Ganpachi, aka, "The Kill Bill Restaurant"

You've been reading all about our amazing culinary adventures in Tokyo.  But our final night in Tokyo we didn’t have any dinner plans.  Most of the guys were leaving on a midnight flight that night, and I wasn’t sure if they’d want to just head to the airport early, or if our teammates in Tokyo would want to do a last group dinner, so I purposely didn't plan anything.  Thus, last minute, we had to come up with something.

I had ideas.  If left to my own devices, I certainly would have just gone back to L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, as it was just downstairs from my hotel and office, and they also had the same uni pasta that I had previously at La Table de Joël Robuchon and couldn't get out of my mind.  But the guys said it was too pricey.  I wasn’t suggesting going for a full tasting menu again, I just wanted to go sit at the bar and get the spaghetti.  But they all very clearly said no.  Sigh.

So, next I suggested visiting an izakaya, one Japanese experience that we hadn’t done thus far.  I found one that was only a 10 minute walk away, and was very highly rated.  The menu was almost exclusively seafood, just my thing.  And it was casual style, had beer for the guys, and was reasonably priced.  But … one of them really didn’t want more seafood, and another kept suggesting the restaurant that Kill Bill was shot at: Gonpachi.  When put to a vote, you can guess what they all voted for.

So, to Gonpachi we went.  I was a bit sad to be wasting my last Tokyo meal on a place I really didn’t want, but I was having a good time hanging out with them, so I decided it was worth it just to have fun with them.  Plus, they were all quite good sports when putting up with my ridiculous itinerary all week.

We arrived a bit on the early side, and the place wasn’t busy.  A huge three story establishment, with a large open kitchen in the middle, counter seating along it, tables on the sides and on the upper floors, all looking down into the kitchen area.  The entire interior was wood.  Our booth reminded me of being in a barn stall.  The staff were very attentive when we first walked in, but service quickly dropped off.

Being a casual place, the table had piles of share plates, chopsticks, napkins on it, to use as we wanted.  The menu turned out to all be designed to share, or so we were told.  We were originally ordering dishes just for ourselves, and switched to share style at the server's recommendation.  Except, many of the dishes came with a single piece, or just a pair, and there were four of us.  I don’t understand why he told us to order family style, and didn’t suggest doubling up on things?

Service continued to falter.  I asked for water, it never came.  Then, eventually two waters came.  Dirty plates kept building up, and were never removed, even as they couldn’t find space on the table to put new dishes.  We ran out of share plates, particularly at dessert time.  And the desserts were incredibly not shareable, another thing they didn’t mention when we ordered two for four people.  Sigh.

I don’t need fancy food, or someone to fold my napkin when I get up, but this service really wasn’t good.  The place is clearly popular only due to Kill Bill, and I’m pretty sure every single person there was a tourist.  When I looked it up later, I found universal acknowledgement that no one recommends dining there.  Yet, it was totally and completely packed when we left.  And, the guys did like it.  To each their own, I guess?

They started with beers, I went for a cocktail at the suggestion of the waiter, the signature Ume Syoga Cooler, ¥680.  It looked pretty good, with a full slice of lemon, a slice of lime, and a pickled plum inside.  There was no particular flavor that stood out, but at least it wasn’t too sweet.

Next I went for the Lemon Sour, supposedly fresh squeezed, for ¥580.  It wasn’t good at all.  Not balanced, way too sour.  I didn’t bother finishing it.  Price was good for a cocktail at a restaurant though.

Classic Caesar Salad. ¥650.

The first dish we received was the Caesar salad.  Yes, we were in Japan, our last night in Tokyo, ordering a Caesar salad.  Not my choice.  Amusingly, this was the only dish that came with serving chopsticks.  I tried a bite, and it was generic bagged grocery store quality to me, but the guys liked it and devoured it.  I half expected them to order another.

The ¥650 price was good for a decent sized salad.

Assortment of Tempura. ¥1280.

Next, tempura.  Besides the salad, this was really the only dish that was easily shared.  Except, most of the items had only one each.  There were two shrimp, which the people who claimed them liked.  There was a potato that I got, which wasn’t good, not cooked enough.  Someone else thought they got a fried cheese ball (leftmost item).  The idea of a cheese ball sounded great to me, so I eagerly went for the other item that looked similar (bottom right), only to find that it was just a pile of grated daikon.  And I had a huge mouthful of it.  Blech.

I also got some sort of fish.  It was a bit oily, but reminded me of fish and chips, a mild, flaky fish.  My favorite of the tempura, third favorite bite of the evening.  There was also some oily broccoli.

All served with dipping sauce, which they at least gave us each a little container of.

Again, price was decent, ¥1280 for the basket of tempura.

Ganpachi Supreme: toro, foie gras, kuroge beef. ¥3,500.

A charcoal grill is the main draw of the restaurant, and offers a variety of grilled dishes, mostly different cuts of chicken, not my thing.  But they also offered "special skewers", all of which sounded fantastic.  Luckily, they were available as a trio.  This is the dish I was planning to order if I’d been ordering alone.

Of course, they told us everything was for sharing, so we got an oder, and it came with one skewer of each.  The foie was a single piece, the others had two small cubes each. Sigh.

Two of the guys didn’t care at all about the foie, so two of us split it.  Described as "foie gras with balsamic sauce and fresh strawberries on top."  I was obviously going for that one.  It was pretty good, melt in the mouth, roasted over the open grill.  A rustic approach, and a good one.  Served drizzled with balsamic and sliced strawberries for a bit of sweetness.  Clearly my favorite bite.

I also got to take a bite of the toro, "tuna belly with wasabi and grated daikon radish".  I only had a single bite, since there were only two small cubes, and we had to split each tiny cube two ways.  The tuna had a good sear and was still totally rare inside.  Pretty tasty, my second favorite bite of the night.

Finally, the kuroge beef, described simply as "Japanese kuroge beef sirloin".  I wasn't into beef at all on the trip, which was strange because I do like beef in general, and beef in Japan is good.  So I let them fight over the beef.  Of course, they loved it, and ordered not one, but two more skewers of it.  The second time I tried a bite, since they were raving about it, but it still wasn’t my thing.  Yes, well seasoned, decent sear, but just too rich.

Unlike the other prices, ¥3,500 did seem a bit pricy for just a few bites of food.  But, I guess there was toro and foie.

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Seiro Soba. ¥800.

Next, soba noodles, served cold with green onions and dipping sauce.  Not exactly sharable, served with only two containers of dipping sauce for four of us.

I didn’t like these at all.  Apparently handmade daily from buckwheat flour ground with a stone mortar, but to me, just cold slimy noodles.  Serious meh.

Gindara. ¥1,350.

And finally, my other pick, gindara, or, miso glazed black cod.  I love miso. I love black cod.  And this dish can be very, very good.

At Ganpachi it was … mediocre.  Served skin on, with a decent miso coating.  The fish was mild and flaky.  Good, but not nearly as good as it can be.

¥1,350 was a fine price for the size of fish.

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Kuzumochi and Kinako Ice Cream with black sugar syrup. ¥470. Pumpkin and Coconut Flavored Zenzai. ¥630.

I was pretty unsatisfied at this point, so I demanded dessert.  The others didn’t seem to want any, so I settled on ordering just two, even though I honestly didn’t really know what any were, and I wanted to try them all.  In general, the desserts on the trip really disappointed, at restaurants and at our office, but these at least sounded more authentic Japanese.

The first was Kuzumochi and Kinako Ice Cream with black sugar syrup.  I had no idea what any of these things were, but I do like mochi and ice cream!

I thought the ice cream would be flavored, but it seemed to just be plain vanilla ice cream, served too cold and frozen solid.  Alongside were utterly flavorless mochi cubes.  Once I got home, I looked up "kuzumochi", and found that it is mochi made from kuzu powder, rather than rice flour.  Apparently, kuzu has no flavor.  I also looked up kinako, and found that it is a roasted soy bean powder.  I'm not sure where it was in the dish, perhaps dusting the kuzumochi?  Or maybe some of the mochi were made with it?  Or maybe it was supposed to be flavoring the ice cream?

The dish was served with a single spoon, for all of us.  Since we’d run out of share plates, and only had chopsticks, it was a bit amusing to try to avoid mixing remnants of food left on our plates into our ice cream, and, eating ice cream with chopsticks isn’t exactly easy.

¥470 was a fine price, but it wasn't good, and no one found anything redeeming about it.

Next, was pumpkin and coconut flavored zenzai.  Of course we had no idea what this was either, but it was fascinating.

When I got home to look it up, I found that zenzai is red bean soup.  But, this was not red bean soup. although it was soupy, and it did have red bean.

The soup, or sauce perhaps, was very brightly orange colored, and very runny.  Inside of it were glutenous balls with a nice chew.  I didn’t taste pumpkin nor coconut, but I guess they were in there somewhere.  And a little red bean on top.

This one was at least very interesting, but I’m not sure I liked it.  And again, served with a single spoon.  We all tried eating it with chopsticks, but the best technique seemed to be dishing some onto our individual plates, and just licking it up, as the soup/sauce was so runny.

Memorable, fascinating, but I'm still not sure I liked it.  ¥630 was a fine price for a composed dessert.

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Loving Hut @ Westfield Mall

Yes, I got a meal in a mall food court, at a vegan place no less.  See, sometimes I do go for casual food!

If you aren't familiar with Loving Hut, it is a chain of vegan restaurants with locations in really random places: Texas, Florida, Illinois, even Hawaii, among many others.  More than 200 worldwide.  Each restaurant has its own menu, although they seem to have some staples.  In the Bay Area, they have a few locations in the South bay (Palo Alto, Milpitas, Santa Clara, San Jose), plus three in San Francisco.  About half are in mall food courts, the other half are regular restaurants.

When Ojan lived down in Palo Alto we visited that location once, and I'm pretty sure that years ago I ate at one of the restaurants in San Francisco, but I don't really have memories of any of that, so this review focuses only on the Westfield Mall location.

The menu consists mainly of items from steam tables where you pick a few already prepared items to make up a combo meal, but they also have a few items that are made to order, like appetizers, salads, noodle dishes, and sandwiches.  Oh, and they do have (vegan) desserts of course.

Steam Table Combo: Veggie Chow Mein, Sweet and Sour Savor, Veggie Red Curry.  $8.95.

The majority of the entrees are part of the steam table, where you can pick 2 main items, plus rice or noodles, to make a combo dish.

To start, you pick a carb: noodles or rice.  The rice options are fried rice, white rice, or brown rice.  Since I don't really care for rice, I went for the veggie chow mein as my carb component.  I saw others ask for half and half, so you can also do that, if you really just want a bit of everything.

The chow mein wasn't quite what I was expecting, as the noodles were soft, not crispy.  When I got home, I looked up chow mein and learned that this is actually a regional thing.  Apparently, those of us from the east coast of the US expect chow mein to be crispy (lo mein is soft), but on the west coast, chow mein is soft, lo mein doesn't exist, and "hong kong style" is crispy?  Who knew?

Anyway, the noodles were soft and mushy, and seemed very overcooked to me.  I didn't really think there was much flavor.  The fake beef strips in it were also not very good, but I did like that it had plentiful veggies, including cabbage, onions, sliced mushrooms, and carrots.  The onions were particularly tasty.  The chow mein was my least favorite of the dishes, which is too bad, since it filled half the box.  I wouldn't have picked noodles or rice if not required for my combo meal.  I brought my leftovers home to Ojan, who gladly ate all the chow mein.

Next, you pick two main dishes.  There were at least 8 options, ranging from simple veggies (steamed kale, basil mushrooms, spicy green beans), to tofu dishes (eggplant and tofu, spicy lemongrass tofu), to curries (veggie red curry, sweet potato yellow curry), and a final dish called "sweet and sour savor".

Plain veggies seemed boring to me, and I don't like tofu, so I picked the more interesting sounding veggie red curry and the sweet and sour.

The red curry was listed as spicy, but both Ojan and I found it fairly bland, certainly not spicy, although flakes of red pepper were visible.  The mix contained broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, carrots, and green beans.  All but the green beans seemed overcooked and mushy, like the chow mein.  Perhaps this is just what happens when food sits in stream trays? Although, they did seem to bring everything out in fairly small batches, and the line to order was constant, so I think the turnaround is pretty high.  Anyway, my second favorite item in my combo, but I wouldn't get it again.

At this point, I was a bit sad.  I had a huge mound of food, and I didn't particularly like any of it.  The sweet and sour dish looked the least appetizing, with strange fake chicken slices.  But, back when I was a kid and would get take out Chinese food, sweet and sour chicken was my go-to.

It turns out, I still like sweet and sour.  The fake chicken tasted a bit like seitan, but I think it was soy based.  While it looked gross, it had a really great texture, and the sweet and sour sauce masked all the seitan-like flavor.  The sweet and sour sauce was totally delicious.  Ojan used the rest of the sauce mixed into the chow mein noodles, and said it was great that way.  Also in the mix was red and green bell peppers, onions, and chunks of pineapple.  I'd prefer a slightly thicker sauce, and perhaps some cherries, but, overall, it totally satisfied the craving (that I had no idea that I had) for Chinese takeout.

The sweet and sour "savor" (yes, that is what it was called, I have no idea why), was definitely the best dish, and I'd get it again, but, next time, I'd probably go for the made-to-order items instead of steam table items, as many of those looked really good as I saw them coming out of the kitchen area.

I don't know if you can tell, but this was a massive pile of food.  My eyes bugged out a bit as I watched the server load up the first, largest, compartment with noodles.  I thought to myself that perhaps that is how they do it, fill you up with the cheaper carb dish, and skimp on the others.  Not so much.  He spooned in so much of the curry that it overflowed into the chow mein compartment.  This photo was taken AFTER I had already dug in!  For $8.95, this is an insane amount of food, even for a food court.  You can easily split this with another person, or, even two if you want a lighter meal.

Vegan Carrot Cake.  $3.

Interestingly, there are an impressive number of desserts available: cheesecake (plain, pumpkin, oreo), mocha cake, flan, or carrot cake.

But mind you, they are all vegan.  It seems a bit crazy to pick items that are all so normally dairy focused, but then again, if they can do these well, I guess they are treats for the vegans.  Even though I normally shy away from vegan desserts, I have to admit, they all did look good.  And, you know me and dessert ...

I still doubted that they could really do cheesecakes or flan well.  So I went for the carrot cake.  With carrot cake, the only part I was really skeptical about was the cream cheese frosting.

The other cakes are traditional slices, but the carrot is a cupcake, although with much less frosting than a cupcake normally has.

It was decent.  Very moist, loaded up with carrots, raisins, and little chunks of nuts, well spiced.  The cake certainly didn't seem strange due to its vegan-ness.  The only disappointing part was the cream cheese frosting, but not because it wasn't good, because there just wasn't nearly enough of it.  I really like to have frosting on every bite of my cake, and, there was only enough frosting for a few bites.  The rest was basically just a plain carrot muffin.  And, to be honest, I ate the top part with the frosting, and then went home to have "real" dessert of fruit cobbler with ice cream, and had the rest for breakfast the next day.  Carrot cake without frosting is totally the same as a carrot muffin, right?  Totally fine for breakfast.

$3 for a cupcake/cake seemed fine, and although I probably wouldn't get another one, it wasn't bad.

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Jer's Squares

Jer's Chocolates makes chocolates, all based around my favorite ingredient to pair with chocolate: peanut butter!  They come in a variety of forms, including standard bars, but also balls and squares.  The squares are the only products I've tried.

They are basically takes on fancy peanut butter cups: peanut butter blended with other mix-ins and enrobed in chocolate, either milk or dark.  The combinations sound quite amazing (caramel! pretzels! toffee!), and while the chocolates weren't bad, I always felt that they sounded better than they actually were.  I wanted these to be better, because, peanut butter and chocolate are such a winning combination!

Original.

I had an assortment of Jer's Squares to try out, so I decided to start with the Original, "all natural Valencia peanut butter mixed with crunchy rice crisp covered in premium milk chocolate."

Mmm, peanut butter and chocolate, with crunchy bits?  Sounded fantastic.

I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of peanut butter inside.  I expected it to primarily be a chocolate confection, with a thin layer of  peanut butter, but instead, it was the other way around.  The peanut butter was creamy, and I loved the additional bit of crunch from the rice crisps, but the peanut butter flavor wasn't quite as intense as I would have liked.  The milk chocolate was unremarkable.

Overall, enjoyable, more fun than a peanut butter cup due to the addition of the crispies, but not as compelling as the description sounded.

Cara Mella.

Next up, the Cara Mella: "creamy caramel and all natural Valencia peanut butter covered in premium dark chocolate."

This time, the peanut butter was not creamy at all.  It was almost more like a dense nougat.  The caramel was also not creamy.  The dark chocolate was harsh.

I have no idea what went wrong here, peanut butter, caramel, and dark chocolate should be awesome, but the textures in particular just didn't work for me.

Toffee Break.

"Buttery rich toffee bits mixed with all natural Valencia peanut butter covered in premium dark chocolate. "

Again, I didn't love the dark chocolate.  It wasn't a complex, rich dark chocolate.  The peanut butter inside was gritty, which I guess was the toffee bits.  The toffee didn't seem to add any sweetness, nor butteryness, and only gave the strange texture to the peanut butter.

I wouldn't try this one again.

Pretzo Change-O.

Finally, I had the one I was most looking forward to: Pretzo Change-O, described as "sweet and salty pretzel bits mixed with all natural Valencia peanut butter covered in milk chocolate."

The milk chocolate was smooth, mild, and creamy.  Inside, I somehow expected a full layer of pretzel, but I'm not sure why, since the description did say "pretzel bits", and said the pretzel was mixed with the pb.  The peanut butter was crunchy, not smooth and creamy, but I liked that.  There were little tiny pretzel bits, but they just added to the texture slightly, I didn't really get much crunch, nor the expected salt, from them.

Overall though, still far tastier than any regular peanut butter cup, I would have just liked to see the pretzel represented a little better.

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Carnation Breakfast Essentials

I have a long history with Carnation products.

When I was in high school (and maybe earlier?), my school bus came at an absurdly early hour.  This wasn't just me being a kid who didn't want to get up early.  It was ridiculously early, before 7am.  The school district was trying out a plan to reduce busing costs, and decided to join routes.  And lucky me, my pickup was one of the very first ones on the original route, and my route was tacked on to the front of the other route. So I was one of the first pickups for the joined route.  I rode the bus for over an hour every morning.  (At least the dropoffs were in reverse order).

Anyway.  This meant I was up way too early, was always rushing to get ready, and could care less about breakfast.  But, my mother cared.  And while she couldn't get me to sit down for breakfast, she discovered that I really liked Carnation instant breakfast drinks, particularly when she put them into a shaker thing and made them all frothy.  I recall liking pretty much all of the flavors, although the Chocolate Malt and "Strawberry Sensation" were my favorites.

Flash forward many years.  I forgot about Carnation.  And then, as you've heard me reference several times on this blog, I got very sick.  I was on a liquids only diet for several months.  I wore out several blenders experimenting with all sorts of smoothies.  I tried pretty much every brand of bottled nutritional shake possible (omg, I hate you Ensure!).  The only ones I could really tolerate were Carnation.  (I prefer the powder over the pre-bottled ones, probably due to nostalgia).  I developed my own recipes using Carnation powders as a base, but even after months of morning shakes, I still could manage to enjoy the Carnation ones from time to time.

But, I'm not hear to tell you more about Carnation drinks.  I recently discovered that along with the powdered drink mix and bottled drinks, Carnation also makes breakfast bars.

Chocolate.

Compared to your average bar, they actually are pretty balanced nutritionally.  10g of protein to 12g sugar.  200 calories.  And of course, Carnation's famous "21 essential vitamins and minerals".  (Although, um, ... corn syrup is the first ingredient).  Made from soy crisps, oats, soy nuts, with chocolate coating.  Available in two flavors: chocolate or chocolate and peanut butter.

Sigh, soy crisps.  I'm sick of soy crisps.  I guess this is how bars load themselves up with protein, but I usually can't stand them.  This was better than average, and the ridiculous sweet binding helped mask the flavor of the strange crisps, as did the rich, generous chocolate coating.

The base bar was fairly sticky from the aforementioned corn syrup, making this seem much more like a candy bar than a breakfast item.  I have no shame in eating ridiculous things for breakfast, but this felt decadent, even for me.  The chocolate coating was thicker and higher quality than pretty much any other bar I've tried too.

While I didn't actually want this, it was better than expected, better than average, and I imagine, a great way to get kids to eat a reasonably balanced bar to get them going in the morning, while easily tricking them that they are eating a candy bar.  Luckily for me, I'm an adult, and I can just go ahead and eat a regular candy bar, no tricks required :)

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The Station

I've had my eye on The Station, a coffee shop near the edge of North Beach and the Financial District, for quite some time.  Unlike most places in the FiDi, they are actually open on weekends.  And they serve Blue Bottle coffee.  Visiting has been on my todo list, but got bumped up when I saw they were running a promotion with PayPal: a free $10 credit if you paid with PayPal.  I've been using PayPal all around town lately, and I'm a huge fan of how easy it is for payments, so cashing in on this was a no brainer.

The coffee shop is a bit strange, in that it is a coffee shop, but also has a rotating selection of pop-up retail stores on the side.  On my first visit, there was a tiny pop up clothing store.  The Station is also a pick up spot for Thrive Juicery.  I didn't check any of that out, so I don't have any comments on it.

Large Windows.

The space has large windows, which let in lots of light.  The high ceilings add to it feeling very open and spacious.  The main seating area is made up of large communal tables, but there are 2-3 small tables, and a long counter along the windows with stools or standing space.

Outdoor Seating.

On the sidewalk outside are a few small tables.

The vibe is relaxed and friendly, and since they have free wifi, lots of people set up with laptops (no power plugs though, so people don't camp out for too long).  The music selection was interesting, and played at just the right volume to be enjoyed but not overwhelm conversations.

As I mentioned, the coffee is Blue Bottle, and they offer all standard drinks, along with pour overs and New Orleans style iced coffee.  Food choices are fairly limited to paninis along with baked goods from Goody Goodie, including muffins, scones, and cookies (which I've tried before).  Also available near the register are stroopwafels from Rip Van Wafel, which I've tried, unsuccessfully, in the past, and a decent selection of TCHO chocolate, a local SF chocolate maker, who I've also reviewed before.  They clearly embrace local connections.

The staff were friendly, and when I asked for an honest opinion on their decaf (since, so often it can be so awful), the guy taking my order told me that he had actually had it recently, and that it had more depth of flavor than most decaf.  He said he preferred the caffeinated coffee more, but that the decaf was good.

The only issue I had was paying on my first visit.  I used PayPal, which seemed flawless, I put in the tip amount, and even got the receipt on my phone, but the cashier came over a few minutes later and told me that it had crashed and not gone through, and asked for an alternate form of payment.  Since I had the confirmation through the PayPal app, and the e-mail receipt, this didn't seem quite right, but it was going to be free, so I didn't argue, and just paid cash too.  I logged into my account once I got home and saw that I had indeed been charged.  Hmm.  I believe him that it had crashed, but the payment surely had gone through.  On subsequent visits, PayPal worked with no problems.

Anyway, I enjoyed my time in the cafe, my drink, and some of the baked goods, so I'll be returning when I'm in the area.

Decaf Cortado. $3.25.

Normally I like a black americano, but since I was going for decaf, I played it safe, and had a drink with milk in it, which I knew would help mask any decaf funk.  I don't like a ton of milk in my drinks though, so I was happy to see that they even had a cortado listed on the menu.  So few places do!  When I ordered it, the guy taking my order even commented his approval of my order.

My name was quickly called out up at the espresso counter for me to come pick it up.  Very fast service!  The latte art left something to be desired.  A leaf?  Not really.  A blob.  But honestly, I didn't care.  The taste is what matters to me.

This was indeed a good decaf.  I've had the decaf at the Blue Bottle cafes directly many times, and they have never been this good.  I'd even kinda given up on getting decaf from Blue Bottle.  It did indeed have depth of flavor, no decaf "funk", and was even a bit caramely on the finish.  The foam was good, not burnt.

Very solid, and I'd get one again.

Pancetta Gruyere Brioche.  $4.

I also wanted a snack to go with my drink.  I'm totally not a sandwich girl, so the prepared foods section of the menu was entirely out, since it was all paninis.  Instead, I had to go for baked goods (a real hardship, I know), all made by Goody Goodie.

They had a few different muffins, croissants, and scones, none of which really looked appealing to me, as it was a bit later in the day, and those are breakfast items to me.  I usually like blueberry crumb muffins, which they had, but I wasn't feeling it.  They also had a ton of cookies, but I haven't loved Goody Goodie's cookies before, although I admit that is just a style preference thing.

They also had two brioches listed, one was the "brioche bomb", which I really wanted, a sweet roll with cinnamon, sugar, and a hint of orange, basically, a morning bun.  But alas, they were sold out.  So instead, I went for the savory one, a pancetta gruyere brioche roll.

When I ordered, the server asked if I'd like it heated up.  Yes!  A wonderful touch.

Inside the pancetta gruyere brioche.

The brioche took a lot longer to arrive than my drink.  I very slowly sipped on my cortado, wanting to have some of it with my treat, but it was getting cold fast.  I questioned my decision of asking for the brioche warmed up.

After what seemed like forever (but was probably only 5 minutes), my brioche arrived, delivered to my table.  It was worth the wait, and heating it up was definitely the way to go.

The outside was a bit crisp, the inside delightfully moist and doughy.  In between the folds of dough was gruyere, which got even more melty and awesome due to being warmed up, and bits of pancetta.  The pancetta was the only disappointing part: the bits were soggy and very fatty, not crisp, and not flavorful.  There wasn't much of it, which would have made me sad, but instead made me glad, since I didn't like it.  I didn't like chewing on bits of flabby fat.  Along with the pancetta were pockets of incredibly zesty black pepper, which added wonderful bursts of flavor.

This thing was good, but I felt it needed ... something.  I honestly don't know what though.  A bit plain to just eat on its own, I wanted something to dunk it in.  Or an egg on the side.  Or ... something.  But I did love the flavor of the dough, the texture, and everything but the pancetta.  I'm not really sure why it was called a brioche however.  It seemed like more of a biscuit.  Maybe it had a lot of egg inside the dough?  It didn't have the classic lightness of brioche, nor the shine on the outside.

I liked it, but I don't think I'd get it again unless I was really wanting something savory.  Next time, I hope they have the brioche bomb!  $4 is a bit high for just a baked good, but for a savory snack, it wasn't bad.

Banana Chocolate Scone.  $3.

On my second visit, I was determined to finally get the brioche bomb, but, it was again sold out when I arrived at 10am.  Doh!  Either everyone else really loves these things, or The Station really doesn't stock enough of them.

I was really at a loss for what to get instead.  I still didn't want a croissant, and the muffins didn't look great.  So I went for a scone, which is always a risky choice.  Scones rarely are what I want them to be.  Often they are super dry, too cakey, or too oily.

But this scone was a pleasant surprise.  It was quite good.  The base consistency was the most impressive part, it was just the right level of crumbly, not dry, nor moist.  It had a slight tang to it, and wasn't oily.  The banana aspect was what I was most unsure about, as I've never had a banana scone before, but it basically tasted like banana bread, but as a biscuit, if you can imagine that.  It also had plenty of tiny little chocolate chips and large crunchy sugar crystals on top.  Quite enjoyable.

But after a couple bites, I thought it would be better warm, so I asked to have it warmed up (which was not offered when I ordered it, unlike the savory brioche).  I was warned that the chocolate might melt, which I said was perfectly fine.

It returned to me a few minutes later, warm.  I liked it better this way, as it got slightly more moist inside, slightly more crisp outside.  It was good both ways though.

$3 for a scone seems perfectly reasonable.  If I were back at The Station and was in the mood for a scone, I'd get this again, a very solid choice.

Vegan Bran Muffin. $3.50.

Another Sunday morning, another visit to the Station.  Again, I was eager to get a brioche bomb, and again, they were sold out at 10am when I arrived, 1 hour into service.  I'm fairly convinced at this point that they must get all their baked goods for the weekend in on Saturdays (which also makes sense since Goody Goodie, their baked goods supplier, isn't open on Sundays either), and they just never have brioche bombs left.

I was very tempted to get the scone again, since I liked it on my previous visit, but I recalled the cashier last time telling me that he really recommended the bran muffin.  I was skeptical then, and picked the scone, but this time I asked the woman taking my order about the bran muffin.  Her face lit up and she said she loved it, that it reminded her of bread pudding.  That is all it took to sell me, as I LOVE bread pudding.

She put my muffin on a plate, and was ready to hand it over at room temperature, but I asked if she could warm it up.  On my other visits they had offered to heat up the baked goods, so I was surprised to have to ask for it this time, particularly because bread pudding is an item that is often served warm, right?

Anyway.  First, I keep calling it a "muffin", because that is what the sign said.  Did this look like a muffin?  Um, no.  It was rectangular, not round.  While it had a "wrapper", it was unlike any muffin wrapper I've ever encountered before.  Muffin was certainly a strange term for it, but I figured it would still taste like a classic bran muffin.

It did not.  The form factor was more appropriate for a cake, and, the taste was far more like a cake.  It did have a hearty bran flavor, but it was really, really sweet.  Too sweet for me for a breakfast item, or at least, a breakfast item when I was wanting a bran muffin.  It was loaded with shredded carrot, which was good, but it was also loaded with golden raisins.  Soo many raisins.  They were juicy and plump, and I have nothing against raisins, but they were very sweet, and the quantity made the whole muffin-cake very sweet.  I'm pretty sure there was a lot of additional sweetness in there as well, it tasted somewhat like molasses, or I can imagine that it used applesauce, since it was a vegan item.

Anyway, I wasn't ever able to get over the sweetness.  It was very moist.  I enjoyed it warm.  The bran was nice.  But ... it was just too much like a cake.  Except, who eats a bran cake?  I always love slathering my mom's strawberry jam on bran muffins, the strawberry and bran combination is one I really like, but there is no way I could have added more sweetness to this.  I pondered what would have been successful as a pairing.  Since it was so cake-like, it almost seemed like you could serve it warm, like a cake or bread pudding, with ice cream.  But ... again, bran cake?  That didn't seem quite right.  I also considered some sort of savory whipped topping, like a whipped crème fraîche perhaps?  I'm just not sure.

Too sweet for a muffin, too bran-y for a cake, this item just didn't make sense.  I won't get another.

Brioche Bomb.  $3.75.

Finally, when I was about to give up all hope, they had the brioche bomb!

Sadly ... it really wasn't good.  I had heard great things about it, a brioche cinnamon roll with cinnamon, sugar, and a hint of orange.  It sounded like a morning bun, but with brioche.  Sure, I had hyped this thing quite a bit as they never had it when I visited before, but, even without hype, it really didn't live up at all.

The dough was the same as in the pancetta gruyere roll, which I again fail to really see why they call it a brioche, it wasn't at all fluffy or rich tasting.  It was really, really dry.  So the dough, dry and boring.  But a cinnamon roll item should be about the filling anyway, right? This was rolled with cinnamon and sugar, but the layer was so thin that I could barely taste it.  It certainly wasn't ooey-gooey.  There wasn't any additional topping on top.

Really, this was just a dried out roll that happened to have a tiny bit of cinnamon and sugar in it.  It wasn't satisfying in any way.  I obviously won't be getting this again.  $3.75 was a fairly standard price for an item this size.

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Robot Restaurant, Tokyo

At this point, you've spent the past few months reading about my amazing Tokyo travels on Tuesdays.  I've shared pastries, a slew of Michelin starred dining, plus all the Japanese classics of sushi, okonomiyaki, tepanyaki, and ramen.

But not all of my adventures were for the food.  Some were for ... the experience, and the experience alone.

Like, the Robot Restaurant.  We were tipped off to this place by Levi, who proclaimed that he was going, even if none of the rest of us joined him.  I don't think he expected anyone else to go, particularly not Emil.  But we all joined for the adventure.

This is a case where the photos will speak much better than my words ever will, so I'll leave the narrative simple, except of course, for the meal review.  You can also watch Anthony Bourdain's experience on Parts Unknown.

This experience was even more insane than it looks.  And I'd recommend it in a heartbeat.  Thank you Emil for the photos!

Entrance.

The amount of flashy lights was only the beginning.

Entryway.

 Levi and I were a bit skeptical as we stood inside the entrance.

Fembot.

 And were greeted by a fembot, natch.

Lounge.

Soon we were escorted to the lounge to enjoy a pre-show drink.  The very, very tacky lounge.

Menu.

I glanced through the menu, a bit distracted by what was around me.

ZIMA.

And then I found ... ZIMA!

When I was in college, ZIMA was my drink of choice.  But when is the last time you saw ZIMA in the US?  Answer: at the latest, 2008, when it was discontinued.  You can only find it in Japan now.  And find it I did.  Available almost everywhere, also in a pink variety!

Levi.

 Levi was soooo thrilled to be there!

Levi and the dino.

As we waited for drinks, Levi started playing with the cute littlo dinosaur on the table.

Julie and the dino.

Once I secured my ZIMA, do did I. It turned out to be sooo interactive!

Sleepy Dino.

It even fell asleep in my arms, and laid its head down ...

Going down ...

Finally, after amusing ourselves in the lounge for a while, it was time to head to the show itself.

Stage.

Before the show, the state had a bar on it.  It would return during intermission.

The Dining Portion.

As we entered, we were given the choice of two bento boxes.  I dug into mine.  Spoiler: we weren't there for the food.

Fish Bento Box.

I was brave, and went for the seafood option.

The top left section contained tamago and beans.  The tomago wasn't layered, it wasn't very sweetened, but it wasn't offensive.  Meh.  The 3 large beans next to it were sweet, and I actually liked them.  They reminded me of molasses baked beans, and I gladly ate all the beans from Emil's box too, as he clearly wasn't going near this food.  The green beans next to those however I really didn't care for, they had a really strange unfamiliar taste.

In the center was a tiny container of pickles, pretty standard.

Top right was my first seafood, raw salmon over a small salad with pickled onions.  I wasn't brave enough to try the fish, but the onions were fine.

Bottom right was my other seafood, a miso coated, cooked fish.  I'm not sure what type of fish it was, but it didn't have much flavor, and was very fully cooked.

The final section was rice balls.  They were not good at all, the rice dried out yet mushy, flavorless.

I had heard that you definitely don't go there for the food, so I was expecting it to be worse than this.  Sure, I didn't actually like anything in here besides the beans, but it wasn't THAT bad.

"Meet" Bento Box.

The other option was "meet".  The "meet" turned out to be two types of chicken.  Since I dislike chicken, I didn't try any of it.  The other dishes were all the same.

Intro.

Soon, it was time for the show.

Safety Briefing.

It started with a safety briefing.  Yes, literally.

Drummers.

 The first act: drummers.

Glowing drummers that is. 

Amused.

Jelte and I were amused.  But we really had no idea what we were in for.

Gong.

Of course there was a gong.

Dragon.

And a dragon.

Intermission.

Scene change! Since the venue was soooo small, they needed to change out everything between acts.

Pole Dancer.

Things started getting more interesting.

Bunny Drummers.

Now the drummers are ... bunnies.

Marching Band.

And a whole marching band of bunnies ...

Robot Wars.

And then a robot war began.

Panda.

 With a giant panda, riding a cow, of course.  What???

What???

I had no idea what to think at this point.

Spider.

Have I mentioned that I hate spiders?  Particularly giant spiders?

Hover Bot.

Evil Robot.

Mermaid Riding a Shark.

Shark Attack.

Seriously, what is going on???

Glow Sticks.

No longer scary, it was time for them to hand out glow sticks.

Glowy!

Glow sticks were fun.

Dancers.

High speed rolling robots.

Robots inside light up rolling wheel things.

Fembot.

Giant fembots.

Parade.

These were kinda freaky, like giant robot dolls on parade.

Robot DJ.

Time for a giant robot DJ ...

Confused.

Yes, I was a bit confused as to what was going on at this point ...

HUGE Robots.

Lasers.

And lasers.  Because, lasers.

Dancers and Terminators. 

More Dancers.  More Lasers.

Airplane.

Yeah, that is an airplane, all lit up, with girls dangling from it.

Girls & Airplane.

Riding the Wing.

Tank.

Out rolled a tank, to fight the airplane.

Tank Dancing.

Riding the Tank,

Crash!

And, the climax, the tank crashed into the bomber.

I have no more words.

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