After a brief stop at Shirahige Shrine (白鬚神社), we drove down to Ōtsu (大津), a small town in Shiga Prefecture for lunch. As Tsuruki Soba (手打蕎麦鶴㐂), today's lunch spot, doesn't take advance booking, we have to literally put someone (our parents!) there to line up physically. In the meantime, we tried to maximize our spare time wisely by checking out the shops nearby including Ano Shop (穴太商店 本店), a small dessert place just a couple stores away.
Ano Shop is a cozy neighborhood café offering a small but thoughtfully curated selection of homemade sweets, including Japanese puddings, canelés, and soft serve ice-creams, along with a variety of drinks.
There was a small intimate dine-in area so we decided to sit down and treat ourselves to something sweet.
The soft serves immediately caught my eye the moment I took a glance at the menu.
Amazake soft cream (45o yen) – This was made with amazake (甘酒), a traditional Japanese sweet drink made from fermented rice and known for its low alcohol content. Little nugget took a couple of bites at it and thought it was milk soft serve with a funny twist. 😆😆
Rich black sesame soft cream (450 yen) – I had the rich black sesame soft serve myself and it was absolutely mind-blowing. Deep, nutty, and incredibly flavorful. I'm genuinely impressed, and just glad we had the chance to try it. 👍👍
This place is yet another hidden gem we managed to uncover during our trip to Japan. On recent visits across Japan, I’ve often been pleasantly surprised by these small, heartfelt neighborhood joints. It’s a shame we can’t bring places like this back to Hong Kong!
Food Rating: 6.7/10
Price: ￥￥
Address: 4-11-43 Sakamoto, Otsu, Shiga 520-0113, Japan
Closest Metro/Train Station: Sakamoto-hieizanguchi
Tel: +81 (0)77 536-6930
Opening Hours: 10:00am - 5:00pm daily
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