Spend some time walking around Tokyo, and you’ll soon see that the city is packed with karaoke joints. But with so many competing chains, how do you pick which one to go to?
For those looking for some tasty food as they belt out their favorite tunes, it’s hard to beat Pasela. Aside from their tropically styled rooms, the chain is best known for its extensive menu, with the most popular item being its famous honey toast dessert.
But what if you’ve got a special occasion, and even the whole-loaf-sized ordinary honey toast just doesn’t have enough impact? That’s when you call ahead and order a massive Honey Toast Train, a dessert so massive it’s garnished with other desserts.
Being gluttons, we’re no strangers to Pasela’s standard honey toast lineup. Each version features plenty of butter and honey, and comes topped with fruit and ice cream.
We’d heard rumors, though, that you aren’t limited to what’s listed on the menu, and that Pasela will whip up a custom version of their famous dessert that’s even bigger than the extra-large size they usually offer. The chain has about 20 branches in downtown Tokyo, with a few not far from the RocketNews24 office, and since we were planning a birthday party for a friend, we decided to kill two birds with one delicious stone by making a reservation at our nearest Pasela.
We picked up the phone and made the call, getting a reservation for later that night. At first, we were worried this might not be far enough ahead of time to order the custom-made honey toast, but the employee on the other end of the phone told us that same-day orders aren’t a problem, and asked us just what sort of honey toast we’d like.
“Well, it’s our friend’s birthday, so we were thinking of going with something kind of flashy,” we explained. Right away, the employee came up with the perfect suggestion, a triple-sized version called the Honey Toast Train.
We then got down to some of the finer details, like whether we wanted it to be heavier on ice cream or fruit. Just like there’s no such thing in life as a free lunch, you have to pay for dessert, too, so the employee also asked us what kind of budget we wanted to work with. Since we had five people in our party, and we figured asking everyone to pitch in 1,000 yen (US $9.90) for the special dessert was fair, we settled on a 5,000-yen Honey Toast Train.
Since this was a karaoke party, after all, we imagined we’d each want to get one song in before eating, so we asked for the dessert to be brought in 20 minutes after our arrival. Right on time, the waitress knocked on the door to our room, then entered with her arms trembling from the weight of the immense collection of sweets on her tray.
Seriously, it makes such a visual impact it might be the best thing for kicking a party up a notch aside from copious amounts of hard liquor. Actually, considering the sugar rush the Honey Toast Train promises, there’s probably nothing more effective at amping your guests up.
To start with, our platter held cute, edible animals, strawberries, and gobs of whipped cream. Atop the central loaf of toast was a pile of cream puffs…
…and flanking the happy birthday sign were fanned out slices of apple pie.
▼ The pig is both adorable and appropriate.
So how did it taste? Every bit as sweet and decadent as it looked. At 5,000 yen ($46), this isn’t a budget-priced dessert, but for that price, these are some honestly generous portions. Even with five, full-grown adults working away at it, it was more than we could finish, but we enjoyed every moment of struggling in vain to clean our plates.
Related: Pasela
Photos: RocketNews24
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