More food in Roppongi, though probably not the last since I'm still waaay behind on photos. I'd thought to wait until I'm all caught up but the post will grow too long, so I'm posting what I have now, already pretty darn long as it is!
An art display at Midtown, along with even more photos of sakura that I didn't get to in the previous installment. I know, I'm posting spring photos in the fall and summer photos in the winter. Ha.
Patisserie Sadaharu Aoki Paris is on level B1 of Midtown. Most of the things there are purchased to go, but there's a portion of the shop with several small tables. You can sit and enjoy a selection from their small menu along with tea and coffee.
I liked the sweets here but found the atmosphere uncomfortable and pretentious. I'd only been there twice, and twice they talked down to me, probably because they thought I was some dumb tourist. Of course my broken Japanese didn't help at all. I don't remember what happened the first time, but the second time stayed with me because it was upsetting.
For this sampling plate I also ordered a pot of tea, which was loose leaf and steeped right inside the tetsubin, so I couldn't remove the leaves. Fine, but that meant by the time I finished my first cup, the remaining tea had gotten too strong having been steeping for the past 15 minutes or so.
Naturally, I asked for more hot water to dilute the tea. The first waitress put on a fake smile and said, "We don't do hot water refills," which is a blatant lie because she's doing it for the next table over. So I waited until she was out of sight and asked a different waitress, who happily refilled the hot water for me. What was up with that? Perhaps the first gal was having a bad day, I don't know, but I never went back for a third time. This was Tokyo where there's a patisserie every other block. I had choices to last a lifetime and definitely didn't have to put up with the attitude.
Call me blind and oblivious, but I never even realized there's a theater in the Roppongi Mori complex until this past May! And I walked past here at least once a day!!!
Totally explains all the movie posters at every turn, doesn't it? Hello me!
There were always gorgeous flowers here, but management of the complex didn't actually grow and groom the plants on these ground. What they actually did was, literally, sticking the plants into the ground for a few weeks and then pull them all out and stick new ones in. I kid you not. The inefficiency and the waste boggled my mind (still does actually)! Why not just hire a team of gardeners to tend to these plants once and for all? Nope. Because they want different plants every month. GAH!!! Japan drives me crazy sometimes!
I'd stopped frequenting Harbs since July, but only because they'd done away with my favorite seasonal cake--the lemon jelly cake. It was very slightly tart with bits of lemon jelly mixed in with the vanilla cake. The lemon-flavored butter cream was delicious and not too sweet. The berry cake below was yummy too, although too much heavy whip cream on top so I much preferred the lemon cake. Since they stopped serving the lemon cake mid July, I stopped going :(
The teas were great as always, but it was also unchanging, unlike the cake menu they switched up with the season. Sure, there was a seasonal tea too, just one, and I didn't always find it interesting. Anyway, from the regular tea menu, there was this orange tea and fresh fruits tea that were really yummy. They were basically fresh oranges/fruits soaked in the tea to flavor it, and then I got to eat the fruits while drinking the tea!
Had lunch at Bairan a few times when I was craving fast Chinese food. To my surprise, the food here tasted more so American Chinese than Japanese Chinese. After a couple of lunches though, we had enough ^.^"
Odette e Odile was my guilty pleasure. That said, they burned me on a couple of purchases. J. too, so it wasn't just me. For example, I bought a gorgeous pair of snake-skin high heels, only for the left shoe to show a huge vertical crack by the heel after just one wear :(
Below are a few of this past summer's selections that caught my eyes. The black espadrille wedge (bottom) was my favorite and it was actually from Aberola, a Spanish brand Odette e Odile carries. I just loved the simplicity of black canvas on woven jute wedge, super comfy, and hand made in Spain to boot. I liked it so much I bought 2 pairs, one for my mum and one for myself. I would have bought a third pair for my sister too, but she has tiny feet and wears a 4.5-5M US, whereas the smallest size these ran in is a EU35, which is about 5-5.5M.
Hubby and I had been ignoring Atelier de Joel Robuchon because it looked too fancy. Then came my birthday in May and we decided to drop in for a quick lunch without bothering to take a peek at the menu, which was totally silly of us. Our "quick" lunch turned out not so quick at all! We just got the basic lunch course with just entree and dessert, but even then it was a 1.5hrs. ordeal.
But my oh my, let me tell you, it was one of the most amazing meals we had in Tokyo. The steak literally melted in my mouth and that mashed potato was heavenly! The fish was amazing too, and I don't even like fish all that much! Desserts were equally awesome. Suffice to say they knocked our socks off, much so we came home that night and looked up the place, and well, what do you know, it's a Michelin 2-stars. No wonder.
We were so impressed with the lunch we had, we decided to come back for dinner the next weekend, this time bringing along J. for a second opinion of course :P
We went all out with the dinner course, and it took 3hrs.! This may sound ridiculous but we were completely exhausted by the end of the meal. It was an intense experience.
And yes, each of these plates was as amazing as it looked. That steak, my god. Thank goodness they only gave us a few bites, because I wouldn't be able to handle any more than that.
I'd say the only course J. and I didn't enjoy was this cheese course. Hubby loved it, but it was way to strong and ripe for us two gals and we pinched our nose shut the entire time ^.^"
We made the same dessert choices as our first lunch course. Little did we know the dinner course came with second desserts in the form of petite fours.
The restaurant has an attached patisserie, and they had some of the most delectable macarons there. J. and I sampled a few of their cakes. Delicious!
Hubby'd been begging to try Cyclo for lunch, because he's a big pho fan and was craving a bowl the whole time we were in Tokyo. Sadly enough, we couldn't find any authentic Vietnamese food. Every "Vietnamese" place we tried served us a version of Thai food. There's a difference, folks! Sadly, Cyclo too served us Thai fusion. I think we gave them two chances and that was it.
Meanwhile, there were some excellent and authentic Thai food! What gives? Anyway, in Roppongi there's a branch of Thai Kitchen Krung Siam, yes, part of a chain, across the street on the brand new Tri-Seven Building facing Blue Bottle Coffee (will post later).
I have to say, the place had some quirky decorations! Ever dined at a restaurant with poses from the Kama Sutra hanging behind you? Me neither! It was amusing at least :D
The food was quite good! I especially enjoyed their tom yum koong, which had fresh Thai chile peppers thrown in that actually made the soup spicy, sometimes so spicy hubby couldn't eat!
I think my favorites thus far were the Pad Thai and the Basil Chicken. Yawn, I know, but they were tasty!
When Deadpool came out in Japan, hubby and I were walking home after work one day and spotted this promo trailer.
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