Umezono — Restaurant in Tokyo

During Edo Era, this kind of place would have been visited by many travelers and the locals alike! The traditional Japanese dessert of serving pretty tasteless (but refreshing) aga jelly cubes with a little scoops of red bean paste (anko), dark syrup (kuromitsu - like molasses but lighter and delicate) and other little additions (like ice cream and salted peas), is what this restaurant/tea house has been known for, for decades. I remember the same design of the take out cups that were used over 50 years ago! For non sweet options, I also saw chewy rice cakes in broth (zoh-ni) and thin tofu (yuba - paper thin, soy bean noodle) in broth on the menu. Remember, this is a tea house - not a place to get a lunch to make you feel full, but a full volume Japanese dessert house. A small bowl of flavor combination...

I ordered tea soba noodles and the matcha parfait. Love the parfait - the dango is really chewy. We had to wait quite a bit though because there’s a lot of people (as expected near the shrine). There’s no English names for some of the stuff on the menu but there’s pictures of the food outside so we just took a picture of what we wanted to order and showed it to the waitress.

You order your food and pay before you get seated. You can refill your cup of tea yourself for free.

Perfect place to rest during a...

Traditional Japanese dessert. There are quite a good range of menu choice, but most dessert are pretty much the same stuff with different toping or sides. Non the less it is still tasty and a great experience especially if you are touring the area. Downside is that each guest must order a dish on their own. I came with a friend who is not a fan of sweets and dessert, but was along with me as a company, so we had a hard time trying to finish 2 dishes of extremely...