Toshi Yoroizuka Kyobashi (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★★★☆

Mom and I only have time for one last meal before departing for Narita Airport and I have planned a little surprise for her. It's going to be a return trip to Toshi Yoroizuka Kyobashi, one of her favorite dessert spots in Japan.

Given our tight schedule, I've already planned ahead and reserved two seats at Toshi Yoroizuka's exclusive dessert bar on the second floor of their Kyobashi location.

We were first started off with a small snack consisting of two slices of sponge cake, fresh berries and yoghurt.

Mom needed no introduction as she's been here on a couple of occasions. As usual, we went with the famed dessert bar's signature dessert, "Ukishima", Chef Yoroizuka's contemporary take on the classic Mont Blanc.

Ukishima is a beautiful and delicate creation by the chef featuring a brilliant mix of chestnut vermicelli, chestnut meringue, hoijcha ice-cream and red bean paste, finished off with a shower of rich and intense matcha ganache. Mom's a happy camper now~!

Once again, online reservations for seats at the counter dessert bar of Toshi Yoroizuka Kyobashi are available through TableCheck.

Food Rating: 7.5/10
Price: ￥￥￥
Address: 1/F Kyobashi Edogrand, 2-2-1 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0031 Japan
Closest Metro Station: Kyobashi
Tel: +81 3-6262-6510
Website: www.grand-patissier.info/ToshiYoroizuka/shop.html
Opening Hours: 11:00am - 8:00pm (Wed - Mon)

Tsukiji Tama Sushi Harumidori 築地玉壽司 晴海通り店 (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

Tsukiji Tama Sushi (築地玉壽司) is a sushi restaurant chain in Japan with a long history dating back to 1924. The restaurant is best known for its high-quality yet reasonably priced sushi, offering a variety of fresh seafood sourced directly from Tokyo’s Tsukiji Outer Market (formerly the famous Tsukiji Fish Market). Since its Harumidori location (晴海通り店) is right across the street from our hotel, it made perfect sense that we grab an early lunch there before heading off to the airport.

The main dining area is located on the second floor of the building.

Sushi counter with an elderly and a kid, thanks but no thanks!

In Japan, it was always a pleasure to have the convenience of an English menu, and even better when it included a nice photo of each item, in this case every sushi and roll came with its own picture. 

Crab meat with crab roe sauce – The crab roe sauce wasn't as dominating as I anticipated.

Unago (1,000 yen) – Mom's favorite with a homemade sweet soy and according to her, not bad.

Sushi platter – Jelloman wanted this all for herself and she thought a few of these including the uni and toro were pretty decent. 

This one is mainly for little nugget.

Fatty Tuna (600 yen) – was pretty good although I won't mind it to be more thick cut.

Prawn (800 yen) – little one's favorite and it's probably the best sushi we had this morning.

Scallop (400 yen) – Pretty nice although I didn't think the additional minty flavors did much to enhance the sweetness of the scallop. 

Abalone (800 yen) – Very very hard. I wanted to use the word "crunchy" but let's just say that it's more than just crunchy. And I thought it was pretty bland.

We intentionally didn't fill up our tank leaving sufficient room for more food in a few hours. Stay tuned.

Food Rating: 5.4/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 2-15-19 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Tsukiji / Tsukijishijo / Higashi-ginza

Tel: +81 3-3541-0022

Website: www.tamasushi.co.jp/shop/harumidori/

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 3:00pm, 5:00pm - 10:00pm daily

Shabu Shabu Le-Ta-Su Shibuya しゃぶしゃぶ れたす 渋谷センター街店 (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

Mom is under the weather the last couple of days so we strapped the idea of having Japanese grill tonight and replaced it with another shabu shabu instead.

Shabu Shabu Le-Ta-Su (しゃぶしゃぶ れたす ) is a place we are all familiar with in both Japan and Hong Kong.

While their branch in Hong Kong (Shatin to be exact) only offers set menus, here it's all-you-can-eat in 90 minutes.

Unlike the traditional shabu-shabu restaurants where diners share a communal pot, we all got our own individual pot here. 

Each of us got a share of vegetables, beef and pork to start off the meal.

I was so hungry that I decided to throw everything in at the same time.

Forgot to say that we got a choice between a number of broth and as usual, I went with this dashi made with vegetables, which I thought worked best with the meat and veggies.

I remembered dessert was all-you-can-eat in the past as well but now, we only got to choose one. 😟 Matcha tiramisu with red bean paste in the middle remained the best dessert option here, if you ask me. 

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 2/F New Shibuya Building, 28-2 Udagawacho, Shibuya, Tokyo 150-0042, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Shibuya

Tel: +81 3-6712-7108

Website: https://shabushabu-letus-shibuya.com

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 10:00pm daily

I'm Donut? Omotesando (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★★★☆

I thought I was going to miss out I'm Donut?'s nama donuts on this trip for sure but the big guy upstairs once again got my back. 

Just when I was walking to another doughnut shop in Omotesando, I accidentally ran into their (relatively) new location near Zenkōji Temple (善光寺). I had no idea this place even existed!

It was nice to see that some of these nama donuts were still available.

Mission accomplished!

Pistachio (440 yen) – As the name “Nama” (生) suggests (literally means “raw” or “fresh” in Japanese), the texture of the doughnut was incredibly soft, fluffy and melt-in-your-mouth. 

It resembles a small bag made of soft dough, filled with a generous portion of delicate pistachio cream in the middle. Very very addictive.

Strawberry custard cream (460 yen) – The strawberry custard cream donut featured a delightful balance of flavors with the fruity essence of fresh strawberries coming through prominently. The creamy custard filling was enriched with a vibrant strawberry puree, providing a burst of sweetness that complemented the richness of the cream perfectly.

Food Rating: 7.5/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: G/F Daiichi Yoshida Building, 3-5-18 Kita-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0061, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Omotesando / Aoyama

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

Pierre Hermé Paris Aoyama (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★★★☆

It's our last afternoon in Tokyo. Jelloman decided to spend it in Ikebukuro (池袋) bringing mom and little nugget with her but I know better than to waste my time in a foodie's wasteland. So, I decided to start my journey in Omotesando with a bit of cafe hopping and shopping at the same time.

Pierre Hermé Paris Aoyama was an itch I was dying to scratch so it was an easy decision to swing by just to check it off my list.

As usual, the picasso had something new and exciting for my indulgence. 

It;s been 13 months since my last visit and it looked like they had done some minor renovations adding a small bar area next to their ground-floor boutique.

Now, I could enjoy some music while savoring this beautiful dessert.

Infiniment praliné noisette (972 yen) – An absolute hazelnut praline lover's dream. 

The dessert features a shortcrust pastry, hazelnut biscuit, soft and crunchy hazelnut praline, topped by a layer of creamy praline cream and hazelnut chantilly cream, as well as roasted Piedmont hazelnuts.

There's a lot of nuttiness, and a lot of crunchiness, creaminess and sweetness there, making it a pretty heavy, rich dessert. 

Still got another 3 hours before dinner time. Let's get a couple more things done before it gets dark.

 

Food Rating: 7/10

Price: ￥￥￥￥

Address: 1/F & 2/F La Porte Aoyama, 5-51-8 Jingumae, Shibuya, Tokyo 150-0001, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Aoyama

Tel: +81 3-5485-7766

Website: www.pierreherme.co.jp

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 7:30pm daily

Restaurant NéMo (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★★★☆

It’s lunar new year today and I’ve planned a small celebration for everyone.

Located on the quiet side of trendy Minamiaoyama (南青山), Restaurant NéMo is a Michelin starred restaurant featuring a seafood-centric menu that showcases fresh, high-quality ingredients. Chef Kenichi Nemoto (根本 憲一) grew up in a fisherman family and is best known for his expertise in seafood dishes and deep appreciation for Japanese and French culinary techniques.

Kids are not allowed in the main dining room so the only way for little nugget to enjoy his Chinese New Year meal here was inside the private room.

Hairtail – The hairtail fillets were delicately grilled for a mere 5 seconds to preserve its tender, stringy texture. They were served on a bed of root vegetable salad featuring lotus roots, potatoes and yam, all brought together nicely by a refreshing yuzu dressing. A wonderful start to the meal. 

Some homemade bread made with flour from Hokkaido and yeast which has just come straight out of the oven so it was still piping hot.

Oyster – The oysters were matched with a homemade fish “cake”, chopped vegetables and Japanese yam, and finished off with a nice pour of lemongrass-infused clam soup.

The oysters were incredibly fresh bursting with vibrant briny flavors but I thought the broth was a little too intense with flavors from the lemongrass.

Monkfish – The seafood feast continued with monkfish wrapped by a thin sheet of crispy bacon.

This was nicely topped by an array of vegetables including cauliflower and broccoli, tied up nicely by a relatively subtle Mexican-style sauce made with chili peppers.

Abalone – We got a glimpse of our abalone before they started getting it off the shell.

This was an off-menu dish that we decided to splurge on and it was well worth the price tag. 

The charcoal-grilled abalone offered a lovely crunch and natural sweetness, beautifully complemented by an umami-rich sauce made from its liver. Brilliant!

Kinmedai – The fish course was pan-seared kinmedai prized for its tender flesh and subtle sweetness. Apparently it has been meticulously seared skin-side down allowing the delicate scales to puff and crisp up into a golden, wafer-thin layer, adding a textural contrast to the buttery meat.

It was paired with a mushroom sauce, diced vegetables and fried onion.

Kato pork – Our run of seafood dishes ended here with Kato Pork from Kuruma where the pigs are exclusively fed with apples and potatoes, imparting a distinct natural sweetness to the meat.

The superbly cooked pork came with the perfect proportion of skin, fat and flesh resulting in an exceptional texture that was both tender and satisfying.

I could definitely taste the fruity sweetness from the rich and succulent Kato pork.

Chocolate soufflé – While I am not a diehard fan of soufflés, I love having one every now and then. This was a perfectly executed chocolate soufflé filled with runny hojicha ganache.

The acidity of the yuzu ice cream did well to cut through the richness of the soufflé.

A small petite four in the form of a canelé put a remarkable finish to the meal. This has apparently been spiced with rum.

Very nice, crispy crust holding a soft centre that was soaked up in flavors from the rum (more so than the crust).

My first cup of tea in the year of the Snake. 🐍🐍

Today, we were treated to a very impressive seafood-centric meal at Restaurant NéMo. Spanning over a decade of experience working in some of Tokyo's finest kitchens including Les Créations de NARISAWA and Quintessence, Chef Kenichi Nemoto expertly combines Japanese and French culinary techniques, utilizing high-quality ingredients sourced locally. The meal was a remarkable showcase of innovation, finesse and precision at the highest level, send us off on a high note to kick off the new year.

Food Rating: 8/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 6-15-4 Minamiaoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0062, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Aoyama

Tel: +81 3-5962-6085

Website: https://restaurantnemo.net/

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm, 6:00pm - 10:30pm (Tue - Sun)