With its high ceiling, comfortable seating and impeccably cool soundtrack, Koe Lobby ticks all the right boxes. It only opened last month and already this buzzy cafe/bakery/restaurant/lounge space has become a magnet in Shibuya for both the hungry and the hip.
What sets Koe apart is its all-day dining. Early birds will like the baked goods and eggs at breakfast. Later on, there are good-value lunches of pasta, burgers, gratin and the like. In the evening, the kitchen rustles up a more extensive dining menu till late. And, at any time, you can drop in for a drink while you sit and surf the web.
The quality is good, but you'd expect nothing less from executive chef Satoshi Kakegawa of Ata fame. Among the dishes that look set to become signatures are the Teriyaki Egg Burger — a perfect rendition of what U.S. celebrity chef David Chang might term "Ugly Delicious" — and the light, revivifying ramen noodles, which come with a delicately red-tinged ajitama egg and a fluffy bao (steamed bun) on the side.
Look out, too, for the oozing-moist, two-bite morsels of French toast that appear fleetingly on the take-out counter and disappear equally fast. It's an impressive debut for what is actually, as the name proclaims, a hotel lobby — albeit one with lashings of style.
Breakfast from ¥550, lunch from ¥750, dinner a la carte; English menu; English spoken