Tokyo Eats - Akasaka area

Landing in Tokyo in August of 2015, we got ourselves a major craving for some okonomiyaki. This was before we found Kinu in our neighborhood, you see, so upon some googling we decided to go with what we knew, a Botejyu branch in Akasaka that was closest to us. Little did we know we'd be coming back to Akasaka again and again throughout our time in Tokyo, though mostly for Shichirin Yakiniku AnAn below.

Anyway, I didn't like our first visit to Botejyu years ago but in our desperation we gave it another chance just to relive our previous Japan experience. We ended up having a great meal there and went on to bring friends and family back, until the smoking in the restaurant became unbearable and stopped us from coming back. It seemed the restaurant had grown and the food vastly improved since we ate there last.

These were the seasonal offerings for the fall of 2015.

As usual, the menu offered both "traditional" okonomiyaki and "modan-yaki." We ordered one of each style just to compare but ended up liking both. We also got omu-soba because I love omu-anything ^.^

My favorite dessert there was brown sugar warabimochi with a scoop brown sugar ice cream. The warabimochi was jiggly like jelly but was perfectly light and chewy, and they really hit the spot! I'd totally go back for this dessert alone ^.^ Overall, this place was not as home-y and intimate as our neighborhood Kinu, but even Kinu soon moved to Ginza :( Thank god for Kiji near Tokyo Station or we would have gone bonkers without a decent source of okonomiyaki.

After Botejyu, our main reason for coming back to Akasaka was Shichirin Yakiniku AnAn. Funny enough, even though we knew about AnAn from our days in Yokohama, it took hubby's colleague Y. to alert us to this Akasaka branch. Y. lived in the area and took a bunch of us there the winter of 2015. Upon arrival, we were pleasantly surprised to see the familiar AnAn sign, which brought back lots of memories.

Just like Botejyu above, the food at AnAn was much better than we remembered. Hubby and I surmised it was because Akasaka was a busy area so the ingredients had fast turnover, which resulted in fresh ingredients whenever we visited. Again, we'd taken friends and family here, like when mum and aunt-in-law visited us in early April 2016.

After spending an afternoon in Meiji Jingu, we took mum-in-law, aunt-in-law, and their old college roommate Mrs. H. to AnAn for an early dinner.

On the way, we passed by a fugu restaurant and aunt-in-law promptly crossed the street to take a few snaps.

Also on the way, aunt-in-law came across a display of plastic food outside of a Chinese and was fascinated (her photo after all).

Anyway, each time we went AnAn, we'd order to our heart's content and would leave full and satisfied. So, so good and really affordable too!

And of course when my brother visited us in late September/early October 2016, it was yet another great excuse to go to AnAn, not that we needed any excuse really.

Del'immo Patisserie Cafe was a late discovery during Golden Week 2016. We just stumbled upon it after one dinner at AnAn ^.^ Even then, we came in just 30 minutes before they closed so we rush-ordered a dessert and tea for me and coffee for hubby.



The place was pretty much emptied out when we were there, save for one last table plus ours.

They had a huge menu with everything from cakes to chocolates to parfaits to ice creams. There were even wine pairings for the desserts and and everything in there just looked delicious!

Anyway, I picked a chocolate caramel parfait and it was huge but yummy ^.^