Kakigōri from Sebastian, Tokyo

Shaved ice.  Not something we have ... at all (?) in the Bay Area.  But it is everywhere in Tokyo.  The perfect treat to combat the sticky hot summer heat.

And hot summer heat it was during my visit.  I started my trip on a quest to have amazing Hokkaido milk soft serve ice cream as much as possible, but after 5 days of at least two a day, I finally was ready to mix it up.  Shaved ice didn't come to mind initially, just because it isn't something I've had much of.  In fact, I've never had the Japanese form, kakigori, before (only Korean style bingsu, like the mediocre one at Milkie & Snowie in Pasadena).

I wanted to start with the best, obviously.

My destination: Sebastian, a *very* small, *very* popular kakigori store.

Store Front.

Sebastian is located on a side street in Shibuya, a bit off the main block.

It has 10 seats.  And to get those seats, you have to show up at 10am (well, before actually), to put your name on the list for the day.  No reservations over the phone, no name on list over the phone, and no reserving, even in person, for the next day.

Um, yeah.  It is that popular.  And I knew this.  But I also knew they offered takeaway, which was my plan.

Dine-in Menu.

The menu is only in Japanese, which I knew to expect from my research.  I didn't need the menu anyway though, because I knew exactly what I wanted.

You see, Sebastian doesn't just make standard kakigori, shaved ice with some syrups and toppings.  They *do* make those, and in fact had 5 versions of it.  But they also make two additional, very special, kakigori.

The first is the strawberry brulee.  It looks like a creme brulee.  It is torched to order.  But under that brulee top is ... yes, shaved ice, fresh strawberries, and custard.  Oh my.  It looks incredible (also: huge!)

Next, the mango yogurt shortcake.  This one looks like an elaborate cake.  Frosted with whipped cream, garnished with fruit, but inside .... shaved ice, mango, mango syurp, yogurt cream .... Now that one looks incredible.

I wanted both of the special items, but alas, I knew they were both huge, and I was alone, so I had to narrow it down to just one.  I agonized over which to pick, stared at so many Instagram photos, and finally arrived, ready to order.  I had my hotel concierge call in advance to make sure these items were offered for takeout, because I was worried they were too elaborate to be takeout, and I hadn't seen any photos of them this way.  I was assured the mango one was.

So, I got there, saw the sign saying no more seating (expected), and tried to order the mango yogurt shortcake as takeout.  Not allowed.  I tried the brulee.  Not allowed.

Takeaway Menu.

Quite sad, I almost left and went on another dessert mission, but decided to stay and just get a shaved ice.  So I asked for the one shaved ice from the normal menu that sounded most interesting, with almonds, raw caramel, dark cherry, and custard.  But guess what?  Not on the takeout menu.

The takeaway menu had only 4 items, and 3 of which were also on the regular shaved ice menu (chocolate orange, berry and lemon, and one other I forget).  But they also had a mango shaved ice, a simple one, not anything like the cake.

Kitchen.

Through the takeout window I could see the action inside, with two workers building the incredible looking shortcakes and brulees (because everyone inside was ordering these, of course).  But my takeout server had her own area, with just a shaved ice machine and a few squirt bottles of toppings.

She set about making my ice immediately.  It took longer than I expected, I guess even the simple ones require a fair amount of work, close to 5 minutes?

Mango Shaved Ice.

And then this was handed over.

Wowzer.

I knew it would be huge, I had seen photos of course, but ... still nothing really prepared me for the shaved ice that was literally as big as my head.  I was told to be careful, it was going to melt quickly.  And yes, it melted extremely quickly.  It was 88 degrees after all, even though it was 6:30pm and dark.  I can only imagine what a disaster these are in the hot sun in the afternoon!

The ice was incredibly fluffy.  Light and fluffy.  Except that, of course, it was loaded with syrups.  The top half was sweetened condensed milk, creamy and quite sweet.   The bottom half, mango, also quite sweet.  And that was it.  Fruity ice and creamy ice, with a couple little red things stuck on the side.  I was hoping it would have real mango, or cream, like the cake version, but alas, just the ice.

It was good.  I liked the flavors, although it trended just too sweet for me.  The lightness of the ice was incredible.  It was really fun to eat ... while the ice lasted, which was all of ... 4 minutes?  It quickly, way too quickly, turned into a puddle of melty ice, and then, melty cold liquid.  It was still good melted, I ate the entire thing, but the last half was more like a mango smoothie, I literally was just drinking it from the cone.

Overall, I'm still glad I went, I'm still glad I tried it.  But ... I really did want to try one of the other items, and sitting inside with some climate control likely would be more successful than the hot outdoors!