Komae

First time visiting Komae Station.

The area outside the station looks nice, with it's mini bamboo forest there.

Meeting my colleagues here for lunch at イタリア食堂 (Vino uno). Look at how vintage this place looks from the outside.

We ordered the lunch course that came with 3 appetizers.

Bred was also served.

The cauliflower pasta was the bomb. First time having cauliflower pasta and it was super good.

We also had pizza which was baked in a stone oven.

At the recommendation of the owner, we ordered an extra which were absolutely delicious.

My colleague enjoyed it so much that she even ordered her dinner to go at from this place.

After that, we dropped by Izumi Brewery.

Interesting menu of sour beers.

As I do not drink, I only took a few sips and found out that I could actually drink sour beer because they are not bitter!

That night, I had dinner at Sushi Ro before heading home.

Seafood was on promo at that time and hence, I had to drop by to try them.

As usual, I have to end my meal with some desserts!

Outlet shopping kind of day

After shopping at Mitsui Outlet Park Makuhari (三井アウトレットパーク 幕張), we went to check in at our hotel before heading for dinner.

That night, we stayed at APA HOTEL& RESORT TOKYO BAY MAKUHARI (アパホテル＆リゾート東京ベイ幕張).

For dinner, we went to Tony Roma's (トニーローマ 幕張WBG店).

We shared a plate of fried calamari.

And head some bbq ribs! Missed bbq ribs so much!

The building that Tony Roma's is in, was so empty!

The view from our hotel room the next morning.

The sun is out, sky is blue and not a single cloud in sight. Such a beautiful weather!

We walked to the nearby mall to have brunch at Haidilao.

It has been a long time since we had Haidilao and it was nice to revisit.

I like the different variety of sauces that they have.

After that, we went for another round of outlet shopping before going home!

Gran Eat Ginza (グランイート銀座)

Lunch at Gran Eat Ginza (グランイート銀座).

Website: https://www.gran-eat.jp/

This place serves a lot of vege options for their buffet. Look at the variety of veg on these 2 plates!

They also serve tempura which are made to order. So good! I went back for seconds.

They also serve meat, for example, this apple and pork stew which was delicious btw and gave me inspiration to make some myself at home too.

Overall, we really enjoyed all the good served here. If you are looking for a healthy buffet option, this is the place to go too. We ate a lot, but because they were mostly veg, we didn't feel too guilty afterwards.

They also serve ice cream and petite cakes.

After lunch, we took a long train ride to Mitsui Outlet Park Makuhari (三井アウトレットパーク 幕張) for some outlet shopping.

 

Carvaan Tokyo

Met up with Mish for lunch at Shibuya. 

We came to Carvaan Tokyo.

Website: https://tokyo.carvaan.jp/menu/

This is a halal restaurant and according to their website, they use natural ingredients such as natural rock & sea salt, palm sap, agave syrup.

This fancy set here is the hibiscus tea that we ordered. Slightly acidic but goes so well with desserts.

We each ordered a Falafel Shawarma for 550 JPY because I cannot resist falafel and hummus. 

This here is an Arabian roll sandwich with falafel and hummus made from chickpeas and herbs and salad. 

This is super delicious and I recommend getting this with the afternoon tea because it is always nice to start off with something savoury.

We had their Arabian Afternoon Tea plate, which costs 3,190 JPY.

This comes with 7 kinds of desserts using Arabian ingredients and Arabian scone with spices.

Arabian scone with spicy nuts, served with fruit confiture and Greek yogurt was delicious As the figs are already sweet, you might not need to add too much honey if you do no like things are are too sweet.

The beautiful platter of  7 desserts.

The one in the center is the Berry and rose vegan mousse which is sweet and sour and super refreshing.

This is he Seasonal Arabian gelato, which was chestnut when we were there.

Dates and cacao cake was moist and thick.

Hanamitsu Stollen. I am not sure what it is at the bottom, but everything just goes so well together.

Arabian cheesecake here is the bomb and one of my favourite. Love all the crunchy bits that they topped the cheesecake with.

Baklava with nectar and pistachios. As usual baklava are very sweet but I really like the texture.

Lastly, the Carrot and walnut cake was also light and super yummy.

As we were there after lunch time, the place was pretty empty, which was good.

This is one of the best afternoon tea that I have had and will definitely return for more.

 

Birthday Lunch at MOSS CROSS TOKYO

We celebrated by Birthday lunch at MOSS CROSS TOKYO in Akasaka.

Website: https://www.mosscrosstokyo.com/

This place is in a quiet area of the neighborhood.

I like how spacious the place is and how far apart the tables are from each other. It gives me a peace of mind when dining there.

We ordered the bamboo (take) lunch course which costs 4,500 yen before tax.

First up is the assorted 9 kinds of appetizers 「 SHOKADO- ９」

Look at how beautiful everything was plated! 

The menu here explains what each of the dishes are.

They were all delicious and it was hard to pick a favourite.

Next up is this noodles with vegetables tempura. The tempura was delicious and the broth was even better. I was surprised by how good the noodles and the broth were for this dish.

Next is the fish of the day.

The here is the hamburg, which is the meat dish of the day.

Both the fish and meat are good, but I prefer the hamburg more because it is more flavourful and it was the best hamburg I've ever had.

Last dish was the Tarte tatin dessert, which was sweet but so good with the ice cream!

I had such a pleasant experience here that I am definitely adding this to my list of favourite restaurants in Tokyo.

Then for dinner that night, we went for Afuri ramen. Always nice to have a warm refreshing bowl of chicken based broth that is accented with yuzu from Afuri.

We bought several cakes from Dean & Deluca, for us to enjoy throughout the week.

As usual, all their cakes are beautiful to look at and delicious.

This carrot cake here is nice, but the cream cheese part is not as good as the one from the City Bakery.