This post really is a long time coming! We went to Tsujiri for my birthday because I’ve wanted to go for the longest time and it was amazing! Tsujiri is a Japanese cafe that offers a variety of tea flavoured treats. They are known for their matcha parfaits and cakes!
Tsujiri menu
Little known fact is that the Tsujiri menu is BEYOND just cakes and parfaits! They actually have a high tea menu, rice dishes, noodle soups and even beverages! If you want to be able to access their full menu, you will need to make a reservation though because some of the seating is in the back room and you won’t be able to access it otherwise!
Tsujiri pastry case
When you first enter the shop, you’re greeted with a fridge full of cakes including matcha cheese cake, matcha double cheese cake, and matcha red bean sponge cake.
If you’re not a fan of matcha, no worries because they also have a yuzu Japanese style cheese cake you can order
or daikufus which are a type of mochi.
Right around the corner from the end of the cafe, you will find a Japanese style seating area where you sit on a cushion placed on a bamboo mat. The tables are low so that it is waist height when you are seated cross legged. The tables here are small enough for 2 but can be put together for larger parties.
As cute as this was, after a while, I was tired of sitting with my legs crossed and had to stretch them out. I honestly don’t know how kids do this in elementary school for so long…no wonder they are so squirmy!
Since it was our first time here, we decided to try a bit of everything.
Salmon chazuke
This was no ordinary rice dish. It came with loads of different toppings and the sesame kombu it came with to pour on top was ever so light but fragrant at the same time. It was almost as though it didn’t even need any of the toppings because it was already so perfect being simple.
After enjoying a few bites of it being plain, we added in the seaweed, tamago yaki, green onion. rice cracker topping, salmon sashimi, and umeboshi pickled plum to it. Even though it sounds like a lot of different items, it all came together wonderfully. You had a bit of crunch, salt, savory and sweet notes to make each bite absolutely umami. We finished everything reluctantly and ended off with the soba roll. I’ve never had noodles in a sushi roll instead of rice but it was pretty tasty!
Tonkotsu soba
This was not like any tonkotsu broth we’ve had before! This had a soy milk base AND peanut butter and roasted soy bean in it to make it super creamy. It was then topped with sliced pork topped with chives, leeks and sprouts before drizzling black sesame oil on top. It was AMAZING.
I’ve never been one to enjoy creamy broths but this was it for me. It was sooo good. It had the perfect amount of creaminess and richness to it so that it melded well together and I couldn’t get enough of it! Who knew adding peanut butter and soy bean to something could make it so delish?
To make it all the more adventurous of a dish, it had matcha soba noodles in it! The noodles were not as chewy as ramen noodles but we didn’t mind because it did such a great job at soaking up the broth so each bite was packed full of flavour. Even though the noodles had matcha in it, you couldn’t really taste it but we weren’t sure if this was because it was too mild or if the soup covered the taste up.
Yuzu cheesecake
I’m not typically a fan of cheesecakes but I do love yuzu so I had to try it out! This cheesecake wasn’t like any I’ve had before because it was very light and creamy. It wasn’t as light as a Japanese souffle cheesecake but it was close. I liked how the base was very thin because usually cheesecake crust is too thick for my liking. We wish that there was more of a yuzu flavour to it though because we only tasted it in the gelee on top.
Then since it was my birthday they were kind enough to bring us some sakura flavoured pastries! These were cute as a button and almost too pretty to eat!
The one on the left was glutinous rice wrapped around red bean. The other was a sweet soft pastry wrapped around sakura flavoured paste. We liked the red bean one more but they were both a delight to have at the end of our meal.
