I queue.
We queue.
Let's all queue
The queue was a big surprise because it is really rare to have people scrambling desperately for the cakes at the weekly rotating patisserie booth at Isetan Shinjuku. I had no clue that this shop is currently ranked No. 1 Sweets Shop on (tabelog), a food review website that is based on the reviews and voting score of the users. This imply that the chef has beaten many local and overseas big names like Sadahoru Aoki and Hidemi Sugino.
Chef-owner Hattori Yukihiro (Photo Credit:Isetan Osaka)
Born in 1972. Worked in various restaurants and patisseries in Gifu, Nagoya, Osaka and Tokyo etc. Loves coffee. Opened his shop in 2009.
So how does his cakes fare? Well, honestly, the design of the cakes is quite attractive but the textures are limited because they are mainly constructed with mousse, sponge and a chocolate glaze. Take for example this beautiful green standing tower named Pierre Temptation ピエール・タンタシオン￥525.
Pierre Temptation ピエール・タンタシオン. The pistachio mousse was very sweet and so was the cherry jelly in the center. The groittine cherry fruits were not reeked of alcohol and the base is a sticky pistachio sponge. The most outer chocolate glaze is dotted with pistachio nuts.
Téméraire テメレール￥470
Inside this macaron dacquoise wall is caramel buttercream and apricot orange gelee. The top and bottom layer is a succes (chewy almond meringue). The dacquoise wall is dotted with nuts.
Overall taste is close to a hazelnut coffee mousse cake and flavours are much balanced than the earlier pistachio gateaux. But I wish it was dusted with less icing sugar.
The most disappointing one was this chocolate cake called "Brunette Chocolat" ￥480.
I thought there would be some crunchy layers hidden within this but it was made up of caramel chocolate cream centre, milk chocolate mousse and a chocolate sponge. Though the outer layer is also dotted with almond nuts, the texture is quite uniformly soft. And it was again too sweet as a chocolate cake.
Macarons
On the other hand, the baked goods were more impressive than the cakes. The plain butter sables(3 for￥210) were much fragrant and buttery than the matcha diamants(3 for ￥158). But I also enjoyed the ultra thin sandwich cookie called "Linz" ￥189 that is filled with chocolate spread (available also in framboise flavour).
Overall, I did not find any thing particularly outstanding about this shop, except the biscuits. But I could have possibly selected the wrong cakes that day. Nonetheless, the queue was formed perhaps because that was the first time it appeared in Tokyo (so people don't have to travel all the way to Osaka).
Photo Source: ychocolat
Given that this shop has clinched and is still currently the top rank pastry shop on tabelog with a high average score of 4.2/5 ( it is not easy to achieve this), you might be interested to visit his shop in Osaka when you are travelling there.
Patisserie Ravi'e Relier パティスリー ラヴィルリエ
Osaka City Kamiyama Cho 2-6 ( 6 min walk from Exit 3 Nakazaki Station via Osaka Municipal Subway Tanimachi Line)
〒530-0026 大阪府大阪市北区神山町2-6大阪市営谷町線中崎町駅3番口 徒歩6分
Hours: 11am-8pm
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