tokyo food file

Café de L'Ambre: an old-school coffee classic

 

Hidden away unassumingly on a small street in Ginza 8-chome, Café de L'Ambre is a classic old-school Showa coffee shop. It's what all coffee shops used to look like in Tokyo when I first touched down on these shores. Or at least the way I like to remember them: cluttered, smoky, 60s-style furniture, kitch decor, hushed conversation, and coffee painstakingly brewed to order.

Of course they weren't all like L'Ambre: because L'Ambre has only ever served coffee. No tea; no soft drinks; no "morning set" breakfast. Just coffee. And also coffee jelly.

 

So if I find myself in the neighborhood, it's hard not to find an excuse to drop in for half an hour or so. Frankly, it's not the aged-beans thing — cool and unique as that is — that grabs me, so much as the place itself. 

Those leatherette swivelling bar stools...

 

That stained-glass lamp...

 

The stained glass panel on the wall...

 

And the perfect ashtrays.

 

I don't like the cigarette smoke (any more), however. So that's why I don't go more often or stay for longer. 

But if I'm anywhere in the neighborhood, I always have time for some of that coffee jelly...

Fuglen: BYOF (with your espresso and cocktails). Plenty of Oslo style on the side.

I gave Fuglen a full write-up last week, soon after it opened. I also introduced it in my Japan Times column yesterday.

 

As mentioned, Fuglen doesn't actually serve food — but they do encourage you to bring your own to nibble on with their premium coffee...

…craft beer (they have a good selection in bottles) and house-special highballs, whiskey sours and other cocktails.

So what would I take to eat there? Well pastries or the excellent baguette sandwiches from Viron, just opposite Tokyu Honten in Shibuya...

Or, in the other direction, one of the gourmet burgers from Arms, whose take-out/delivery outlet is just a couple of minutes walk away — or 30 seconds by Honda 90 delivery bike — on the Yoyogi Hachiman shopping street.

I'll put up full posts about both those places in due course. In fact, it's about time I put together a full-scale post about the Tomigaya/Yoyogi Koen area. There's just too much good stuff happening on the edge of the park here!

Cheers!

 

• Update late 2012: Fuglen is now offering a good selection of pastries (not Danish of course!), plus sandwiches with smoked salmon or cheese. But you are still welcome to BYOF.

jumping jalopy! reposted, now with more photos

The review went up on Friday in the Japan Times. It's a colourful place, so here's the full illustrated version

Great name...

Good people...

Funky decor...

The beer is Carlsberg — and the only limes in sight are on the plate, not wedged into the bottle. That's the guacamole on the right — it's only lightly seasoned, which means you can add plenty of their nicely piquant home-made jalapeño sauce (just visible to the right of the red Chapala bottle)...

 

The food's alright too...

Above, that's the fish taco, made with a crisp 'finger' of deep-fried fish. Original and effective!

Below, that's the same again, this time with the savory pork taco — which is really carnitas (although it's not called that on the menu)... 

Junkadelic Jalopy! is on the fringes of Shibuya. The address is Shoto, but it's actually nearer Shinsen Station. From central Shibuya, walk past the entrance of Bunkamura and carry on for 3-4 minutes until you see this (on your right, on the corner of a side street)...

 

The Junkadelic web site is almost as fun as the place itself.

Here's the lunch menu...

And here's a map link...