Nishihara Coffee: They seem to KNOW coffee

Area:  about 300m west of Fushimi station 伏見駅
Restaurant:  Nishihara Coffee Shop  西原珈琲店
Website and Map:  http://nishiharacoffee.com/about/nishihara/fushimi/

Hours: 10am-7pm (Lunch served until 2pm)

This cafe is a little bit hidden.  From the outside it looks like a small, old building, housing only an office.  But upon entering and walking down one level, all the way to the back, there is Nishihara Coffee.  It has a feel of an old European cafe with dim lighting, black wooden walls and furniture.  Orchestral music from The Nutcracker and piano music were playing over the speakers.   Seating was booth seating, but you can also choose to sit at the counter, where the shelves behind it have various china cups and plates on display.

I was first given the drink and sandwich menu because I came at 2:30pm (after lunch).  But upon asking, they brought the lunch menu.  Lunch includes a sandwich, soup, salad and a drink.  This cafe features a different coffee bean every month, so this is what I wanted to try.  They brought the coffee out first.  This variety was a nice medium blend, and it tasted fresh.  

The sandwiches choices were a ham, ham & cheese, or the Nishihara recommended.  Today's recommended was a meat omelette.  It was on toasted bread (with the crusts included, yay!).  The bread was around an 5-slice loaf (fairly thick).  In Japan, the loaves are about half the size of a regular loaf and the thickness of one slice is described by the number of slices it's cut in.  I'm glad the crusts were left on because the crust on this loaf added a nice toasty flavor.  The cucumber gave it a nice crunch and the onions in the ground meat omelette was a nice addition.  The sandwich benefited from the spread of ketchup. The salad was combination of lettuce, cucumber and a cherry tomato dressed with a Japanese shiso dressing.  The soup was a cream corn soup, but this one had depth compared to other corn soups that seem like corn flavored sweet milk  This one started with a good broth, and was cooked with onions, bacon and mushrooms, and seasoned with a dash of pepper.  I quite enjoyed this cream corn soup.  

Cafe A. Bloom: Kissaten and Cafe Hybrid

Area:  about 200m northwest of Marunouchi station 丸の内駅
Restaurant:  Cafe A. Bloom  カフェ　アブルーム
Map and Info:  http://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230102/23044765/dtlmap/

Hours:  Weekends 7am-9pm, Saturdays 8am-6pm, Sundays & Holidays 8am-5pm



This cafe's menu sounds almost like a typical kissaten, but something about the face of this restaurant caught my eye, so I decided to try it one day.  They do serve the typical Japanese-style cafe omuraisu, curry rice and hamburger patty, but on the day's special menu the lunch choices were tonteki (pork steak), fried sardine and salmon, or a salmon meuniere  Salmon meuniere sounded a bit different than the regular stuff, so that's what I ordered (¥800).  I was glad to see the variety if vegetables on this plate.  First was a purple and green cabbage salad with a sesame dressing.  There was also stewed daikon and carrot, juicy and not soggy, infused nicely with dashi and soy sauce flavors.  The komatsuna (a green vegetable with crunchy stems and broad leaves), was mildy flavored with a contrasting mustard dressing.  The slice of tamago-yaki was also lightly seasoned as to let the taste of egg reign.  The meuniere, which is a lightly floured fish sauté was a bit dry, but went nice with the shiso leaf topping and ponzu dip (there was also a choice of teriyaki and tartar sauce).

The clientele are business-men and women dining alone.  There is a computer room that is free for anyone to use, but this was probably more useful in the days before the smart phone.  Although smoking is allowed, these salary-men were not the smoking type, so the air was clean.  The piano music playing in the background with the sounds of plates and the espresso maker made for a quiet cafe-like  (not kissaten) experience.

I hear they serve a big value morning, so I wouldn't mind coming back to try that. 

Nagoya City Science Museum Cafe and Restaurant: Expected more originality, but kids might like it

Area:  Just south of Fushimi Station Exit 5 伏見駅
Restaurant:  Nagoya City Science Museum cafe and restaurant 名古屋市科学館
Museum website and map:  http://www.ncsm.city.nagoya.jp/en/visitors_guide/access.html

Hours:  9:30am-5pm, Closed Mondays and every 3rd Friday of the month



I thought maybe the Nagoya City Museum cafe might have some interesting and funky dishes, being a science museum and all.  But I was disappointed that it was just expensive and was not at all that interesting.  There was a curry, hayashi rice, taco rice, loco moco, and a few pastas.  The only science-y thing about it were the names of the dishes such as black hole curry, green earth pasta, etc.

I went for the taco rice, a few nachos with lettuce, a half cooked egg and a spicy meat sauce.  The flavour, not all that different than how I remember taco sauces to be. But for ¥850, I expected more meat sauce or a bigger bowl!

The one thing that caught my eye was the green mushi bagel (¥350, since when were bagels this expensive?  This is Japan!).  Literally it means the green insect.  It's actually a bagel made with Euglena which is a type of micro organism apparently containing lots of nutrients important for the human body.  The bagel had a really nice moist, dense and chewy texture, but I guess euglena has no flavor because it just tasted like a regular bagel. 

Madame Cafe Budouen Ombrage: Does not live up to it's price

Area:  Meitetsu Deparment store at Nagoya Station　7th floor 名鉄百貨店　7F
Restaurant:  Madame Cafe Budouen Ombrage  マダムカフェぶどう園オンブラージュ
Website and Info:  http://www.e-meitetsu.com/mds/food/cafe/index.html
Map:  http://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230101/23005909/dtlmap/

Hours:  10am-8pm, Lunch 11am-2pm

This restaurant's lunch ends at 2pm, which is precisely when my break starts so I haven't been able to make it here.  But there was one rainy day when I was able to take an early break.  It was perfect that I didn't have to venture outside in the rain since it's located in a department store attached to Nagoya station.

Today, the lunch sets were a hayashi rice (Japanese beef stew), pasta, or omelette rice.  All seem very Japanese comfort food like.  I went with the pasta lunch (¥1180, including drink of choice).   

Just a I expected, the flavors were not all that different then a Japanese kissaten. The small egg salad sandwich and the ham and cucumber sandwich used an interesting yellow kabocha (squash) bread, but this was not at all apparent in the taste.  At least it had the crust still attached though! The salad was a shredded cabbage, lettuce and mizuna mix with a sesame dressing.  The dinner roll had a marmalade spread in it.  The main, tomato cream pasta, had fresh peas (I like that in Japan green peas are usually the fresh crunchy and plump type as opposed to the shriveled, mushy frozen type), broccoli and onion.  They also served it with a half cooked egg to be eaten how you like, but mainly for breaking overtop the pasta. There were also a few slices of squid.  The sauce was so salty and so the tomato flavor wasn't really apparent.  The half cooked egg was a good touch to mellow out this saltiness.  The soup was an egg drop chicken consommé with a few slices of onion and squash, tasting like lipton's soup with dried parsley for decor.

The waffle for dessert was light like styrofoam, and was not very sweet.  I'm not sure if it matches with matcha, but they should bring the dessert and drink after the meal while both are still warm.