It’s easy to be overwhelmed by all the food options all around Tokyo. This city is such a cooking and foodie mecca that makes any visitor befuddled as to where exactly to go for the best.
While in Tokyo, Bear & Bunny went on a mission to finding their favorite desserts – trying out everything and anything that called to their tummies, and these were the top places that sent our taste buds over the moon and overly satisfied.
GOMAYA KUKI
Hours: Monday – Saturday 10AM – 9PM, Sundays 10AM – 8PM
4 Crhome-26-22 Jingumae
Shibuya City, Tokyo 150-0001, Japan
OVERALL RATING: 5/5
Gomaya Kuki provides the world’s richest sesame ice cream by using at least 9,000 sesame seeds in one batch. The ice cream is differentiated between Kuro ice cream, which uses black sesame or Shiro ice cream, made from white sesame seeds and there are 3 options each for both black sesame and white sesame. The most popular combination is combining Super Rich Kuro with Rich Shiro. You can also add additional sesame seeds and sesame oil to the ice cream. I love anything sesame flavor and I really enjoyed the intense rich taste of the black sesame. What surprised me was the taste of shiro as I’ve never had white sesame ice cream before. It’s a must try for all sesame lovers.
COLOMBIN HARAJUKU
Website: Link
Hours: Monday – Saturday 10AM – 9PM, Sundays 10AM – 8PM
6 Chrome-31-19 Jingumae, Shibuya City,
150-0001 Tokyo, Japan
Overall Rating: 5/5
The name is inspired by the location of their main branch in Harakuju, the Harajuku roll cake is one of the most popular souvenirs in the area. It’s made with the freshest cream that’s extremely light and smooth, wrapped in a fluffy rolled cake. It is advertised that they have sold over 550,000 cakes since their opening. I honestly wasn’t expecting much from the appearance of the cake and prepared myself to be fooled by the hype, but unexpectedly it was the best roll cake I’ve ever had. The velvety cake was so moist and had a great balance between the sweetness and honey that complemented perfectly well with the light and smooth whipped cream. It’s the quintessence of roll cakes in my books now.
ROCKADO (銀座 緑花堂)
Website: Link
Hours: Monday – Sunday 12PM – 8PM
東京都 中央区 銀座
4-10-1 HOLON-GINZA 1F
OVERALL RATING: 4/5
How does a freshly baked crispy choux pastry topped with sweet, crunchy cookie crust, filled with light vanilla custard cream sound to you? This is exactly what the cream puffs at ROCKADO are famous for. The lovely, crackled top takes the normal choux pastry into another level by adding another dimension to the thin yet slightly crisp exterior shell. Upon entering the small boutique shop, customers are immediately hit with a sweet fragrant vanilla scent from the cream while blending with their freshly baked buttery choux shells. We could still feel the warmness of the shell when the cashier handed us our cream puff. The freshness made such a big difference when we took our first bite – cold delightful airy vanilla custard was a great contrast to the warm crunchy exterior.
Miyabian (雅庵)
Hours: Monday – Sunday 10AM – 6:00PM
1-Chome-13-4 Higashiyama
Meguro City, Tokyo-to
OVERALL RATING: 4/5
Elegant warabi mochi from a traditional Japanese confectionery shop. When opening the lid, we were hit with a strong fragrant smell of kinako powder that just sent me back to my childhood when my mom would buy me warabi mochi from Japanese confectionery stores in Taiwan. The portion was relatively big, even for two, with a generous serving of kinadko powder. It doesn’t come with black honey, but Bear and I thought that the mochi was flavorful and moist enough that it was fine without it. We saved the rest the following day and there was no hardening or loss of taste with the mochi. They have other traditional Japanese confectionaries as well, surely worth the visit if you want to try authentic Japanese sweets!
FOUNDRY (ファウンドリー)
Located in popular food halls across Tokyo
OVERALL RATING: 4/5
FOUNDRY focuses on producing the freshest of cakes that uses locally sourced fruits as toppings and filling in their cakes. They change their assortment each month based on the seasonality and availability of fruits from different regions. Some of the popular fruits they use are strawberries, peach, chestnut, and muscat. The fruits on rotation were strawberry and melon (May) – which was a new assortment from them. Although the cakes were looked so tempting, I am a huge pudding fan and immediately gravitated towards the pudding. Even though we didn’t get their signature fruit cakes, the pudding did not disappoint! It was silky and their semi-bitter caramel sauce matched so well with the custard. I’m sure any item you try on their display will leave your taste buds immensely overjoyed and satisfied.
KAMEJYU (亀十)
Website: Link
Hours: Monday – Sunday 10AM – 8:30PM
2 Chome-18-11 Kaminarimon,
Taitō-ku, Tokyo-to
OVERALL RATING: 5/5
Doryakaki is a staple Japanese snack made with sweet azuki red bean paste filling sandwiched between two small pancakes. Kameju sells one of the most famous Dorayaki in Tokyo that have been around for over 90 years. Their dorayaki are a popular souvenir to bring back to friends & family and there’s always a long queue during weekends. The appearance of their doryaki is quite distinctive. Instead of the traditional golden brown pancakes, Kameju’s pancake shells represent more of a hot sponge cake look. We found their dorayaki to be extremely soft and fluffy with just the right amount of anko filling that not too sweet and overpowering. I’m drooling just thinking about them!
MARLOWE
Hours: Monday – Sunday 10:30AM – 8:30PM
6 Chome-10-1 Ginza,
Chou City, Tokyo 104-0061 Japan
OVERALL RATING: 4/5
Purin pudding can be found in many bakeries, convenient stores, and supermarkets all over Japan. Marlowe first started out as a restaurant in 1984, offering their high quality pudding as part of their dessert menu. It became so popular that the owner opened up a shop just for their pudding. They make their pudding with fresh milk from Hokkaido, eggs, vanilla beans, and they don’t use any preservatives or gelatin. They offer many different flavors,the most iconic is their Hokkaido fresh milk pudding. The texture of the pudding is soft yet creamy, but not too sweet and full of rich caramel and vanilla taste.
