We felt like a nice, classy dinner whilst in Japan.

I’d spent the whole day around Shinjuku shopping up a storm *ahem*, and I’d noticed that the massive Takashimaya department store had 2-3 full levels dedicated to restaurants, dubbed Restaurant Park. They range from mid-range to fine-dining, so I thought it’d be a great option to kick back and have a civilised dinner together.

After looking through every restaurant (we’re very particular about where we eat!), we finally settled on Komatsu Soba (???) on the 13th floor, because they specialise in – surprise surprise – soba. The restaurant boasts buckwheat soba, which has a slightly sweeter taste than regular soba. It takes three months for buckwheat to be ready for harvest, and so is $$$, especially since this restaurant serves 100% buckwheat soba.

So was the 100% buckwheat soba different, and worth the large price tag?

I sound like such a tourist, but I can’t really tell the difference! It was a little different in terms of taste to regular soba, but if I wasn’t told, I wouldn’t have been able to discern that this was 100% buckwheat, nor realise that it was much more expensive. I’m such a useless Japanese, I know 😉

The food was great, don’t get me wrong. Just that I couldn’t justify the prices (which were exorbitantly high). Personally, I think I’ll just go for the cheaper ‘regular’ soba and pay a lot less 😛

Inside the ramen restaurant in Takashimaya

Gorgeous views of Tokyo

Some sort of salmon roll. It was good but a bit on the salty side.

Ramen with duck and leeks

Me and my curry soba (loved it)

Tempura set with soba

Steak set with soba

Sake and ice cold beer

Tucking in 🙂

Afterwards, we were still hungry for dessert and so started wandering around the streets of Shinjuku, looking for a dessert cafe. Finally, Chris spotted one. It was actually a small glass door, with a steep flight of stairs behind it. Totally non-descript and not much marketing at street-level. We decided to check it out and were so surprised and what lay at the top of the stairs – the whole 2nd level was the cafe, and it was lovely inside! Plush, warm and with lots of rich colours, it was lovely to chill out and have a drink and dessert.

After going up a narrow flight of stairs, the area opens up into this lovely cafe

Tiramisu

Baked cheesecake

Thoroughly zonked after a mad day