Ben's Cookies Ginza Six (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

I was still kicking myself for missing out on the chance to get my favorite chocolate cookies from Ben's Cookies in Tokyo 4 months ago (I did make up for it in Kyoto). Of course, I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice especially when my lunch venue was just steps away from their Ginza Six outpost.



I certainly didn't expect a lineup of over 20 people here. Am I missing something?

Perhaps this was the reason why. They had these cute little gift boxes available for Christmas and New Year. I was tempted to get my team members one each but I guess that's not feasible with my limited luggage space.

At the end, I just got ourselves a box of 25 pieces. That should be enough to keep ourselves from fighting over the last couple of pieces like we did last time.

Their white chocolate and milk chocolate cookies are my favorites. But sadly, there seemed to be a problem with this batch we got. While the typical Ben's Cookie was supposed to be soft and chewy with a warm, gooey centre, these ones turned out to be a little more crunchy. Was there something wrong with the temperature in the oven?

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: B2F Ginza Six, 6-10-1 Ginza, Shibuya, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Ginza

Tel: +81 3-6263-9881

Website: www.benscookies.jp

Opening Hours: 10:30am - 8:30pm daily 

Fructus Shibuya Scramble Square フラクタス 渋谷スクランブルスクエア店 (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★☆☆☆

Our legs were getting a little sore walking around Shibuya coupled with the fact that the streets were absolutely packed with locals doing last-minute shopping for new year, we had no choice but decided to call it the day. Our last mission of the day was a quick visit to the Shibuya Scramble Square food hall for some bread tomorrow.



But I had another thing in mind. Perhaps one last dessert or pastry before we took off in approximately 36 hours.

Fructus is a local French patisserie specializing in delicate pastries like Mont Blanc, chocolate cakes and cheese cakes, and they happened to have an outlet right here in the food hall.

Mont Blanc – This looks like a "serviceable" Mont Blanc tart. I don't think I have one during this trip. 

Looks like they had two layers of chestnut purée on the outside, one which had been sweetened. Well, I must admit that I didn't fully enjoy it. The chestnut purée was a bit on the hard side and as usual, it comes with a centre of fresh cream which just made the whole thing a lot sweeter than it should be.

Food Rating: 4/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 1/F Shibuya Scramble Square, 2-24-12 Shibuya, Shibuya, Tokyo 150-0002, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Shibuya

Tel: +81 3-3499-2727

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 9:00pm daily

Lina Stores Limited Omotesando リナストアズ 表参道 (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

Two hours in Omotesando was all it took for little nugget to realize that he had enough of shopping already (more like watching us do shopping). Instead he wanted to spend time on an afternoon tea so we wound up sitting down at Lina Stored Ltd. (リナストアズ 表参道), just a couple of hours before dinner time.



The interior design of Lina Stores Ltd. takes inspiration from a modern European café.

I had to start off with a cappuccino first just to get my daily caffeine fix out of the way.

Mom who has been under the weather, had a few coughs here and there and so......she's getting herself a chestnut choux bun! A dilemma as I could tell from her expression. To eat or not to eat, that was the question! Of course, she couldn't resist since she's such a big chestnut fan.

When little one said he wanted afternoon tea, I was expecting something sweet and the idea of ordering a pasta dish never came across my mind. But this was a pretty good pick if someone wanted a savory dish. The thick, hand-rolled pici pasta was nicely tossed with pork and porcini mushroom, finished off beautifully with a shower of shaved Parmigiano Reggiano. I had a couple of wracks at this and apparently, the pasta drizzling with mushroom sauce was perfectly al dente.

This guy was busy with his toy at the same time while he was enjoying his pasta. Very good work of multi-tasking.

This was the way we wrapped up our lazy afternoon. We didn't have dinner planned out yet but we're heading towards Shibuya, and hopefully we thought of something on the train.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 1/F Spring Terrace Omotesando, 3-10-5 Kita-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0061, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Omotesando

Tel: +81 3-6427-3758

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 11:00pm daily

The Roastery by Nozy Coffee (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

Instead of shopping at the outlets, we all chose to spend a quiet day in Harajuku, Omotesando and Shibuya. It's not what we expected from Day One when we were drawing up our plan but everyone seemed to be a little fatigued following the week-long vacation.



Upon our arrival in Omotesando, Jelloman and others immediately went to check out Kiddyland leaving yours truly with a few minutes of Me Time which I decided to spend wisely. After stopping by a few shops on Cat Street, next up for me was The Roastery by Nozy Coffee, a coffee shop known for its freshly brewed coffee and doughnuts. Yes, doughnuts! 



I'm actually here for their New York rings.

NY Rings (470yen) – The cronut-like creation seemed to have shrunk a bit after a few hours.

But the exterior remained very flaky like a typical croissant. Not bad.

Time flies when you're having a good time. Didn't realize more than a few minutes have passed and I am starting to get messages left and right on my whereabouts. It's time to meet up with the gang again for our next destination.

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 1/F Reveur Jingumae, 5-17-13 Jingumae, Shibuya, Tokyo 150-0001, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Meiji-jingumae Harajuku

Tel: +81 3-6450-5755

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

Grigio la tavola (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

I had Lalaport Tokyo Bay penciled in as our only agenda item on our second last day in Tokyo but with everybody starting to get the flu bug (except Jelloman), I decided to simply take it easy on this day. 



Instead of leaving our hotel early, we stuck around until noon time and ventured out to the nearby Akasaka Biz Tower for lunch. There were a few options out there including Harry Potter Cafe but we ended up sitting down at the patio of Grigio la tavola for some simple Italian dishes.

The 3-course and 4-course lunch sets all came with a plain salad that has been showered with a pretty powerful vinaigrette dressing.

Some focaccia before our pasta dishes arrived.

Fusilli with tomato sauce, tuna, mushroom – Little guy couldn't stop coughing these days so we ordered this simple fusilli dish tossed with tomato sauce for him.

He seemed to like it (not that he had much choice)...

Spaghetti with cream sauce, Chinese cabbage, scallop – This was way better than the fusilli. The creamy spaghetti was nicely matched with shredded Chinese cabbage and scallops. It was really tender but firm to the bite. And I like what the Chinese cabbage and scallops brought to the table in terms of contrasting textures. Very nicely done. 

Chicken Fricassée – For those who ordered the 4-course set, there was another meat course following the pasta dish. The chicken steak was served with roasted pumpkin and finished off with an overpowering mustard sauce and rosemary. 

Tiramisu – There was no way I would say no to a tiramisu. Not when I haven't enjoyed this iconic Italian dessert for nearly a month. I thought the texture of this was just perfect but the flavors were a little on the bitter side.

Always got time for a cup of hot milk tea.

Somehow I found it a little too cold to be sitting outside this afternoon but the slow pacing from the kitchen squandered any hope for us to escape the cold weather within an hour.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: ￥￥

Address: 1/F Akasaka Biz Tower, 5-3-1 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-6301, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Akasaka

Tel: +81 3-5545-6885

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 10:00pm (Sat - Thu), 11:00am - 11:00pm (Fri)

Milk Marché Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse (Yokohama, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

Our adventure continues in Yokohama with our next stop all set at the touristy Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse. I heard it's been re-opened since last December following a long renovation. The venue is now packed with exciting new cafés, souvenir shops and more. We, of course, had to make a stop here for some much-needed selfies.

One of the must-do at the Red Brick Warehouse is a trip to Milk Marché, a popular ice-cream parlour that also offers an array of Japanese sweets such as a special homemade butter gaufrette, shortcake and tiramisu.

Milk Marché's signature "4.0 milk soft cream" is easily their best seller. 

There are also milk beverages and dessert drinks available on their drink menu.

Their butter gaufrettes made with high-quality Hokkaido butter, come with different fillings including strawberry, hazelnut chocolate, sweet potato, and cream cheese and salmon.

But I had my eyes on their prized 4.0 milk soft serve right from the start.

This was very rich and creamy, with the perfect silk smooth texture. I love it~

One thing I learned from this trip was that little nugget could make a very nice photographer some day. He seems to have a pretty good sense of what to do with a camera and this photo he took for me while we were leaving the Red Brick Warehouse was a great proof of how far he's come as a photographer.

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 1-1-2 Shinko, Naka-ku, Yokohama 231-0001, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Minatomirai / Bashamichi

Tel: +81 45-650-8707

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 8:00pm daily

Leonard's Doughnut Yokohama World Porters (Yokohama, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

After a train ride that lasted approximately 30 minutes, we finally arrived in the heart of Yokohama city (橫濱市). It's my first time to set foot in the second largest city of Japan and needless to say, I was excited to see how our day trip would unfold in the next few hours.



The weather was a lot warmer here in Yokohama compared to Tokyo which was kind of a surprise considering that this is a port city we're talking about here.

Following a few brief stoppages at different attractions including Nippon Maru Memorial Park, we took a lazy walk along Kishamichi Promenade before finally arriving at Yokohama World Porters Mall which was currently under a bit of scaffolding.

We all managed to find something we like at World Porters mall upon our arrival. Little nugget found a Pacman arcade game which was free to play.

For me, I went downstairs to check out Leonard's Doughnut Shop next to the food court.

Originated from Hawaii, Leonard's offers a small selection of doughnuts including doughnuts with cinnamon sugar or apple cinnamon as well as sugared one with custard cream filling. 

My second doughnut of the day.

Custard cream doughnut – This looks like the baked "egg ball" (蛋球) from Honolulu Coffee Shop (檀島咖啡餅店). The only difference is the custard cream in the middle. I thought its presentation isn't the best for a doughnut but it does its job as an afternoon snack. Very very filling.

Next up for us, we are walking over to Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse, a restored warehouse that is now used as an entertainment complex that includes a shopping mall, banquet hall and event venues.

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 1/F World Porters, 2-2-1 Shinko, Naka-ku, Yokohama 231-0001, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Minatomirai / Bashamichi

Tel: +81 45-222-2172

Opening Hours: 10:30am - 9:00pm daily

Emina Donuts Shimbashi (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

We are taking a short trip to Shimbashi Station (新橋駅) for our transit onto the Tōkaidō Line (東海道本線) en route to Yokohama. Everyone was only paying attention to the signage pointing to Tōkaidō Line but my sixth sense told me to stay alert for other things important in life, such as sweetness in round shape.
 


Hailed from Hokkaidō Prefecture (北海道), Emina Donuts is a doughnut shop chain focused on using some of the best ingredients from Hokkaido. 

They have a lot of different flavors, some with dark and white chocolate glaze.

And cronuts as well, with different fillings in the middle!

Cronut – I am a purist when it comes to the original cronut so I decided to go with this one without any custard filling. 

I took too long to start working on my cronut and as a result, most of the sugar has already melted on top. But texture-wise, it did have the best of both worlds. That flaky, layered texture of a croissant. Not bad.

Pistachio donut – This came with a white chocolate glaze and crushed pistachio on top. I thought the pistachio flavors didn't really register in the custard cream and the doughnut itself was a little too moist (more like a bread). I won't mind not having this one at all. 

Food Rating: 4.5/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: Shimbashi Station Kiosk, 2-17 Shinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0004, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Shimbashi

Hashigo Akasaka 支那麺 はしご 赤坂店 (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★☆☆☆

We had another late start to our day this afternoon. Little nugget had a really rough night last night. With his high fever came a series of flu symptoms and he just couldn't fall asleep. To get him enough sleep to get by the day, we decided to head out late for our day trip to Yokohama. But first, a quick bite close to the metro station before we venture over to Shimbashi.



Hashigo Akasaka (支那麺 はしご 赤坂店) is a small canteen-style ramen shop that we walked past a zillion times during this trip to Tokyo. I joked with Jelloman earlier that we should one day check this place out since it's always in our path way (to somewhere). Little that I knew it would really become a reality one day.

They have just bar tables here and nothing more but we didn't plan to stay here very long anyways.

Shumai – Pretty meaty which was perfect for those of us who haven't eaten since early this morning.

Dan dan noodles – A Japanese version of the Chinese dan dan noodles. The spicy kick was a little more than I have expected. 

Shoyu ramen with shredded chicken – Little nugget was under the weather and a couple of us were slowly getting the virus from him so a non-spicy ramen would serve us well. This came with a very mild soy sauce based broth which was decent but uninspiring.

It's better to be late than never. We managed to wrap up lunch in a little more than half an hour and it's time for our adventure in Yokohama. To be honest, I was a little hyped up about this short trip myself cuz I've never been to this second largest city in Japan. And I'm particularly looking forward to seeing the Gundam Factory which I heard would be closing down in a few months' time.

Food Rating: 4/10

Price: ￥￥

Address: 2-2-21 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Tameike-sannō

Tel: +81 3-3583-5225

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 11:00pm (Mon - Fri), 11:00am - 9:00pm (Sat - Sun)