cakes & cafe Toshi Yoroizuka Tokyo Store — Restaurant in Tokyo

First visited a Toshi Yoroizuka store many years ago at Midtown during Christmas and remembered being impressed with their baked goods but not so much about the cakes. I happened to pass by this outlet and decided to get some souvenirs to bring back home.

Got the signature box of 5 baked goods which were as expected since I had tried them before. The kiwi-lime jam did seem like an unusual combination so I thought it might make a good gift idea without being too sweet on the palate. As for the sakura cake, it looked pretty just like the other cakes on display but the taste was passable.

What bothered me was how slow the packing and settlement process took. Granted that I visited in the early evening of a weekday and there was nobody else doing a takeaway, I really wondered why it took that long especially since there was only one cake to be placed inside the box, wrap up a single bottle of jam and the box needed no additional packing to be done. I can only imagine how long it would take when the...

I visited around 3–4 PM and was lucky to find a seat within 15 minutes — the seating is quite limited, so timing matters!

The seasonal blueberry soft ice cream really impressed me — it was rich in berry flavor but not overly sweet, striking the perfect balance with a light and creamy texture. All the cakes here follow the same philosophy: less sugar, more emphasis on quality cream and delicate flavor. It’s a refreshing change from overly sugary desserts!

The strawberry mousse tart was beautifully presented and tasted heavenly — smooth, fruity, and indulgent without being too heavy. The tiramisu-style layered dessert was also rich and satisfying.

The only downside was the coffee — it was very average, so I’d recommend skipping it and focusing on the desserts instead.

Overall, a must-visit for dessert lovers who appreciate fine flavors and elegant presentation. Highly...

If I were reviewing the cakes, Toshi Yoroizuka would get high marks, but there is another product he sells which is unforgivably awful for an establishment like this. He produces chocolate bars with different bean-roasting times of 5/20/40 minutes. It sounds like a bit of a gimmick, but as he's a serious patissier, I assumed this would at worst be a little disappointing and at best be educational and delicious. It was not. The (expensive) bars were inedible. I have tasted a lot of very good chocolate by artisan chocolatiers and some mediocre, and I've of course tasted lots of average everyday chocolate. These bars were directly unpleasant in aroma, taste and texture. I've never before felt the urge to spit out chocolate from a high-end producer. Utterly...