Cycling to Au Bon Vieux Temp

Went cycling, which in theory should be faster but I also tend to not follow known routes or check the map often, so I end up going way out of my way, like today.

The destination was Au Bon Vieux Temp out by Ooyamadai Station on Toukyuu　Ooimachi Line, in Setagaya. They are on my great shop list, although I'm having my doubts. I've made excuses in the past for cakes that might be great, except for not holding up under the extreme heat. This time I got three cakes with not very good prospects (I don't know what to pick, so I just picked them in the order of the display, except that I skipped the seasonal mixed fruit tart, because it looked small and pathetic and I've never been impressed by mixed fruit tarts; in particular, citrus fruits don't go well with most other fruits). None of these had much inherit chance of being great and they were not, but other great shops have shown that they can surprise me, which these didn't really.

First is the Fromage Cru, rare cheese cake for 380 yen + tax. Like all the cakes in this set, it's very small (just a few centimeters wide). Definitely good flavor, so I'd say better than average for rare cheese cakes, although it was just a little more gelatinous than I like. I usually can't be bothered to read and remember the details, but online it says that they use white wine rather than lemon juice, so now I totally want to do that with my baked cheese cake, except I also want to do chocolate, which would sort of confuse the experiment.

Next was Biscuit aux Fruits for 400 yen + tax. For sponge cake with fruit, this was very good, especially considering that there is banana in the middle, which I don't generally care for or consider appropriate but worked fairly well here. But sponge cake even with mostly custard rather than simply whipped cream has pretty limited appeal for me, so I can't say that this is great, just very good.

Finally, the signature dessert of the shop was 420 yen + tax. This is a Brûlée of custard and pear. Very good, and very alcoholic (pear brandy).