One of the spots we really wanted to visit while visiting Tokyo was Dominique Ansel Bakery. Why? They offer items that you can only get in Japan! Yes, I have a weak spot in my heart for those things that says “limited time only” or “offered only at…” items… I remember when this spot opened up in Harajuku. The line for the Dominique Ansel was crazy. I mean, CRAZY! I can’t even imagine how long the wait was…it truly was a block buster. The exterior had nice and bright yellow awning, and one bar table to the side for anyone who wanted to have a quick snacks outside. We were very happy to see that there was no line outside. It was during the weekday, so it was not as busy as we expected.

 

They had a fun cartoon design of Dominique Ansel right by the entrance. Very colorful and fun to look at, the adventure of Dominique Ansel Bakery in Tokyo is depicted with enthusiasm and energy. How cute and creative!

The inside was much bigger than I thought it would be. It had a good amount of natural light from the floor-to-ceiling window facing the street. They had lots of seating, but it was almost full. Even though there was no line outside, but it was still crowded with lots of tourists and others who didn’t have to work or go to school on that day. You are supposed to order first, and then find you a seat. But, not everyone follows the rule (or not realizing there is a rule). For as long as everyone can get a seat relatively quickly, that is all ok…

They had all the yummy items to the left of entrance, going almost all the way to the back. They do have items that are offered in Dominique Ansel Bakery NYC, like Cronut and DKA. All kinds of baked goods, cakes, and few other sweets. And of course, some items that they only offer in Japan.

Here are few of the examples of Tokyo Only items: Matcha Monaka Cookie, Mr. Roboto Melon Pan, and this adorable Monkey Religieuse. We were there for different items on this day, so we didn’t get any of these items.

Another thing they had going on was Singapore Chilli Crab. It is offered during limited time, only at Omotesando. Why Singapore’s crab? It was as part of the Singapore: Inside Out event in Tokyo, a traveling showcase of Singapore’s creative and artistic talents. And no, it is not a real crab, but sweet concoction made with chocolate, mango mousse, tapioca, and few other delights. It sounded interesting, but then again, we had our purpose, and we needed to keep our focus! Sorry cute crabs…

The wall facing the food counter was decorated with very interesting and fun subway map of some sort. You see, it really isn’t a subway map, but it has all the locations and offerings infused with real Tokyo subway map and Japanese food. Pretty interesting again, so fun! I like how playful this locations is, inside and out.

So what was our so-very-important purpose? Watermelon and Corn soft serves! They are only offered in Tokyo, and yes, for limited Summer time only. We ordered one at a time, so that we can give them the attention they deserve, and savor them without worrying about them melting too quickly. The first up, What-A-Melon (1,000 yen), a super fun name (they really know how to have fun here) soft serve that is made with and from watermelon.

It comes with fresh watermelon with their homemade watermelon soft serve. It is a good size too, not too big but not too small. The watermelon seeds you see here are actually chocolate! They made seed-shaped chocolate bits and put them on the watermelon. So cute!

I got to see how  they make this item, since they have the open kitchen. They had the watermelons already cut into their shape and chocolate seeds on them. So, all they need to do it to put the watermelon soft serve in the middle. And What-A-Melon does have a face. How can you tell? Flip it over and you see there is no chocolate seeds on the other side… I guess it is too much work to put those cute little chocolate seeds on both sides.

Another interesting thing about this soft serve is that it comes with a side of salt! By putting salt on watermelon, some say it enhances its sweetness. We sprinkled a little bit of salt, and tried it both way. We really enjoyed the soft both with and without the salt. The soft serve had nice flavor, not overly sweet, refreshing and velvety. I felt like its watermelon flavor was masked against real watermelon, but it was still very delicious with good watermelon flavor. The watermelon was very fresh and ripe, the chocolate seeds were really thin so I didn’t really taste much of chocolate. Overall, it was really fun to eat!

After we finished with the What-A-Melon, we went back to the ordering counter and got a Crème de la Corn (1,000 yen), again, a bit of playfulness with the name of this soft serve as well. The exciting and amazing thing about this item is that the soft serve is actually sitting on top of a real corn! It is made with caramel sweet corn soft serve on a soy butter grilled corn on a cob. It was grilled nicely, beautiful job!

The soft serve is decorated with caramel corn cream (?) to make it look like there are some corns dropped on the soft serve. The details are really incredible…

This was a good size too, we were very happy to be able to try this in Japan. The only thing is that the soft serve goes on top of a grilled corn…so the soft serve started to melt rather quickly while we were taking photos. It was really great though, perfect combination of caramel and sweet corn flavor, and it really had good corn taste. After we finished the soft serve, I saw a wooden dowel that allow us to hold the corn, and maybe give a little bit of stability to the soft serve as well? The corn had nice salty flavor from soy and a bit of buttery flavor with nice smokey-ness to it. The salty flavor against the sweet soft serve were match made in heaven. It was fun to get a corn on a cob with the soft serve.

After completing our purpose of this visit, we sat in happy dessert heaven for a few minutes. Then, we thought about how we actually never had their Cronut. Since we frequent Dominique Ansel Kitchen in NYC rather than Dominique Ansel Bakery, we haven’t had the chance to try their popular Cronut. We thought this is a great opportunity to do that here!

The flavor of the month was Honeydew Melon Jam with Coconut Ganache and Lime Sugar. My goodness, that sounded incredible! So, we got our first Cronut from Dominuque Ansel in Japan. It was pretty big, thick, and satisfying.

The Honeydew Melon Jam filling was amazing, it was super delicious with sweet melon flavor. It had very dense and most, chewy and kind of hard to bite off. I am not sure if the humidity got to it, or if it is supposed to be that way. I just have to try another Cronut again in a near future to examine it…gladly…

They have bathrooms on the second floor, at the top of staircase that is again, decorated with fun spirits. No, they didn’t decorate the wall leading up to the second floor just for the bathrooms. They actually have a nice little cafe on the second floor.

If the first floor is too crowded, there is an option to have a table seating on the second floor. The catch is that there is a table charge. But if you want more than just the sweets, they offer some savory items like sandwiches and spaghetti. They also offer brunch here. And yes, you can order the baked goods and sweet that are offered on the first floor up here as well.

The bathrooms are at the top of staircases, and they have two gender-neutral bathrooms.

The staffs come to clean often (it seemed like), so it was very clean. I got to use the bathroom that was just cleaned, so I was very lucky too. They had nice amenities in there like q-tips, toothpicks, cotton and tissue to help you look your best after having a great sweets or meal here.

The staffs here were very pleasant and helpful. There were maybe a couple of them who were not overly friendly, but most of them had nice smile on their faces, and made us feel welcomed. We met one of their Assistant Manager, Haruna, right when we were about to leave. She was super adorable and filled with happy vibes. I love people like that, spreading smiles and sunshine everywhere! I am so glad I got to visit Dominique Ansel Bakery in Omotesando, and tried their soft serves! It was totally worth the wait and trip over to Harajuku! Until next time…

Dominique Ansel Bakery @ Omotesando – 5-7-14 22Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan