Area: Kokusai Center Station 国際センター駅 (about 400m North of Exit 2)
Restaurant: Cafe de Lyon カフェ ド リオン
Website: http://cafedelyon.net/
The lunch plate and beef stew look delicious at this French cafe, but yet again, I was too late for the lunch menu. The stew might be available after lunch hours on a regular day, but on this day, they were closing early and only had sandwiches. I chose the duck and camembert cheese sandwich (850円). Thick slices of cured duck meat and camembert cheese definitely goes well with ample crispy, deep green lettuce in between toasted bread. The thin layer of dijon mustard
is also a good addition to the duck. The plate also comes with a light mango pudding to cleanse the palette from the cracked black pepper on the duck.
It's a small, quiet and quaint little cafe. It has the feel of a western countryside cafe, almost as if visiting a friend's house. I will have to go back to try the stew someday. If you go for the morning or lunch service, it seems they have a limited amount so you may want to go early or reserve!
I was able to come back to try their morning service. Instead of the regular blend coffee, I decided to try the monthly special since I made the trip all the way out here (¥550). It was a bean from Kenya, and it was described as having a fruity wine flavor, with a grape like acidity. It did have a body like red wine. A nice cup of coffee, with good acidity. The ham, cheese and lettuce mustard sandwich was light and went with the coffee maybe because cheese often goes with wine(?). It was served on sesame and regular bread (not sure if the sesame really makes a difference in flavor, but it's pretty. The simple, nicely seasoned egg salad was on both regular white and brown bread. The yogurt was a plain yogurt topped with pineapple, banana, strawberry, kiwi and strawberry jam. The toast was a choice between maple and cream cheese. I wanted something different so I went with the cream cheese. The cheese was thinly spread and then toasted so it camouflaged with the toasty color of the toast. It gave just a mild cheesy and toasty flavor almost like the burnt edges of cheese on pizza.
I will try to come again for the stew and yet again update this blog entry!
Well I did make it back again, but the beef stew was all sold out, so I went for the French plate lunch (980 yen).
The soup was a potato potage, creamy but yet had texture of a mashed potato. The salad had a light dressing and could have use more. Japanese salads, I find, are often under-dressed. The fried fish and vinaigrette salad was a bit too vinegary. It reminded me of Japanese nan ban zuke, so I'm not sure it was really French.
For the gratin, I chose the recommended Hokkaido broccoli and crab penne gratin. It was milky with a Japanese processed cheese-like browned topping. In all this lunch did not make me think of France, but it was nice for a light bite.
Well I did make it back again, but the beef stew was all sold out, so I went for the French plate lunch (980 yen).
The soup was a potato potage, creamy but yet had texture of a mashed potato. The salad had a light dressing and could have use more. Japanese salads, I find, are often under-dressed. The fried fish and vinaigrette salad was a bit too vinegary. It reminded me of Japanese nan ban zuke, so I'm not sure it was really French.
For the gratin, I chose the recommended Hokkaido broccoli and crab penne gratin. It was milky with a Japanese processed cheese-like browned topping. In all this lunch did not make me think of France, but it was nice for a light bite.
Dessert came on the house, a chiffon cake with a really thick delicious cream that went really nicely with the juicy melon. The iced black tea was a strong blend that matched perfectly with the sweets.
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