Juri's Tea Rooms, New York Cheesecake

As a partial sampling, I had most of a piece of New York Cheesecake from Juri's Tea Rooms, as takeout. Previously, I've had the afternoon tea set there, the best of which is the scones, though the cake was fine. This was also fine, or rather good, so it gets on the list of fine shops that I need to get a second cake from.

L'Atelier Motozo, Torta di Ricotta

Did what passing for running with me these days, 1-min intervals, but only about 20 intervals, and then just walking, due to my knee. After confirming that Viron had nothing new (though the Valentine's cakes were gone), I made a 4th visit to (L'atelier) Motozo in Miguro-ku. They're only open 4 hours a day, 4 days a week now, with no café or bar visible. They do Italian desserts, so not a lot for me. I've already had their mont-blanc (and a variation) and one other cake. This time I went with their cheesecake, Torta di Ricotta, which seemed like my best chance. Still, it didn't look particularly encouraging, reminding of me of a café cake from Kobe, though that one was probably pretty good, now that I think about it. Anyway, it was much better than I expected, probably better than average for patisserie cheesecake overall, which is impressive. However, it's a tough call and I think I have to go with calling this definitely good, which isn't going to be enough to keep it in the quite fine group if I make a cut. Still need to find 7 more better shops, though.

Sadaharu Aoki, Cheese Cake Fruits Rouge

Tuesday last week, I optimistically went down to Tokyo Midtown to see whether they would have a Ryoura cake on a Tuesday, which is actually crazy because the shop is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays (they didn't have any cakes a holiday Thursday morning either, so I won't try that day again). If I had researched and thought ahead, I could have saved myself a trip (which I did using 1-min intervals of walking and running, which is all I'm managing these days, but I'm working on it) and gone to Isetan, since the other purpose was to check whether Sadaharu Aoki had a particular cake that I want for a cake-off versus a seasonal JPH cake. They didn't but instead had the rare new cake, as shown. It's Cheese Cake Fruits Rouge, versus their standard citrus one. It's not a flavor I associate with cheesecake or one I seek and is mild as accents go, but actually turned out to work, so I wasn't disappointed at all. And it was the usual SA quality, so I'm fine saying it was excellent. I'm assuming that the red fruits are raspberry and cassis, as that's what was in the Noel Cheese Cake (as an online item last year). 

Now if I can just get Millefeuille Mâcha, which is still on their site as at Marunouchi, but last time I checked it was suspended due to pandemic state of emergency, maybe.

Nanatea and Tsutsumi, Broiled Cheesecake

Well, I'm not sure about this local tea salon, Nanatea and Tsutsumi, on the south Omotesando part of Kitaaoyama. I was there early (before noon), before they had any customers and asked about take out cake. They asked themselves about what they had ingredients for, which seems strange, as I was at the display case, but then I ended up waiting a long time to get this, so they really did make it, which sort of makes it café dessert rather than patisserie cake, even if I got it take out. Now that I know that "aburu" means "to broil", I know this is Broiled Cheesecake, which is exactly what it seems like, with the top soft like melted cheese but with an overall texture between typical cheesecake and cheese. I have to wonder if you get it hot if you order it eat in and I should have broiled it, but they didn't tell me and I didn't know until now, when I finally looked up the kanji for the name in the menu and recalled what I was told at the time. I'm going to say it was good allow it, so eventually I expect I'll get back, by which time hopefully they will have other cakes (menu also includes classic chocolate and cake of the day, though they only had the cheesecake as far as cakes. 

Crayonhouse, Fruit Rare Cheesecake

Went down to try to cake from a new shop in the Harajuku-Omotesando area. Mostly, they were closed by the time I got there, but Crayonhouse was open and happy to sell me takeout cake. They tend to be healthy type and more on the baked side, but this at least is within the scope of patisseries. And it was good. The fruit had a sort of raison flavor, though not purely that. It might just be that it uses dried fruit. 

 

Lenôtre, Schuss Fraise

Monday, because of a cake-off win with a seasonal cake, I went to Lenôtre at Ginza Mitsukoshi for a new cake, which was also seasonal. My target was actually a different cake that I had only imagined, having not looked closely apparently (or just misremembered), but the real cake, Schuss Fraise, looked fine (there is a season glass dessert, but never my first choice). This is a "rare" (unbaked) cheese mousse cake. I'm usually more a baked cheesecake person, though the dual rare+baked one are often the best. Anyway, their usual is citrus, but this one uses strawberries on top and strawberries and raspberries (for some tang) for the sauce. Definitely excellent, though when I reviewed, the Schuss Citron was also definitely excellent, so I shouldn't have been surprised. It doesn't get them back into the quite exceptional category, but they aren't far off, so something will eventually slip low enough that they'll get another chance at a new cake.

The exercise was running there and fast walking back, followed by dancercise, though I skipped other indoor exercises.

Tamago Cocco, Cheesecake

Monday, I tried hitting a couple cafés on the local map, Stadium Café and Café Casa, but both were closed, contrary to posted hours. The latter at least had a sign on the door, as well a message on its website, that they were closing for three days. Other potential places for lower-level snacks were also closed, as expected, so I ended up going to the other side of Meiji-dori for a visit to Eataly across from Harajuku Sta. Hazelnut and chocolate is definitely nice, and quite pricy. it was about 1 h of running after pushups, curls, and dance exercise.

Tuesday, I went from work to Tamago Cocco, off north, so outside the neighborhood course but still close. It's not much of a cake shop, but they have a couple things. The cream puffs were sold out, so I got the Cheesecake. It was good, though eggy, of course. Eventually (might take a couple years), I'll get around to trying the cream puff.

Michalak, Cheese Cake Orange

Monday to Wednesday, I managed at least short runs along with indoor workouts. Monday, was too late to visit I think, and Tuesday they were sold-out, but Wednesday, I managed to get Cheese Cake Orange from Michalak as an exceptional shop. It was probably a fairly high sugar one (American-style?), and suited me fine. Hadn't known orange, which is a bit tricky for cake, worked for cheesecake, but it does.

Ron Herman Café: Cheesecake and Mont-Blanc

I was busy on the weekend, but did a first visit to the Ron Herman Café in Sendagaya and had lunch and cake for two. The cakes were their Cheesecake, which has fresh grapes, and a Mont-Blanc. For a café, this place has a pretty good selection, which was one reason for choosing it, plus it's not in a crowded area, though fairly busy (not sure where people come from, since it's far from the standard shopping areas, and yet they continue, though obviously on people's radars). Too much gelatin on the top of the cheesecake for me, but definitely good cake, with amount of sour cream sourness that I miss in a lot of cheesecakes here. 

I thought the Mont-Blanc was also definitely, but it was pointed out that it had a sort of amateurish disorder. The base is about 1 centimeter thick of something between a dense pound cake and a sablé-type cookie, which is a bit unusually, but probably useful for a café. I suspect both the base and the cheesecake are prepared in advance at a remote location and the top parts are added locally.

Anyway, good enough that it should count as a cake shop on my local running map, but not good enough that I'll probably get back to it now that I've had two cakes.
 

Repos, Fromage Vanille & Fraisier (Muscat)

Got cake for two on Saturday from Repos (a.k.a. P. Ease), a fine shop that had given me one excellent cake from their new counter at Isetan. This time, I chose the cheesecake, Fromage Vanille, and a Fraisier, though with Muscat grapes substituted for traditional strawberries (also cheese based, but mascarpone is tasteless, so it doesn't really count; it's just a medium). 

While more soufflé-like than my preferred cheesecake, it was still definitely good. 

The interesting thing about the Fraisier, besides the contradictory name, is that it comes with olive oil that you pour over it (though I guess that's a standard thing with them for this type of cake, Muscat or not). It also was good, and interesting, but I was less convinced. This will remain a fine shop in my list.

Kouhiichakan Shuu, Marron Chocolat

Spent the day hitting neighborhood shops around Harujuku. Only one really counts, so I'm leading with that one, Kouhii Chakan Shuu. I've visited one of their "Natural Cake" shop, but they have a different line-up. This time I ate in (since no smoking now), though they do takeout. I had Marron Chocolat, which is a seasonal cake. It's on the sweet side, so it would be better with a drink, which is what this is for, after all. It's comparable to the other coffee salon I know and at least as a first cake, I can say it was excellent.

Other cakes were from shops that don't deserve being marked as cake shops for my running map (and were cheap). One was Brook's, where I got the Basque Cheesecake. This is my first time with this kind of cheesecake and I can't say I get it. It was okay.

The other was the new shop in the Aoyama Grand Hotel, The City Bakery. I went with the Lemon Pie (if that's the correct name) which is their lemon tart. This also was just okay, not very lemony, which is the only thing it had to work with.

Haru: New York Cheesecake

Finally visiting new shops, after stopping at Éclat des Jours and getting a great pastry (sorry, rain, and I'm behind on cakes, so I'm giving up on chronicling pastries, but need more from EdJ), I hit nearby Haru in the same neighborhood. I saw them on television and new cheesecakes were his thing, but I expected more variety than I found. In the end, I just got the New York Cheesecake, which was definitely good, but not really worth going that far away. Still, just good will be enough for a second cake relatively soon from fine shops, though it will probably take at least a year to go through them all (since I'm not going to pause everything else while I do it, and the quite fine shops will need a fourth cake).

Noix de Beurre, Cheesecake

The other Noix de Beurre cake-for-two from three weekends back was the the Cheesecake, which was good, but plain, which is sort of their thing: the basic cakes with no surprises.

Pierre Gagnaire, Cheese Cake à la Fraise

Last weekend, as well as a getting a cake for the cake-off, I got one new cake for Pierre Gagnaire, which is challenging the bottom of the quite exceptional shops for a position there. I got Cheesecake (or maybe it was Fromage) aux Fraises, I'll say, but I should check next weekend. I ate this after some running down around Minami-Aoyama on neighborhood course loops. I added a couple sites in the process, a cafe with a sign for take-out cake (as well as closed for the declaration of emergency) and a vegan shop/restaurant with ads for vegan sweets that might have just been closed but it was night during an emergency. As cheesecake goes, this cake is very mild, to the point that I wasn't sure there was going to be any cheese taste at all, but then it cake. Still, pretty minimal. However, there is a lot of strawberry compote in the little ball and I decided in the end that I could credit for being excellent.

Lotus: Apple Cheesecake

Monday, I worked late, of course, and Isetan closed early, so along with verifying my knowledge on some revised neighborhood running courses, in that direction (though doing that particular one came later) I finally visited Lotus, on the Jinguumae Shopping Street. Eat-in requires a drink order, but they do take out and they're open until at least 3 a.m., last I checked. I got the Apple Cheesecake and ate it in the park in front of the new Olympic Museum. It's a dense cheesecake with a thick layer of apple on the bottom, well balanced to the cake. Definitely excellent, which surprised me. It's solidly in the fine shop group, so I should get around to having a second cake eventually.

Pièce Montée, Fromage

Did another run to Ginza, this time for a 6th new cake from Pièce Montée. Went a slightly long way and finished confirming the new Akasaka 3 loop. For the cake, which I ran home, I choose their simplest, the Fromage. It's small, but really enough. A good cake, but not groundbreaking. Looks like if I'm going to get any more new cakes from them, they're going to have to first win a cake-off. I plan to give them their first chance this week. If they win, I'll try one of the more elaborate cakes again next.

Pièce Montée: Fromage Cru

Monday, I ran some revised neighborhood loops, only semi-successfully. The Minami-Aoyama east loop was successful clockwise and the Minami-Motomachi--Moto-Akasaka loop was successful counterclockwise, only I decided to change it on the fly, so now I need to run it clockwise again. Also, since now I'm allowing links through subway access tunnels, I should had a Kita-Aoyama east loop (which has at least part of the park-like part of Meiji-Jinguu Gaien, as well as a children's park on the public housing side, but it was the return of Starbucks that really triggered my considering it (there is also a Japanese confectionery, which I may or may not included, depending my next look in the shop when it's open). So I'm adding nearby loops I need to do faster than I can catch up back to expanding outward. No cake that day, but I was feeling like pizza and tried some place that I won't bother to name. Not the worst, but probably never need to go back.

Tuesday was an indoor workout day, so I just used a bicycle to go to
Pièce Montée to get a 5th cake, to try to resolve the boundary between exceptional and quite fine shops (it's the shops with just one great cake that are the problem). Since I've had luck with them lately (and the selection is pretty small), I went with Fromage Cru. Workout went fine, as the did the cake. I'm rating this as definitely good: very nice balance of raspberry (there's filling) and cheesecake, but simple, with a tart base. Note sure that I got the "feather" and the raspberry back in the correct locations after I got it home, but seems somewhat reasonable.

Ryoura, Fromage Cru

Friday night was a neighborhood run. I only managed the revised Minami-Motomachi--Wakaba--Yotsuya--Sugachou--Shinanomachi loop, which itself is just 4.17 km.

Saturday, I had some time before a 10 am Skype appointment, so I went out before 8 am. At the last minutes, I decided that I'd try the updated Tomigaya--Yoyogi loop, which I hadn't reviewed and failed. Still, I went around to the new sites I had added that prompted the update and confirmed and photographs them (one of which I decided was a mistake to add). Since it nearby, next to route, and famous, I tried looking in on Path Cafe, which was full and had people waiting and eating take-out outside. The freshly made Croissants and Pain au Chocolat were already spoken for, so I would have had to wait 30 minutes. I could buy a Cannele immediately, so I went with that. On one hand, it seem perfect, not like my fake ones (which don't replicate the outside coating). On the other hand, in the end, they were too strong for me, at least without some sort appropriate beverage. Maybe I'll not that into real canelé. If I get by there nearer 8 am (when they open), I'd still like to try their Pain au Chocolat. Coming back, I could do the updated Jinguumae east and Minami-Motomachi--Moto-Akasaka loops clockwise.

The cake run came from after 11 am. I went to Yoga and visited Ryoura for a 16th cake. I've had the least luck with seasonal variations there and recent good look else with Fromage Cru, so I got that from Ryoura and brought it back for eating at home. It's two layers, so I suspect it's actually a rare/baked cheesecake combo, but whatever it was, it was definitely excellent. Not sure what a great one would be like, but I'll have to consider that when I get to a third-round cake-off with my favorite cheesecake.

L'Abricotier, Fromage Cru

Tried the Daita--Daizawa--Hatagaya--Kamiyama-chou--Kitazawa--Motoyoyogi-chou--Nishihara--Ooyama-chou--Shouto--Tomigaya--Uehara loop again, starting at about 7:40 am. I realized that I would actually feel bad if I was successful, because I've gotten used to running it, or at least starting to run it. No danger: I got the new part added for the shrine I discovered last time, corrected the mistake from last time, and made (after reaching the far west edge of the loop) the following turn that I was worried about late time and found that I couldn't remember what to do after that. Not what I did, as it happens, so I wrapped things up around 9:40 am.

From there, I set off for cake from L'Abricotier, which was closer than I expected, so I around more than half an your early (under their recent business hours). It wouldn't have been bad to wait, except, I was wet from the rain. Running and wet isn't so bad, but it's not warm enough for standing and wet. I went to Kouenji Stn., which isn't actually very interesting, and read news on my phone before returning. It was still raining and I was still a little early (though now there were people waiting), so I ran for about ten minutes to keep warm. I decided to eat out (and let someone go ahead of me, who took the last seat, while I was deciding what to get) so I got takeout. My spreadsheet showed I had never had Fromage Cru (rare cheesecake), which surprised me, though it's not something I usually go for, so I got that as my 20th type of cake from them. Obviously, there is fruit on it, and and a little of the inside was fruit-flavored, but it is not obvious what. Probably a red fruit mixture. As it happens, I was in the mood for Fromage Cru, which apparently I should get more of. I'll need to remember how today's was and compare it to Dalloyau's, which is still hanging on the greats list. This one hit me right, so I can call it excellent.

Au Bon Vieux Temps: Sainte-Maure

This should be short: I did a run down to Au Bon Vieux Temps. Didn't set an alarm and managed to sleep until 8 am, so it seemed a little late, since I wasn't able to get out of the house until a little before 9 am, but I could arrive at 10:30 am, which is actually a pretty good time (before 10 am, some cakes aren't out yet, even though they are open). I choose the Sainte-Maure, because I recognized it as something that had been around for a while, yet I had never tried it. I only got as far as reading that it had cheese before I was busy ordering, paying, and getting my cake arranged. Still not sure that was in it: probably some sort of red fruit, not too strong. The name is the name of the cheese, which probably means its the name of a region. It's goat cheese, which is a first for me with cake, as far as I can remember, and the cake seemed to be a rare cheesecake. Eating it was like eating not wet ice cream (which is a good thing), partially because I chilled it down to zero before eating it, but the same can be said for other of their cakes that are not cheese. Definitely excellent and unique. Not like what usually comes to mind when I think "cake", but I'll definitely be more interested in any other cheese cakes they have, though I've already had their Fromage Cru and it was just good.