Kagurazaka Saryo VivoCity : Cha-Nabe Lunch and Fruit Tart Dessert

According to the VivoCity website, Kagurazaka Saryo – is an old and cozy coffee shop in the small back street of Kagurazaka, called “Little Kyoto” in Japan. To be honest, what attracted us to Kagurazaka Saryo VivoCity (神楽坂茶寮) was the beautiful display of colourful cakes. It seems that Fruit Paradise has been merged into this restaurant specialising in meals and desserts made with Japanese tea, matcha.

Kagurazaka Saryo and Fruit Paradise are both brands within the Japan Foods Holding group. Some of their other brands include Ajisen Ramen and Menya Musashi. Kagurazaka Saryo VivoCity is simply decorated like a traditional Japanese restaurant with a pleasant light wood finish.

Kagurazaka Saryo VivoCity Menu

The Kagurazaka Saryo VivoCity Menu is quite extensive. What was interesting to us was the “Cha-Nabe” – Japanese porridge items. Here are pictures of a few pages of the chanabe set meals. We selected two types of Cha-Nabe set meals and a slice of an attractive fruit tart.

The cha-nabe dishes had a choice of having rice or udon with a variety of toppings and broths. This was our first visit and we tried to have as wide as selection as position and selection two totally different sets.

Aburi Chicken Soya Milk Cha Nabe Set

Our first selection was the Aburi Chicken Soya Milk Cha Nabe Set with Udon ($15.90). The cha nabe dish itself costs $12.90. With the extra $3, we had a drink, mashed potato and some pickles. The overall presentation was quite good. We like the metal pot in which it was served in.

The taste of udon with soya milk was rather plain. Some chili paste with a mild mala flavour was available. But we felt that it did not blend too well together. It did feel healthy though. There were pieces of chicken and fish in the broth. Overall not bad, but not enough to make us want to order this again.

Our drinks were a Yuzu Pearl Blossom Tea and Ice Matcha Latte. Despite the interesting name, the tea was quite average. The matcha latte was the better choice.

Salmon Miso Cha Nabe Set

Our Salmon Miso Cha Nabe Set with Rice ($15.90) was a dish that we ate u very quickly. The broth was tastier and the salmon added more flavour to the overall taste. We also ordered this dish with rice, making this a porridge. The rice was able to absorb the taste of the broth, fish and garnishes. We would be happy to order this again.

Kagurazaka Saryo VivoCity Dessert

The cakes at Kagurazaka Saryo VivoCity are quite pricey, costing around $8.90 per slice. A $2 discount is applied if ordered with a set. We decided on a slice of Chocolate Banana Tart ($6.90). It was quite a large slice, enough to be shared by two people. Essentially it was lots of banana slices with chocolate cake, cemented together by a generous amount of cream. Thankfully the cream was light and pleasant.