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Awesome Akihabara restaurant sandwiched by busy train lines offers more thrills than a maid cafe

Casey Baseel
Feb 27, 2015
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For a time, shopping for electronics was just about the only thing to do in Tokyo’s Akihabara neighborhood. In recent years though, the area has gone through a renaissance, and it’s now packed with restaurants and cafes, too.

Of course, just because your feet are tired and your throat is parched doesn’t mean you’re ready for the excitement to stop. So if you’d like to mix some thrills in with your cafe time, how about stopping in for a drink or snack at a restaurant that’s sandwiched between the tracks of one of the busiest train lines in Japan?

Have the “best coffee in Paris” in Tokyo! We visit new Coutume shop in Futakotamagawa

Kay
Feb 21, 2015

Paris is certainly a city with no shortage of cafes, and when the coffee you’re serving is good enough to be highly praised by discerning Parisians, you’re bound to get noticed — even half way around the world in Tokyo! That’s exactly what’s happened with the cafe Coutume, which opened its third location in Japan earlier this month. The new shop, located in Tokyo’s Futakotamagawa neighborhood, provides a slightly different service style from the first two branches in Japan that opened last year in Aoyama (also in Tokyo) and Osaka.

And of course, we were more than eager to go and check the new shop out on opening day to taste what some people are saying is Paris’ best coffee!

El Bulli-trained Japanese chef serves edible origami at gastro cafe Celaravird 【Pics & Video】

Oona McGee
Feb 11, 2015

Molecular gastronomy, the science-based art of cooking, has brought us some mind-blowing edible concoctions over recent years. Rose water balloons, vinegar gels and fruit caviar are some of the dishes pioneered by leaders of the movement, including Ferran Adrià, chef of the famed El Bulli Restaurant, and René Redzepi from Noma, whose restaurants have been named best in the world.

Koichi Hashimoto has worked with both these chefs and is now bringing what he’s learnt from the greats to a 16-seater dining room near Yoyogi Park in Tokyo. His nine-course dinner menu, priced at 6,800 yen, is an absolute bargain in the molecular meal world, and reflects his aim to bring creative gastronomy to casual dining. Come with us as we take you through the menu at Celaravird, with all the delicious photos from our recent visit.

Set your alarm! Limited time maid breakfast cafe coming to Tokyo’s Akihabara

Casey Baseel
Feb 10, 2015

For most of their patrons, a visit to one of Japan’s maid cafes comes after a tough day at the office, or maybe as a special reward at the end of a busy week. But if enjoying the cafes’ light fare and frilly costumes can come as a pick-me-up after some hard work, can’t it also provide the energy boost to kick-start your workday?

That’s the theory behind a new, limited-time maid cafe that’s opening up in Tokyo, where customers can bolster their spirits with a maid-made breakfast before heading out to tackle the day’s challenges.

Continuing our tour of the best sushi in Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market with Mr. Sato! (Part 2)

Preston Phro
Feb 9, 2015

After the first part of our Mr. Sato-lead tour of Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market, we’re sure a lot of our readers are excited to see what else our resident gourmand had for us. And now the wait is over! Here are the last four sushi establishments as visited by Mr. Sato and his daring accomplice in raw fish consumption Nakano.

Whether you’re preparing for your first trip to Tokyo or just looking for some great places you might have missed, this is one article you’ll definitely want to read!

Friends too busy to go to the Pokémon Cafe? No problem! Pikachu himself will sit with you

Casey Baseel
Jan 31, 2015

If you’re a Pokémon fan who’s feeling blue over missing your chance to eat at the limited-time restaurants based on the series that previously appeared in Yokohama and Tokyo’s Roppongi neighborhood, cheer up. Until the end of February, the Pokémon Cafe is back again, this time in the trendy part of Tokyo called Shibuya, and looks to be cuter than ever.

Unfortunately, when you combine food and cuteness in one of the busiest cities on earth, you also get long lines. Helping to make the wait worth it, though, is the possibility of having a meal while sharing your table with a very special dining companion, Pikachu.

Tokyo University campus has its own sushi restaurant where great dining meets higher education

Casey Baseel
Jan 26, 2015

No matter how scholastically talented you are, it’s hard to concentrate on an empty stomach. Even the bright minds at Tokyo University, Japan’s most prestigious institute of higher learning, need to take a break from studying and grab some chow now and again.

Of course, it’s hard to give yourself a mental recharge eating bland cafeteria food. Thankfully, that’s not a concern for the students of Tokyo University’s Kashiwa Campus, who’re lucky enough to have an amazing sushi restaurant right on the school grounds.

Eat for free at this restaurant in China…but only if you’re beautiful enough!

Meg Murphy
Jan 24, 2015

It is common for such establishments as restaurants and movie theatres to offer student discounts, senior discounts, and the like to its patrons, and one Tokyo bar even offers balding gentlemen money off their booze. But one restaurant in China has decided to offer a free meal only to those deemed beautiful enough.

Each person has their own tastes and preferences of what they find attractive, so if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, how does the restaurant go about judging who gets their dinner gratis?

A visit to Sushi Dai, Japan’s best sushi restaurant according to world travelers

Casey Baseel
Jan 21, 2015

A portion of Tokyo’s world-famous Tsukiji Fish Market is expected to move to the Toyosu neighborhood in 2016. While part of the retail market and many restaurants will be sticking around, the upcoming relocation of the wholesale operations makes 2015 the last full year to enjoy Tsukiji as the absolute center of the sushi world.

In other words, if you’re looking to make a trip to the area to see it at its peak, now’s the time. And while there’s always something to be said for discovering a largely unknown restaurant with delicious food, on our Japanese-language correspondent Nakano’s visit to Tsukiji, he decided to dine at what travelers have voted the best sushi restaurant in Japan, Sushi Dai.

A little sweet with your spicy? Tokyo restaurant serves curry with strawberries and ice cream

Casey Baseel
Jan 15, 2015

One of the great things about curry is how versatile it is. The standard way to eat the spicy dish in Japan is with carrots, potatoes, onions, and pork, but you can also toss in chicken, shrimp, beef, or tuna. Things are wide open when it comes to vegetables, too, with some people opting for eggplant, spinach, or tomatoes.

But why limit yourself to just meats and veggies? One curry restaurant in Tokyo feels its menu should be inclusive of the entire food pyramid, and will fix you a plate of curry rice that represents the fruit and dairy groups in the forms of curry with strawberries and even ice cream.

Want more fish in your sushi roll? Japanese restaurant will give you a Whole Sardine Roll

Casey Baseel
Jan 8, 2015

Even if you don’t speak Japanese, if you’re a sushi lover, you’ve probably heard some of the language’s fish-based vocabulary. Maguro is pretty readily understood as “tuna” among foodies with a palate for Japanese cuisine, and many people who can’t put together a complete sentence in Japanese still know that uni is sea urchin, for example.

Not as many non-Japanese speaking diners are as familiar with the word iwashi, or sardine, though. Although sardine sushi isn’t unheard of, it definitely trails in popularity behind less fishy-tasting fare, and its relatively low price and humble image mean it doesn’t have the same level of pizazz as a seaweed-wrapped pile of ikura (salmon roe) or a glistening cut of otoro (extra fatty tuna belly).

Visual impact isn’t a problem, though, for one Japanese restaurant chain’s latest creation: the Whole Sardine Sushi Roll.

Attention coffee lovers: The RocketNews24 Ultimate Café Fukuburuko Ranking 2015 is here!

Casey Baseel
Jan 6, 2015

It seems like we’ve been spending every spare moment we have snatching up fukubukuro, the lucky bag bundles that shoppers in Japan buy at New Year’s without knowing what’s inside. As a matter of fact, by the time we stopped and took count, we’d grabbed eight different fukubukuro from cafés near our office.

As a result, we’re pretty much stocked up on coffee for the next couple of weeks. Honestly, we’ve got so much we’d be happy to pour you a cup, if only the RocketNews24 offices had a visitors’ lounge. But since it doesn’t, instead, we’re going to give you the information you need to pick the best café lucky bag for yourself, as we present the RocketNews24 Ultimate Café Fukubukuro Ranking 2015.

All-you-can-eat cake is all you need to convince us to eat at this Tokyo café

Casey Baseel
Jan 2, 2015

Sometimes, less is more. For example, earlier this year we heard the happy news that Denny’s in Japan was offering all-you-can-eat pancakes. But as enticing as that deal was, there’s an easy way to improve on an unlimited supply of pancakes, and that’s by losing that “pan” restrictor.

So when we heard a popular Japanese bakery has an all-you-can-eat cake deal, we were ecstatic, and then we were out the door to try it for ourselves.

Latest evolution of Pokémon cafe to open in Shibuya this January

Scott Wilson
Dec 21, 2014

To celebrate the release of Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, “THE GUEST cafe & diner,” a restaurant inside the Shibuya Parco building, will mega-evolve into a Pokémon-themed cafe for a limited time starting this January. They will offer a wide variety of meals, desserts, and drinks to fully restore the HP of all Pokémon trainers and their loyal Pokémon friends.

Got a beef with Japan’s Christmas shortcakes? Then try one made out of chicken

Casey Baseel
Nov 27, 2014

I like Christmas. I get that some people feel it’s over-commercialized, but for me, I’m happy to see some nice decorations and have an excuse to get together with family and friends. Really, the only complaint I’ve got is the cake.

See, in Japan, you can’t celebrate Christmas without a cake. Ordinarily, adding cake to just about anything makes it better, with “a mug of beer” being the sole exception I’ve found so far. But almost every Christmas party here features the exact same “Christmas cake.” It’s basically a strawberry shortcake, which, by my criteria, is sorely lacking in the three most important ingredients of a really good cake, which are, in no particular order, chocolate frosting, chocolate sponge, and chocolate filling.

So if you’ve also got a beef with the standard Christmas cake, maybe you’d prefer one that’s made out of chicken.

Snoopy and Woodstock, ordinarily inseparable pals, getting separate themed restaurant in Tokyo

Casey Baseel
Nov 19, 2014

Japan is always up for a little entertainment with its meals. As a result, dotted around Tokyo you’ll find restaurants where you can dine on food inspired by cute and cool characters from animation, video games, and the like.

Usually, these fictional icons are Japanese in origin, but it turns out that Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang have enough of a following for not just one, but two new restaurants collaborations in Tokyo.

Choose your own toaster at the specialty toast restaurant in Tokyo

Oona McGee
Nov 10, 2014

There’s a lot of freedom and innovation when it comes to dining in Japan. For every Michelin-starred restaurant in Tokyo, there’s an equally impressive place where you can dine with maids, hang out with cats or even watch boys make out.

Now there’s another must-visit eatery to add to Tokyo’s ever-growing list of unique cafes and this time the star of the show is the humble slice of bread. At Centre the Bakery in Ginza, you can choose your own toaster, take it back to your table and enjoy freshly made toast.

Can we have a parfait? Pretty please, with fried shrimp on top?

Casey Baseel
Nov 1, 2014

Let’s say you’re designing a menu for a restaurant, and you want to serve parfaits. More precisely, you want to serve as many different kinds of parfaits as you can think up. How far do you think you could make it towards that goal before things got completely crazy?

Apparently the tipping point to culinary weirdness is about 195 varieties. How did we calculate that? Well, on a recent visit to Kyoto, we found a café that has about 200 different types of parfaits, including five that’re topped with things like corn dogs and deep-fried prawns.

Super-cheap yakiniku restaurant sells meat by the mouthful to give you exactly what you want

Casey Baseel
Oct 31, 2014

As tasty as yakiniku is, there’s a bit of a problem with going out to eat the delicious strips of grilled meat. Restaurants normally offer a variety of different cuts, but each order comes with several pieces of the same thing. Going by yourself means not being able to eat much of a variety, and eating with friends and sharing forces you to negotiate and compromise on what to order.

So we were happy when we found a way to enjoy our ideal meal without feeling like a glutton or a jerk , when we discovered a restaurant in Tokyo that lets your order whatever kind of yakiniku you want, one piece at a time.

Le Jardin de Tweed: Lunch on the roof terrace at Chanel Ginza

Oona McGee
Oct 21, 2014

Ginza is well-known for its high-end boutiques and exclusive brand name designer stores. Armani, Hermes, Gucci, Bvlgari and Chanel all have signature outposts here and the most surprising thing about them is they offer the unique opportunity to dine inside their buildings.

The iconic Chanel building has one of the most impressive locations of the lot, with a laid-back, resort-like setting up on their roof terrace overlooking the busy Ginza shopping street below. Featuring tweed accents and a lunch box put together by acclaimed French chef Alain Ducasse, you’ll have to get in quick for a chance to eat here as the outdoor area is only open for a limited time until October 31 every year.