Cafe Gentian Leger: Get away from the bustle of Nagoya Station

Area:  Nagoya Station (Shinkansen side or Taiko-dori side)
Restaurant:  Cafe Gentian Leger カフェジャンシアーヌレジェ
Info:  http://www.jrt-food-service.co.jp/store/details19.html

Hours:  7am-9pm, LO 8:30pm


There are 2 Cafe Gentiane's in JR station. I'm not sure exactly what's different about them but the one named "Leger" is a bit separated from the main hallway. This is the one I visited just because it seemed less busy.  I had the mix sandwich (500円) which includes an egg, and a potato salad on top of ham lettuce and tomato.  I was glad to see that the bread was toasted and the crust wasn't cut off.  The noticeable butter flavor is nice with the creamy egg salad, but I'm not so sure about the Italian dressing on the veggies.  When I have Italian dressing, it's usually limited to salads, so I think I'd prefer it that way here as well.  It's not bad in the sandwich, but I could do without; especially because it adds to the worry that the bread will become soggy if not eaten quickly.  The potato salad had big chunks of dry and tasteless potato (more egg salad please!). Perhaps this is why the Italian dressing is added.

With quiet piano music playing in the background, and people around me catching up with friends, this Cafe is kind of a retreat away from the noise of the station. 

One of this restaurant's signature desserts seems to be the Piyorin (300円).  If you've been to Nagoya station before you'd probably recognize this character.  It's basically pudding, made with cochin chicken eggs (an expensive Nagoya-raised type of chicken).  This pudding is embedded inside vanilla mousse which is coated with sponge cake crumbs.  There is a thin layer of caramel separating the pudding and mousse.  I don't know why, but it was difficult to start eating this cute little character;  I guess I didn't want to demolish his face, so I started by taking away the chocolate, making the arms, eyes and smile disappear.  The vanilla mousse was a nice milky taste with a mild sweetness balancing out the sweet white chocolate decorations.  The pudding had a strong eggy flavor which is probably the point in showing off the special chicken's gold.  However, I got the sense that Cochin chicken's eggs are expensive since the amount of pudding in this inexpensive dessert was minimal. Perhaps in all, not more than a tablespoonful of pudding was there.  For only 150円 more I added a coffee.  I'm glad there is this cheap option since that is about what it's worth (not worth 300円 for that cup of java).