Takemura is a traditional dessert cafe in Tokyo, in Kanda-Sudacho, an area full of interesting eateries (two of the best soba restaurants in Tokyo are located nearby). It was founded in 1930. This kind of stores are called kanmi-dokoro (甘味処, “sweets place”) and are rarer and rarer in Tokyo.
The visit
The venue occupies a traditional house and has both normal table seats and a few tatami seats. They do not like pictures inside, so I do not have an image of the interior.
Attention, the place is closed on Sundays and Mondays.
They offer you a bowl of hot water with cherry flowers when you seat down for an order.
They have a menu translated in English. The translation is impeccable, but there are no pictures. They have a lot of traditional desserts. In my first visit I tried their mistumame with boiled apricots (anzu). The main feature of mitsumame is small cubes of agar jelly called kanten, a white translucent jelly made from seaweeds. It came with a green tea and a syrup to pour over. It was an unexpectedly tasty dessert.
On my second visit, I tried their Age–manju that is a deep-fried version of the classic manju, a Japanese pancake filled with red bean paste. This is one of their signature dishes and they sell them also for “take-out”. I found them a bit heavy.
Since it was the end of the year, I also tried their ozoni (or zoni) a Japanese New Year mochi soup. It was a savory soup (probably with dashi stock) with rice cakes (mochi), nori, and some vegetables. I did not like it!
The check
The first dessert cost 750 yen (7 USD). Very honest price considering you also get a cup of tea.
The second visit cost me 1,320 yen (12 USD); the age-manju were 500 yen.
Where in Tokyo:
1 Chome-19 Kanda Sudacho, Chiyoda City.
In Japanese: 〒101-0041 東京都千代田区神田須田町１丁目１9.