Food & Drink | KONBINI WATCH Dec 28, 2019
Festive sweets to ring in the new year
by Patrick St. Michel
Convenience stores have your cravings covered this new year with a selection of festive fruit- and cheese-based sweets.
Food & Drink | DESSERT WATCH Aug 24, 2019
A people-pleasing panda pudding platter
by Patrick St. Michel
If variety's the key to pleasing your sweet tooth, then Chateraise's new panda-themed dessert tray is the one for you.
Food & Drink | TOKYO FOOD FILE May 4, 2019
Kashiyama Daikanyama Cafe and Coteau: From Basque cheesecake to rooftop vistas of Daikanyama
by Robbie Swinnerton
The Daikanyama district continues to mushroom new developments, most of them notable more for their architecture than their carefully curated content. It would be tempting to lump the new Kashiyama building in that category, but there is definitely gastronomic substance to be found along ...
Food & Drink | KONBINI WATCH Nov 10, 2018
Carbo-load: Convenience store breads pile on the sweetness
by Patrick St. Michel
Japan's big three convenience stores — Lawson, FamilyMart and Seven-Eleven — have plenty of rich (and caloric!) bread-based desserts to satisfy any sweet tooth.
Food & Drink | DESSERT WATCH Apr 7, 2018
Sarabeth's PBJ French Toast is a twist on the classic brown-paper-bag lunch
by Patrick St. Michel
More and more non-Japanese foods that were once impossible to find in Tokyo have become available in recent years. The quality can be hit or miss, but it is out there, waiting to be devoured. But what do you do when you get a ...
Food & Drink | DESSERT WATCH Jan 20, 2018
First Kitchen's Dessert Potatoes: An overpowering addition to the chocolate fries scene
by Patrick St. Michel
We're currently living through a race by fast food chains to see who can best transform French fries into a dessert. Is First Kitchen up to the challenge?
Food & Drink | DESSERT WATCH Apr 15, 2017
American Cherry Pie Frappuccino: Crust crumbs distract from otherwise tasty treat
by Patrick St. Michel
We all can use a little indulgence from time to time, especially in such exhausting times. Thankfully, there's always an eye-grabbing dessert being wheeled out by a chain restaurant in Japan to focus on. Starbucks Japan's new American Cherry Pie Frappuccino is the latest to ...
Food & Drink Mar 3, 2017
Asia's top pastry chef Kazutoshi Narita on what inspires his creations
by Robbie Swinnerton
Over the past three decades, master patissier Kazutoshi Narita has worked in half a dozen countries alongside some of the world's most acclaimed chefs. He is executive pastry chef at one of Tokyo's finest French restaurants, and also runs his own dessert counter in the ...
Food & Drink | DESSERT WATCH Feb 17, 2017
Black S'more Pancake: More than the sum of its many parts
by Patrick St. Michel
Sometimes, simply piling sweet tastes onto a dessert is a winning strategy. As it happens, The J.S. Pancake Cafe chain is offering up a chocolate Black S'more Pancake until the end of February. At ¥1,180, the treat features two thick chocolate pancakes, a mix of ...
Food & Drink | KONBINI WATCH Aug 26, 2016
Look! Chocolates are getting the jump on autumn
by Patrick St. Michel
In the same way that shops jump the gun on Christmas by getting the Santa decorations out on Nov. 1, konbini (convenience store) shelves begin stocking autumn-themed treats while the mercury is still well above the 30 degrees Celsius mark. Sweets company Fujiya is one ...
Food & Drink | TOKYO FOOD FILE Aug 19, 2016
Handels Vagen's frozen treats will have you singing Handel's 'Messiah'
by Robbie Swinnerton
Premium ice cream is never out of season. But the timing could hardly have been better for the arrival of Handels Vagen at the start of this summer. Located in the basement of the new Tokyu Plaza in Ginza, it boasts a modest footprint ...
Food & Drink | DESSERT WATCH Aug 19, 2016
Classic summer treat gets a granola makeover from Kellogg's
by Patrick St. Michel
Wa Kitchen Kanna (2-43-11 Shimouma, Setagaya Ward, Tokyo) gives its tastiest offering, kakigōri (shaved ice), a breakfast-ready makeover in cooperation with cereal maker Kellogg's. The limited-edition dessert takes the store's original kakigori, adds a hearty amount of condensed milk to the top and surrounds ...