syrup. They’re dessert.
In the episode where Kantaro goes to Minimal, a high-end chocolate shop, he gets a chocolate bar and a chocolate fondant tart. I was really hoping to get that tart, but apparently they only serve one type of dessert per month (it’s a very small shop) and this month it was a chocolate parfait.
Well, I guess they can’t all be winners. To be fair, that’s probably more my fault than it is Kantaro’s. When he went to Kajitsuen Libre on the show, he ordered the peach parfait. Alas, that’s a seasonal item that isn’t available at the moment.