Tokyo Eats 2016 - Part 2

 A recap of my eating shenanigans in Tokyo continues! The Japanese take great pride in everything they do and food is not an exception. So you need to try even food that's not of Japanese origin. This time I will cover places for coffee, burgers, soft serves, pastries and breakfast options.

COFFEE

About Life Coffee

The third wave coffee scene is big in Japan (Think of Mecca, Coffee Alchemy, Single Origin Roasters etc.). Near the heart of Shibuya is a famous corner coffee shop called About Life Coffee. They have everything covered from solid pour over filter to an amazing cafe latte.

Their house blend is sourced from Onibus Coffee (About Life is also owned by Onibus owner Atsushi Sakao). You will also find guest beans from roasters around the world (Mecca, Artificer, Edition and Seven Seeds makes regular appearances here).

About Life Coffee Brewers
1-19-8 Dogenzaka, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, 150-0043
Open: 8:30am-8:30pm everyday
Nearest station: Shibuya

Onibus Coffee

If you like coffee shops like Mecca, Artificer, Edition Coffee Roasters style of roasting, then you need to check out Onibus! The owner Atsushi travels to Sydney and Melbourne a lot. So expect similar coffee roasting and brewing. You'll find that their espresso (house blend or single origin) tend to be on the light to medium roast side (the way I like it). Their new digs in Nakameguro incorporate homey, industrial and Japanese designs into one cool joint.
Their latte is quite smooth with a lot of vibrant fruity notes. I also had a pour over filter coffee which was also fruity with a clean finish. The coffee here is tops and the staff are pleasant.

Onibus
Meguro-Ku, Kamimeguro 2-14-1
Open: 9am-6pm everyday
Nearest station: Nakameguro

BURGERS

MOS

First burger we tried in Tokyo was from the iconic Japanese fast food chain, MOS. This place is everywhere so need to go to any branch.
I had double MOS cheeseburger with fries and a melon drink. The burger came with double beef patty and cheese, onions and a special meat sauce. The whole burger was good for the price and I specially love the soft milk buns. Although the beef patties are obviously processed, they still packed flavour and was quite juicy.

Shake Shack

I'm so glad the American burger chain Shake Shack has opened in Tokyo when we visited! It even opened in one of Tokyo's most popular parks, Meiji Jingu Gaien Park. They picked this spot to pay homage to the first ever Shake Shack restaurant that opened in Central Park New York.
I loved everything about Shake Shack Meiji-Jingu Gaien except the super long queue! If you plan to visit, make sure you start lining up before 11am.

We tried the classic shack cheeseburger. It's a cheeseburger with salad and a special shack sauce in a soft potato bun. The perfectly seasoned beef patties are smashed to create that perfect caramelised crust for enhanced umami flavour and are cooked medium rare to medium well. The shack sauce is just as important as their triple beef blend patty. The sauce was creamy and tangy with hints of smokiness and acidity. It's one amazing burger.

Next level to that burger is the double smokeshack! It's a double smash patty cheeseburger with applewood smoked bacon, chopped cherry pepper, Shacksauce. It's double the greatness of their 80:20 meat to fat ratio beef patty blend. Along with the extra umami is the smoky goodness from the rashers of crispy smoked bacon. As you can see, I'm not exaggerating the next level description. It's my favourite burger right now!

Believe the hype behind their crinkled fries. Their crinkled fries with cheese were off the hook! The fries were crunchy on the outside and fluffy in the inside. The cheese sauce just makes it even more addictive.

Their second restaurant in Ebisu is now open! Word is that the queue is shorter.

Shake Shack
Meiji Jingu Gaein


Blacows

Japan has great quality beef throughout the country. Visiting a burger joint run by a butcher (Meat Yazawa) that sources nothing but top quality wagyu for their burgers just makes sense right?

Black-haired Japanese beef or Kuroge wagyu is used to make their fatty and flavoursome patties. The bacon cheeseburger (¥1,700) consists of beef patty, cheese, smoky bacon, and house sauce in soft light brioche bun. It also comes with a side of pickles and potato wedges.

Blacows
2 Chome-11-9 Ebisunishi, 渋谷区 Tokyo 150-0021, Japan
Nearest station: Ebisu

SOFT SERVES/SOFT CREAM
The Japanese love their soft serves (or soft creams) and so do I! I went to a few but two things stood out for me:

Hello Kitty

On our visit to the Diver City mall, we walked past the Hello Kitty shop and noticed that they were serving Hello Kitty kongariyaki (hotcake like puffs) and soft serve. What's even better is that you can have those hotcake puffs as toppings to your creamy matcha and milk soft serves! Kongariyakis are baked fresh everyday.

Hello Kitty Kongariyaki
2F, Diver City
〒135-0064 Tōkyō-to, Kōtō-ku, 江東区Aomi, 1 Chome−1−1−10

Cremia Soft Cream

The soft serve that has ruined all other soft serves for me is Cremia! It's basically available all-over Japan! So what's so amazing about Cremia? It consists of premium Hokkaido milk and whipped cream. It is smooth with a sweet cream cheese-like flavour minus the acidic-ish after taste. It served in a thin buttery sugar cookie cone. It's the creme de la creme of soft serves! Available at Silkream in Shibuya or any store with a cremia poster outside.

Silkream
Japan, 〒150-0041 Tokyo, 渋谷区Jinnan, 1−19−3 ハイマンテン神南ビル


Dominique Ansel Bakery

Pastry chef took New York City by storm in 2013 with his cronuts and delectable pastries back in 2013. You can now get a taste of Ansel's pastries with a Tokyo twist at their Omotesando store. You can get everything from cronuts, tarts to caneles and their mind blowing frozen s'mores. The queue is pretty short compared to the crazy lines they get at their NYC store.
Domnique Ansel Bakery Tokyo
5 Chome-7-14 Jingumae, 渋谷区 Tokyo 150-0001, Japan
Nearest station: Omotesando

Matsuya

Then there's the ever dependable Matsuya chain that you can find at almost every area. Everything from gyu don (beef rice bowl) with soup on the side, and beef curry set to a salmon set under ¥1,000 is available here. Choose and purchase your meal from the ticket vending machine, take a seat and one of their wait staff will pick up your tickets. It usually takes around 5 minutes for your order to come out. This was our go to place for breakfast. Most Matsuyas are open 24 hours and some open early and close late.

Maisen Tonkatsu

Aside from bentos, katsu sandos are the perfect on the go food. You need to sink your teeth onto a Maisen katsu sando! A simple but excellent tonkatsu sandwich full of umami! These are available at most food halls.

Duty free snacks shopping

Last but not least, don't forget to do some last minute shopping at Haneda or Narita Airport for Japanese goodies. You can snacks ranging from mochi, matcha flavoured Kit Kats, Royce chocolates and Shiroi Koibito biscuits with white chocolate filling (my personal favourite).

Watch out for my Kyoto Eats post coming up in the next few weeks. Until then, KA-ME-HA-ME-HAAAAAAA!

Also, check out Part 1 of my Tokyo Eats here.

Burger Head, Penrith

Attention Western Sydney and fellow burger geeks! There's going to be a new kid in town and it looks very promising! It's been announced that Tim Rosenstrauss (ex Master), Richard Borg (ex Momofuku Seibo), Josh DeLuca (ex Quay Restaurant) will soon unveil their burger haven called Burger Head.

It will be the latest joint to hit the Western Sydney burger scene. The Burger Head will open at Henry Street in Penrith in a few weeks time with the usual burger menu suspects that includes mash, fried chicken, and milkshakes plus items like puffed pork crackling, craft beers and cocktails. Fortunately, they had a stall at Penrith's first Aussie Night Markets earlier this evening where they showcased samples of what to expect from The Burger Head. I was able to try their burgers and it is mind blowing stuff folks! Expect nothing less of excellent.

You can keep it simple and have fries with your burger. But I took it to the next level by ordering puffed pork. It is basically spiced puffed pork ($5) crackling that's flavoursome, crisped and airy.

Cheeseburger

Bacon cheeseburger

Their cheeseburger ($10) is off the chainz!! Smashed beef patty, pickles, American cheese and a creamy house secret sauce in a lightly toasted milk bun. Their own juicy patty blend was cooked medium rare and had a perfect caramelised crust that gave it super extra umami. The meat was slightly coarsely minced which kept pockets of amazing meat juice. Just like shake shack's! It is simple, perfect and executed freakin' well! You can easily handle it with one hand and have a drink in the other. You need to get this with extra bacon ($4). It was crispy and smoky!

Fried chicken burger

The fried chicken burger ($14) had lettuce, sauce and coated chicken patty. The coating had crispy edges and the tender thigh meat was juicy and flavoursome. The spices used was the highlight! 

Shroom and kale burger

Last but not least was the shroom and kale burger ($14). This is possibly the best veggie burger I have come across to date. The combination of the smoked mushrooms and kale with the daikon cabbage slaw was sensational! So packed with umami!

Roasted white chocolate milkshake

Also, I flashed it all down with roasted white chocolate milkshake($15). Loved the nutty and caramel flavours!

I can't wait to try the rest of their creations when the shop opens! Follow them on Facebook and Instagram for updates.

The Burger Head

Shop 17, 98 Henry Street

Penrith NSW

Uncle Kurt's, Parramatta

First it was the specialty coffee places that started popping up in Parramatta. Now, the small bar scene has started. It wasn't long ago when Uncle Kurt's opened at the ground level of Secure Parking's complex near the Roxy. It's a bit hipster with a dose of grunge and a hell lot of character.

I'm talking about a hip diver bar with craft beers, whiskies, spirits and cocktails.  Hiphop tracks playing in the background whilst enjoying New York style deli snacks. It's the first of its kind in Parramatta and I'm sure it won't be the last.  For a second there I thought I was in cool town Newtown!

Aperitivo julep

The aperitivo julep cocktail ($19) hits summer in its face with a refreshing mix of beefeater gin, lillet blanc, fino sherry, watermelon and sage. I freakin love it!

Brisket pastrami po'boy

The brisket pastrami po'boy ($14) has pastrami, saurkraut, Russian dressing, American mustard, pickles and dill in a milk bun. It's a solid po'boy but  it needs to hold back just a tad on the mustard as it can be overpowering at some parts of the po'boy.

Smoked sausage roll

The smoked sausage roll ($14) was awesome! A double smoked andouille, saurkraut, Russian dressing, mustard, pickles and dill in a milk bun. The smoky essence of the sausage punches through whilst the mustard, saurkraut and pickles compliments the smokiness well.

Uncle's traditional reuben

Their Uncle's traditional reuben sandwich ($16) is one of the best I've had in Sydney. A perfectly balanced amount of smoked brisket pastrami, super melted Edam cheese, Russian dressing and coleslaw in toasted rye bread with a pickle on the side. The edam cheese was mild and smooth with notes of nutty flavour, which compliments the pastrami well. The dressing and coleslaw gives acidity and sweetness to cut through the pastrami and cheese.

Uncle Kurt's

22B Horwood Place

Parramatta NSW

Opening hours:

Wed-Thurs: 5pm to 10pm

Fri: 12pm to midnight

Sat: 5pm to midnight