Dandelion Chocolate, Factory & Cafe Kuramae — Restaurant in Tokyo

My wife and I had been going to Japan since the early 2010s, and sadly, many of our favourite businesses hadn’t survived the COVID pandemic, so I’m so glad to see that Dandelion has survived and thrived in my first visit since the pandemic.

Located in a quiet leafy neighbourhood of Kuramae (which has gentrified much over the years from the light industrial area it was), Dandelion is a chocolatier that does from bean to table at the premise. You can see the staff working in the background.

If you have to queue to get in, the staff will come out and hand you a drinks menu, with a QR code on the back for the nibbles. If you can read Japanese, it’s ok. They have displays of the nibbles on offer, and you just have to point. I do love their hot chocolate but their cold crew is no slouch either, considering that the chain cafes offer pretty weak coffee (a single shot, and many don’t have their own baristas, so you can’t always ask for the extra shot of espresso). I realised that they have more staff who can speak English, so if you’re not familiar with the language, you’ll do fine.

I’d ordered the “Chef Tasting” which wasn’t too much for me. Gorgeously pretty, it comes with the names of each creation. My favorite was the creme brûlée, and my least favorite was the gelee de cacao fruits. I thought that the balance was off because there was just way too much tartness without anything to round off the taste. The tarte au citron was an example of a balanced flavour, with a gentle amount of tartness. If you love anything with choux, the Profiterole was other favorite of mine.

Do check out their range of goodies at level 1 too. I’d picked up 2 packs of 12 grain granola and an 85% chocolate bar, and the staff asked if I’d wanted to pay for the cooler bag as it was 25°C that day and I had a long flight to catch.

Looking forward to going back again when I’m back...

If you love chocolate, do yourself a favour and come here! I had the original hot chocolate and the smore and they were both insane, The hot chocolate isn't too sweet and has a really nice rich mouth feel to it. And the smore had a bitter chocolate to counter act the smokey sweet marshmallow. I was able to try some of their chocolate from Vietnam as well and it had this amazing stone fruit and vegetal flavour. The atmosphere of this place is amazing as well and i loved watching them prepare all the chocolate bars. As a suggestion, instead of a chef tasting where you try little tiny desserts with chocolate in them, I think id be even better to get a tasting of all the different chocolates so just one square of each of their single origin chocolates with a little placard that tells you the tasting notes for each. That way you really get to experience just...

I had to go as Dandelion Chocolate is one of my favorite chocolate stores in the US. I don't live in San Francisco but I've ordered multiple things from them online (they were in the NYT) and was so excited that their newsletter this month highlighted the store in Kuramae which was within walking distance of our hotel. We got the tasting bites brownies, one regular brownie, 2 chocolate chunk cookies plus a box of cookies, a box of chocolates and 3 chocolate bars (we haven't opened the boxes or bars yet). The owner of Dandelion Japan is correct when he said that even though the recipes may be the same, they taste different. I do not like very sweet desserts so the desserts in Japan are perfect for me. The chocolate remains excellent and dark. My family thought I was weird for needing to go but I'm glad I did and...