Café&Meal MUJI吉祥寺マルイ — Restaurant in Tokyo

3.5

The wood walls and warm ambiance makes it a cozy place to eat, despite it being a big chain shop's cafe.

It's on the 7th floor of the building so it's not the easiest to see from the street. That been said, in fact it's very close to the train station.

You can eat seconds after you order so even those in a hurry can eat. It seems very popular with health conscious families. There were also seats for solo diners. Something for everyone kind of thing.

I don't believe most of the food is made there, on site? Just the salad and some other dishes.

This was 1300yen for a main dish of super soft stewed pork belly with Bappa cabbage. The egg was slightly overboiled for my taste but I'm finicky about that. Most people probably don't care that much. You can get white rice or swap it out for healthy 10-grain rice (as pictured here). The miso soup most likely used white miso, not my favorite but very gentle and mild in taste.

I found it filling enough for lunch and dinner. You can decrease or increase the size of rice. The staff are incredibly well-trained and nice. I was impressed with the excellent customer service! I kept asking questions and they were really helpful.

It reminds me of university cafeteria food in Japan, only a bit better and more fresh vegetables.

The liver konyyaku dish was fascinating. It's sold at the Muji shop in the freezer section. The eggplant and squid dish was delicious... Sesame oil flavored and not at all oily as eggplant sometimes is!

It was quite crowded at 11am on Saturday. Lots of families were there so if you can't tolerate noisy kids, you'd best find another place to eat!

It seems like they added many items to the dessert menu but I didn't try any and can't vouch for the taste. They looked very standard. The daigakuimo sweet potato parfait looked appealing but was...

Quite large. About 35 seats visible from here and I think there's more on the other side. No Wi-Fi, though I see some sockets at a few counter seats. It's a boisterous cafeteria atmosphere with an interesting order system: Fixed price for a certain number of dishes, though I just had the coffee.

Coffee was better than I expected, but I feel like the set prices seem too high to justify more than a flat four stars. I think it's a bit funny that Muji has become kind of a premium brand with somewhat higher prices, yet the original idea was different.

If Google Maps...

Minimalistic, all wood, atmospheric lighting. Great spot for a break. I've only had the drinks and desserts here when seeking a break from shopping, all are tasty.

Gets very busy, but turn over of tables is pretty fast. Can always do some Muji shopping...