Patissiere Mayo

⭐⭐⭐⭐

🍨 Dessert / 📍 Roppongi

📓 Visits: 1

Patissiere Mayo has been open for a year now and is not the easiest place to reserve.  But despite that you won't find many reviews on Tabelog.  The reason?  A footnote on the menu asking patrons to refrain from posting on the site.  Mayo Miyata was previously pastry chef for Minoru Hasegawa's restaurants and co-produced Cheesecake Holic, a mail-order sensation.

410g of that cheesecake will cost you JPY 4,104 plus 800 yen shipping.  Is it worth it?  Of course not.  If you want to make up your own mind the best way is to wait for a pop-up in one of Tokyo's depachika.  You can save on the shipping fee and pick up a half-size cheesecake for half the price.  That's what I did in 2021.  I was glad I limited the damage.

Equally (if you'll pardon the pun) unimpressive was the cheesecake from Equal, another over-hyped offering from the ludicrously popular Path.  I'm yet to find somewhere for proper NY cheesecake in Tokyo.  Maybe Peter Luger?  Need to go back.

Well that's enough side-swiping but all of that goes to explain why I wasn't in a hurry to make a booking at Patissiere Mayo and when I finally did I wasn't expecting to like it.

Things didn't get off to a great start when (despite my reservation being early that day) my choice of strawberry daifuku/crepe was already 'sold out'.  The strawberry parfait was still available so it wasn't because they'd run out of strawberries.  Instead of strawberry crepe a citrus crepe was on offer.  So it wasn't because they'd run out of crepe mix either.  Ever the cynic, I couldn't help but think this was so they could up upsell you the parfait, which is nearly 2.5 times the price.  Plenty of pictures of the parfait on Instagram but none of the crepe.  I can't help but wonder if it really exists, and why it's on the menu.  Anyway, I went for the kankitsu crepe.  The crepe is cooked to order and includes a hot element of caramelized setoka, fresh bergamot, Dekopon and haruka and truffle ice-cream.  It was delicious.  The truffle ice-cream was perfectly smooth and not overpowering.  The hot/cold combination irresistible, perfectly sweet, indulgent yet refreshing.  It was pretty small and I had to stop myself wolfing it down in 3-4 bites.

There's no English menu and Mayo-san, and her assistant, don't speak English.  She has a great personality and made conversation and not with the usual gaijin topics.  Your seat is for 90 minutes so it seems like the kind of place where you linger and most diners seemed to be regulars.  So to get the full experience you do need some Japanese.

It's not cheap (especially the drinks) but I thought the cost was reasonable for the quality of what was served, reasonable compared with some of the other top dessert bars in Tokyo and incomparable in service.

The menu changes according to the seasonal availability of ingredients but is thematically the same.  Strawberries are available until May.

As others were leaving they made their next reservation.  I was invited to do that but didn't want another date in my diary so declined.  I will probably go back but it's the kind of place I want to go spontaneously - I don't want to plan an evening around a dessert.  If it was possible to call on the day/night and get a seat I'd be more likely to go back sooner.  Or if there was a course on offer I might be inclined to book that.  As it is I'll just see if cancellations come up.

Anyway, my one visit to Patissiere Mayo surpassed my expectations.  For a special dessert experience.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1307/A130701/13255778/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0

📱 Booking: 🟧  Difficult.  Omakase only.  Bookings for the next couple of weeks are taken around once a month.  Slots fill up very quickly.  Regular cancellations.

📍 Location: 

2F 3F Art Scape Roppongi, 7-10-2 Roppongi.  3F multi-tenant building.  6 mins walk from Roppongi / Nogizaka stations.  Moved to 3F in August 2023 to make way for Patissiere Mayo Flat.
Map data ©2022 Google

📅 Visit January 2022

Kankitsu crepe 1600
Tea 900

💴 Damage: 2,750
⏱️ Time taken: 25m