カツレツ&カフェ アオイオト — Restaurant in Tsukuba

Updated May 2022: I ate in for the first time. Had the chicken katsu plate. It tasted alright, but nothing amazing. All the sides felt a little off as well - salad seemed excessively shiso-y, the soup seemed like a simple consomme-based soup at first but there was... sesame seeds?? I'm not sure what exactly, but other stuff in it. Dessert was a little shot glass of sweetened carrot puree. They need to simplify and stop with the attempts at being bougie. Make good katsu, have maybe one unique side or dessert, and keep everything simple and suited to standard Japanese tastes.

Old review: I got a takeout bento and dessert the other day to try this place out after passing by it so many times while it was Shizuki, which was then... closed? rebranded? IDK, as aoioto. I wanted to try it forever, but the prices seemed really steep for a tonkatsu lunch. Then they started takeout and while 990 yen for a glorified karaage bento seemed a bit high, I figured it was worth a try at least. (Still can't bring myself to shell out for the tonkatsu bento.)

The food is... hmm. It's alright. It feels needlessly fancy. The tatsuta chicken comes with two choices of sauce, and I got the truffle shoyu, which was tasty, but not mind-blowing. The salad came with some fancy bits of crunchy vegetable topping, and there was some kind of carrot aemono type of thing just sitting off on the side. The veggies altogether were pretty underwhelming. The sauce for the chicken and the salad dressing came in their own little bottles. The utensils were packaged separately, and the disposable chopsticks seemed pretty deluxe.

It was all very nice, but as a whole it feels like you're paying for presentation and extra bits of plastic and service. They don't even provide a shibori, which feels like a huge oversight in Japan, but they'll give you fancy chopsticks in a totally unnecessary clear plastic pouch. And the dressing bottles?? Are they really necessary??? It seems very unsustainable and very un-eco-friendly. I would rather have the salad and chicken pre-dressed and have that corner in the bento used for some other side.

The chocolate terrine was good, though. Had some lemony bits at the bottom to break up the denseness of the chocolate. Might spring for it again.

Was it altogether worth upwards of 1500 yen? Mmmmmaybe. Felt a little shorted by the overall taste and amount of food. But this place seems more like a fancy cafe catering to women looking for a place to eat lunch and dessert with coffee, not people looking to get a quick, filling lunch. You may get your money's worth if you go and have a relaxing lunch there, rather than get...

I am a vegan who refrains from animal-derived ingredients as much as possible. This restaurant serves a plate of rice topped with Ganmodoki instead of pork cutlet. I think it's great that any soy meats are not used. The salad bowl can also be changed to vegan friendly by asking for a change of soup. The atmosphere is also...

The curry rice with a chicken cutlet and a side of salad was absolutely amazing! The staff was friendly and welcoming and I could relax here. The coffee was pretty good and I am very happy about the dessert! Best cheesecake I tried in...