Toshi Yoroizuka
Add: 東京都港区赤坂9-7-2 東京ミッドタウン・イースト1ＦＢ－0104
. Tokyo Midtown East 1F B-0104. 9-7-2 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Tel: 03-5413-3650
Hours: [shop] 11am-9pm [salon] 11am-10pm
Price: ¥1,200~1,300
Website: grand-patissier.info/ToshiYoroizuka
Visited: Jan 2011
I love the idea of sitting at a bar facing an open kitchen, where pastry chefs conjure up beautiful desserts from scratch, right in front of my eyes. Naturally, Toshi Yoroizuka was on my must-visit list for Tokyo. The pastry chef has spent several years in Europe training in Switzerland, Germany, France and Belgium before returning to Japan, where his two boutique cafes now have pastry chefs assembling seasonal desserts to order. To avoid the wait, I skipped lunch and headed to Toshi Yoroizuka at noon. I was ready to be blown away.
There was no line during lunch time – I guess not many people eat desserts for an actual meal like I do – but it was a full house when I passed by again later in the afternoon. We were seated immediately and handed the menu, which only consisted of 8 items to choose from. If you obviously don’t speak Japanese, the waiter will bring you an English menu with detailed construction drawings of each dessert.
After some debate, I settled with the Biscuit Coulant Chocolat Yuzu (¥1,200), which is molten chocolate cake accompanied by yuzu and chocolate ice-cream, topped with two thin pieces of langue de chat (cat’s tongue), and dressed with an orange sauce on the side. The dessert was good, but it didn’t blow me away. Sure, the cake was rich and creamy while the ice-cream offered a nice contrasting zest, but everything was so predictable. I guess I shouldn’t have ordered something this typical, but I was hoping that Yoroizuka would somehow add his magic touch.
The Souffle KAKI (¥1,200), made with custard cream, caramel sauce, baked Japanese persimmon, complete with the pouring of a Japanese persimmon sauce after baking, was fluffy like a piece of cloud. But again, it was nothing dazzling.
Having read so many rave reviews about Toshi Yoroizuka, I couldn’t help but wonder if I had just ordered the wrong desserts. In fact, there were a few very interesting looking items on the menu, such as the “Kiwi Rainbow” – panna cotta and sponge cake wrapped with kiwi fruit and honey ice-cream bathing in calpis soda, and there is the “La Gorgonzola Pistache” – raisin and gorgonzola pound cake, gorgonzola ice-cream, topped with pistachio cream and a mixture of cookie crumbs and nuts. I was so tempted to come back to try these, but given the short amount of time I had Tokyo, Toshi Yoroizuka just never got a second visit. 殘念.
Please don’t forget that Toshi received his most important education in Switzerland… :-)
Hello! is there a need to do reservation? According to their website they only entertain reservations