Cafe Meals: It's such a shame the lunch hours have shortened

Area:  Marunouchi Station 丸の内駅
Restaurant:  Cafe Meals  カフェ　ミールズ
Map and Info:  http://tabelog.com/aichi/A2301/A230102/23053878/

Hours:  Lunch 11am-2pm, Dinner 5-9pm

When this restaurant first opened, it was more like a cafe, open all day without an afternoon break.  However, recently and unfortunately, they close at an early 2pm.

The big draw of this place is that not only is the food tasty, and arranged on the plate as if it were a fine dining restaurant, it is extremely reasonable.  The price for lunch when I was able to go was only \650.  This included an appetizer (soup or salad), main, and dessert.  For just \100 extra you can add a drink.  The chef is also not afraid to switch up the menu often, so you will never get tired of the same dishes.

Apparently the chef used to work in an up-scale French restaurant.  He learned from Michelin star chefs, and it shows in his cooking.  He now works at this cafe where they try to make healthy meals that are reasonable and will please everyone, from kids to seniors.

The first lunch I had here started with a shiso (Japanese so-called basil) drink on the house.  It was sweet and syrupy but was cold and refreshing on the hot day that it was.  The bistro lunch of the day was a quiche (others lunches included a curry, hamburger patty, pizza, etc.).  The quiche was unlike a regular quiche, but this is what made it so nice.  The bottom layer of crust was almost like an egg bread.  The egg filling was juicy with a nice blend of herbs.  The pork, tomato and cheese on top gave it depth.  The deconstructed crust was toasty and had a noticeable buttery aroma.

The dessert was a dense chocolate ganash cake.  It was served with sweet berries and the drizzle of olive oil surprisingly went nicely with the sweetness.

                               

On my next visit, I went for the pizza lunch.  The big salad included grilled eggplant, thinly sliced green, red and yellow pepper, and chicken kara-age which was nicely marinated with a flavour almost like chinese cha-siu.  The dressing was a simple italian.  green pepper thinly sliced red and yellow. Chicken karaage was nicely marinated almost chinese cha siu like.  Dressing a nice italian

The soup was a unique, apparently a carrot soup and had a strong cheese flavour.

The pizza dough was more like a crispy cracker.  It worked well though, with the roasted red and yellow peppers, cabbage, carmelized onion and beet topping.  It was only seasoned with olive oil and garlic, but somehow had a saffron essence.   

It's hard to believe that this meal was only ¥650!  Dessert was a berry sherbet with sweet potato mash and a dense chocolate cake.  

I've made many trips to this restaurant.  On my next visit, the soup was a tofu consommé.  It had the flavour of soy milk, but was less creamy.  The salad had a slightly creamy vinaigrette dressing.

The white fish main, was so moist and was lightly seasoned.  The black caviar and grated daikon went well with it.  The chilled potato accompaniment almost seemed like butternut squash.

This time, dessert was the same dense chocolate ganash cake, but the chef often switches up what's offered.  

I wish the old hours were in place.  If it were so, I would be visiting every week.  It's too bad the lunch hour is so short.