Cafe Racines FARM to PARK — Restaurant in Tokyo

Went there for brunch but we arrived slightly late (10 minutes before 11) and the breakfast menu was already not available. Lunch starts at 11am. We ordered a couple drinks, two rice sets, donuts, salad and the hotdog sets.

Firstly, the portion is crazily massive!!! I think one set can easily feed two people with average appetites. The rice sets came with rice, a sunny side up, sides of sweet potato and slaw, a sausage, and the dish itself. I had the ginger pork which was savoury, fatty (just the right amount), gingery and comforting in the winter. The sauce coats the pork well and every bite was flavourful. The fried chicken was also lovely. Chicken is well seasoned and fried with a light and crispy batter.

Salad is one of the better ones although design of the dish can be improved. The chicken breast is incredibly tender, while the dressing is fresh and tangy (not the commercial soy sauce or sesame dressings!). However, the vege part is mostly just greens that taste the same like you would find in a bag of mixed salad. There is some barley, almonds, shredded carrot and broccoli if memory serves me right but a little more texture like from roasted veggies and dried fruit would elevate the dish even more!

Homemade citrus cola was lovely and is a good option compared to the typical commercial brand of cola. It is not just sweet as you can taste the citrus and herbs/spices used in the drink.

Donuts however were slightly disappointing as they looked so good, personally. They are rather dry and crumbly like a dense and dry cake rather than the fluffy/light type, even the brioche donuts.

The environment was rustic and cozy. Located in the Minami Ikebukuro park, the outside seating provides a comfortable environment with a good view free from the food smell (yes it smells good but might cling to your clothing for a while). We went during the winter and the warm and bright sun provided ample “heating” for us although we were outdoors.

Would come back again for the food if we ever visit this part...

The place is very cozy and nice. We went at dinner time and it really had a good atmosphere. But we didn’t know where to go or to wait for a seat as no one was guiding as for 10mins. People are scattered and quite lost as there were people who wanted to dine in and do the take outs. We ordered lemonade but the waiter after 5mins came back sayin there was no lemonade. So much waiting time. We ordered roasted chicken and back ribs where it was written to have mashed potatoes on the side. The food arrived and both was hard. The chicken was enough to be eaten but it was cold despite supposed to be “roasted” and no mashed potatoes on side but they put ketchup instead. The ribs was so small and thin u couldn’t get any meat and no mashed potato as well. We asked for water 3 times before we were able to get one. We needed to order their house salad and mac&cheese to get full coz those proteins were just so tiny and cold. The salad was soggy. The mac & cheese was okay. We paid almost ¥6,000 all in all with bad service, too much waiting time and good food—very disappointing. They should focus on the food...

I ordered one of those floating drinks and it was just a glass completely full of ice cubes some berry concentrate with Fanta and a ball od icecream. The icecream was good. I asked for WiFi and I was suggested to go upstairs (very nice and gentle) which I did but I was chased, prob by the manager, to tell me that I could not stay then we negotiates the stay to only 1h. Fine that was not the issue. WiFi pretty doggy service I could not login with three different service providers. So I got fed up and turned on the hot-spot from my mobile but network was extremely slow. After less than 30 min I left and I seat outside which I really enjoyed. Location perfect cafe not so...