Bake Cheese Tart Original Cheese Tart: While walking through Tokyo station, I came across this small shop with a sizeable, but not intimidatingly-so, line and the aroma of baked goods. They specialize in cheese tarts, some flavored with chocolate or seasonally with strawberry, but I went for the original, which is a little smaller than a typical Portguese / Chinese egg tart. The pastry base is twice baked, and the interior is largely cream cheese that has a baked browned crust of brueleed cheese. The texture of the cheese unde... (read more) 3.5/5.0
recommended tokyo tokyostation dessert tart creamcheese bakecheesetart original cheese 3.5
Ginza Akebono Strawberry Daifuku: For the most part, I've been able to try all the major traditional Japanese confectionary treats in my time in Japan, so I generally haven't been going out of my way to visit particular shops. However, if I see that a shop has a line, I'll take a look, especially as there are essentially no tourists in Tokyo now and so any place with a line is a local favorite. I hadn't known about this small shop in Ginza that opened right after WWII (about 60 years old), but their ichigo (strawberry) dai... (read more) 4.0/5.0
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Ginza Akebono Sakura Mochi: The first time I had sakura mochi, pink mochi wrapped in a cherry blossom leaf, it was from Fugetsu-Do in Los Angeles, I was surprised by the sweet and savory combination. The leaf is typically pickled and has a concentrated salty flavor that can catch you off guard if you're used to the mild and sweet anko-filled dessert. This version of sakura mochi was purchased from the Ginza sweets shop Ginza Akebono, where I had previously tried their strawberry-covered mochi. The chewiness of the m... (read more) 3.5/5.0
recommended japanese ginza tokyo ginzaakebono sakura mochi 3.5
Gomaya Kuki Sesame Ice Cream: This is a rare spot I had actually bookmarked before arriving in Japan in my search for top ice cream shops. At Gomaya Kuki, off of a side street in Shibuya, you have only the choice between black and white sesame ice cream, but each comes in three varieties. For the black sesame, you can choose between triple rich, rich, and salted, while for the white sesame, they have triple rich, rich, and chunky multigrain. I decided to try the triple rich black and chunky multigrain. On the side ar... (read more) 3.0/5.0
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Hop Shu-Kuri-Mu Matcha Cream Puff: I randomly passed this pastry shop in Azabu Juban and made a mental note to return based on the quality of bread in their window. I'm glad I did, because their cream puffs are insane. The exterior has a crispy baked texture, similar in some ways to dutch crunch bread from San Francisco, and the filling is of the highest quality I've had in any bakery, with a creamy and not too sweet flavor and ideal matcha bitterness. The most interesting part to me was a bruleed base that resembled a nor... (read more) 5.0/5.0
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Hop Shu-Kuri-Mu Matcha and red bean bread: There is a small bakery in the heart of Azabu-Juban in Tokyo that has the most delicious cream puffs – they also sell a variety of other baked goods, including fresh loaves of bread with visually striking swirls of flavor baked in, similar to what you might see for flavored milk bread loaves at Asian bakeries more generally. Their loaves tend to be about half the size of what you might see in the US. I really enjoyed the spongy, stretchy texture and faint sweetness of this loaf. If you ev... (read more) 3.5/5.0
recommended azabujuban japanese tokyo hopshukurimu matcha red bean bread 3.5