Grand Maison Lowe (Takamatsu, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

It’s my first-ever trip to Shikoku (四國), an island known for its untouched nature, temple pilgrimage, and so much more. Our first destination on the island was Takamatsu (高松市), the lively capital city of Kagawa Prefecture (香川縣) on the north side. Known as the gateway to Shikoku, Takamatsu is widely celebrated for its modern arts, traditional culture, and culinary heritage. I think we’ll really love it there especially since our stay will be less than 24 hours.

After checking into our hotel, we took a quick 5-minute walk to the Marugame-cho Green complex, where the recently opened Pokémon Center quietly awaits. That immediately kicked off my quest to check out a number of places I have pinned on my private map. The first stop on my itinerary was Grand Maison Lowe, a long-established pastry shop founded in 1978.

Step inside and you get that antique-style interior vibe (thus the name 'Grand Maison'). Grand Maison Lowe offers a lovely mix of European-style traditional baked goods, cakes, and carefully curated gift boxes.

What I didn’t realize, though, was that besides the European pastries on display, they also reserve a corner for something extra: doughnuts. 🍩🍩

And they’re not just any doughnuts. These are nama-donut style, the kind that have taken Asia by storm in recent years (though apparently not Hong Kong… at least not yet).

Double cream (330 yen) — Little one was pretty hungry after the long flight, so instead of going straight to the Pokémon Center, he hung around with me long enough to enjoy his own doughnut. 

According to him, this wasn't bad.

Salted caramel (360 yen) — The salted caramel custard was definitely nice and runny, but the dough itself didn’t quite live up to expectations for a proper nama donut. The dough tasted a little strange at first, and even worse, it was too soft and not nearly pillowy enough.

Luckily, we came here first, with my next stop as Truffle Donut, so at least the bar wasn't set too high (with Truffle Donut touted as one of the best in the business).

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 7-16 Marugamemachi, Takamatsu, Kagawa, 760-0029, Japan

Closest Train Station: Kawaramachi

Tel: +81 (0)87-811-7557

Website: https://lowe.co.jp/gurame/

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 8:00am daily

Royal Park Hotel Takamatsu (Takamatsu, JAPAN)

My first-ever trip to Shikoku (四國) got off to a fast start this morning. We had our first taste of the newly launched Terminal 2 at Hong Kong International Airport early on, and a few hours later, we finally touched down in Takamatsu (高松市), the lively capital of Kagawa Prefecture (香川縣) on the north side of the island.

During my research for this trip, I already realized that lodging options in Takamatsu (and throughout Shikoku) weren’t exactly abundant. There are plenty of budget hotels and some mid-tier properties, but for someone like me who tends to prioritize newer hotels with a more contemporary design, the choices were slim picking. Maybe just a handful of them at best.

73-key Royal Park Hotel Takamatsu came to mind mainly because of its proximity to the city centre. It’s basically a stone’s throw from the city’s main shopping street — the very area we planned to head to for our first dinner. So in my mind, it ticked most of the boxes.

Despite a major renovation in 2016, the building that houses Royal Park Hotel still felt a bit aged.

The hotel lobby, in particular, has a nice, modern design that creates an inviting vibe.

But beyond the lobby, the mood changed. Most of the interior areas felt a little dark, including the corridors, and the same was true inside the rooms.

The rooms themselves have been tastefully designed with a modern European style in mind.

The room layout was less than efficient, though. It would have felt even more spacious without the table and two chairs taking up a good chunk of central floor space. Not surprisingly, we ended up re-arranging the setup almost immediately after stepping inside.

When it said everything has been renewed since the major renovation, I guess I didn’t pay enough attention to the bathroom. It was noticeably dim, and based on my first impression, it seemed like it might be due for a facelift at some point.

Overall, we had a nice stay at Royal Park Hotel Takamatsu. With less than 24 hours in the city and even less time inside our room, it wasn’t really possible to judge the hotel in great depth. Still, aside from the absence of an onsite parking lot, it proved to be a serviceable option for a short stay. (The hotel has an agreement with a parking facility just across the street, around 1,200 yen per night.)

Rewind to early this morning — everyone in our group was genuinely impressed by how Terminal 2 at Hong Kong International Airport looked. Little nugget joked that it felt more like an aquarium than an airport. I’m sure a lot of us felt the same too.

Rating: ❤❤❤

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 1-3-11 Kawaramachi, Takamatsu, Kagawa, 760-0052, Japan

Closest Train Station: Kawaramachi

Tel: +81 (0)87-823-2222

Website: http://ryl.anabuki-enter.jp/

Charmi Shenzhen Bay MixC 深圳灣萬象城店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★★☆

We’re back in Shenzhen’s Nanshan district for a couple of hours of pickleball this morning. It was a ton of fun. I was surprised the kids held their own for much of the game.

After the game, we took a cab to Shenzhen Bay MixC (深圳灣萬象城) looking for a light meal. There were enough dining options at the luxurious mall to feed us for a month, but Jelloman explicitly pointed out that she wanted something light at Charmi so without hesitation, we headed straight for Pink Street (粉紅大街), a trendy avenue full of shopping and dining options inside the mall.

Once everyone got settled, it was time to check out the bakery goods available today. And there were some new creations we hadn’t seen on our last visit. 

It was stuff like this brioche with Italian meatballs and fish-fragrant eggplant (意式肉丸魚香茄子包) that kept us coming back for more.

Mugwort red bean sea salt roll (艾草紅豆海鹽卷) (¥18) — A local twist on the Japanese butter and red bean baguette we grew to love during our Japan trips. These weren’t bad, but for them to really work, the brioche needs to be a little firmer —something that can actually stand up to a thick slab of butter and red bean paste. And this one failed in that regard.

Truffle mushroom chicken confit egg danish (松露蘑菇雞油封蛋丹麥) (¥28) — Much better than sea salt roll I thought.

Inside the flaky crust, there were diced chicken and mushroom, all drizzled with a delicate cream sauce and finished off nicely with a subtle hint of truffle. The shaved Parmesan and confit egg topping didn’t really distribute enough to make a big flavor impact, but overall it was a solid danish.

We’re planning to have hotpot dinner in a few hours, so not surprisingly, the daddies all got a memo from top management (the wives!) advising us not to have too much food here. Of course, we’re all well-trained to follow orders from top management.

Food Rating: 6.4/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Shop B1-40, Pink Street, Shenzhen Bay MixC, 3213 Keyuan South Road, Nanshan district, Guangzhou, China

深圳市南山区深圳湾万象城B区粉红大街B1层B1-40号铺

Closest Metro Station: Houhai (后海)

Tel: +86 18028704994

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 10:00pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/06/05nM