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Unfortunately the weather was terrible. It was heavily raining. Yet, there were already some people waiting before the restaurant opened at 11:30. (*0*)!! My father-in-law fell in love with their soba since he first visited there a few months ago. It’s everyday that people make a line to wait for the opening of the restaurant, according to him. We planned to be there before 11:30 so we should be able to join the queue to enter the restaurant for a lunch. That day was not exceptional, in spite of the terrible weather. What a surprise!

I was unable to take pictures from outside or the facade of the restaurant because of the heavy rain. It seemed like a typhoon or a storm. >_< I realized the building was a kominka (Japanese old folk house) only after I entered it. Wow! "I've got to blog about it for TKE readers!" Actually it's not common any longer in Japan to have a irori fireplace in a house we live in today. It might be the first time for me to see it. :p

As always, I tend to be more interested in the atmosphere and interior of the restaurant than the taste. haha! You see how many interior pictures I took there, compared with only a few food pictures. ^ ^;;

We were seated on the wood floor (not directly but on zabuton, or a floor cushion).

But there was also a large tatami room connecting from the wood floor + irori fireplace area. Whichever tables, we had to sit on the floor folding legs, you know, the traditional Japanese way. Men can sit with agura style (sit with his legs crossed in front of his body) but that’s considered bad manners for women. Women are recommended to sit with seiza style (sit on her heels) but that is not comfortable for me. I don’t like to sit on the floor in Japanese style.

Oh, but it’s possible this table has a space to place legs under the table. It’s called “horigotatsu” (掘りごたつ) in Japanese. In case of horigotatsu, we can sit on zabuton without folding legs and we can sit like we do on a chair. I like that.

The menu looked so nice!

I ordered a set of 3 kinds of soba noodles. The normal one, thick one and the thin one in pink color. According to my father-in-law, the pink soba can be green when it’s Matcha tea flavor. This time, it was pink because it was shrimp flavor, according to the restaurant. But it didn’t taste like shrimp at all. Maybe the taste was too subtle but I put a little too much of wasabi and grated Japanese radish inside the soba dipping soup…

When I first saw this thick soba, I thought I wouldn’t like it. I’ve never seen or tasted such thick soba noodle ever in my life! But as it turned out, it was good especially when I kept chewing it for a while.

My husband ordered the same set as mine but with tempura (deep fried shrimp and vegetables). I was too busy eating my soba to take pictures of all the other family members’. But my father-in-law was eating a hot soba and told us that we would find out the hot one was better as we eat more and more.

I enjoyed the interior and the thick soba was interesting. But hmmm…the normal one didn’t taste very special to me. I didn’t like the thin one in shrimp flavor so much. So…I don’t know why this place attracts people that much. But if you have a chance to drive near this area, you can try it!

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It’s an authentic crepe and galette cafe from France!

I’ve wanted to try this cafe for a long time but I didn’t have a chance until this time…I love crepe, waffle, American muffin, pan cake, cookie and baked confectionery more than cake or chocolate.

The lunch set is available during weekdays and it comes with salad, galette and drink. With 200yen, we can even add a dessert crepe, which is tempting!

It was rather dark inside the restaurant. It’s possible the dark colored furniture and interior help the whole atmosphere look calm but I felt it was noisy actually. haha!

I ordered organic Apple cidre that includes 4% of alcohol but it tasted like juice, I didn’t feel alcohol much. Lisa ordered iced coffee…was it? Or was it iced cafe latte? Sorry my memory is dying…XD

My galette was with scrambled egg, proschiuto (raw ham) and some kind of cheese from Switzerland, I guess. I especially loved the cheese! It looks big enough and I wondered if I could eat the dessert crepe as well…but no problem! I ate up everything!! I’d love to try other galette as well next time.

Lisa’s one was with sunny-side up egg, spinach and cheese.

The dessert crepe was with vanilla ice cream and jam. The crepe tasted different from galette. Galette was more crisp and crepe was soft. I enjoyed each, but personally I like crepe more than galette.

You may be expecting to see Japanese restaurants I go and eat at, but in reality I prefer western food and western food arranged as Japanese way such as hamburg a lot more than Japanese dishes such as Soba or Okonomiyaki for example. :p
There are branch stores in Omotesando, Ginza, Shinjuku, and more if you are interested…Oh, there are more shops in Japan than in France! But if you like more casual crepe, try the one of the street vendors in Harajuku.

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As mentioned in the post of Ghibli Museum, you will have to wait for about an hour to eat in this cafe.

Because of this, it’s true many people give up and they instead go to a shop to take away hotdog or ice cream.

My husband and I were patiently waiting in this line for about 45 minutes. (I was advised 30-40 minutes of waiting. Still lucky compared with 1 hour.) The menu book was handed to the people while we were in the queue. It looks like a little picture book, rather than a menu.

Compared with average cafes in Tokyo, the price seems a bit higher. But I believe that’s normal in a theme park.

If you have small kids, don’t worry there are many picture books for small children…oops, they are in Japanese! So…you must be creative enough to make your own story from the pictures and ignore Japanese. Read your story in English or your own language, haha!

Everything is so kawaii! I wish they opened sister cafes in Tokyo regardless of Ghibli admission so we can come and go anytime we like without buying the ticket.

Finally we went inside! The ceilings were high, with large window (I think it’s fixed though), and the cafe was very comfortable with much natural light.

I often tend to pay attention to the interior more than food…^ ^;

We ordered Katsu sando (pork cutlet sandwich) , vegetable sandwich, soup made from paprika that was served cold, iced milk tea and shared. We were also planning to order a strawberry shortcake because this looked very good in Tabelog pictures. However, the cake was not available because the strawberries did not arrive! OMG~~!! We were anticipating to have the cake there! According to the waitress, that was the first time they could not serve the shortcake since they opened. Why we chose to come to the cafe on that day of all others. >_<

This pork katsu sando was very good!!

Can you see the Ghibli character drawn on the plate? (I cannot remember but what was this?)
Oh…I loved this pork cutlet sandwich soooo much!!!

The vegetable sandwich was also good. It’s layered with several ingredients and was very rich and nice!

This iced milk tea was amazing! I normally prefer coffee to tea, but this one even changed my preferences. But unfortunately I cannot have iced milk tea as good as this one since then…BTW, the straw is not just an ordinary straw made of plastic, but this one is made of wheat straw. Remember the name of this cafe in Japanese? It’s Muguwaraboushi, which means straw hat. ^ ^

When we finished the meal, we asked again if the strawberries arrived but no, unfortunately! Too bad we missed the shortcake!! >_<
I really wish to come back to this cafe, only if it's located outside the Ghibli Museum. Otherwise, I'll have to buy Ghibli ticket again only to come to eat here...

If you have a chance to try out this cafe, be sure to order the strawberry shortcake and tell me how it was~~~(T^T)

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