Haruka Murooka

⭐⭐⭐

🍰 Dessert / 📍 Nogizaka

📓 Visits: 1

Haruka Murooka was pastry chef for Hasegawa Minoru.  In April she opened her own place serving only a dessert course menu.  You're required to choose a pairing when you book and pricing varies according to season.  On my visit the course was JPY 23,100 with the alcoholic pairing or JPY 17,600 with the non-alcoholic pairing, which I chose.  The theme at this time was citrus and strawberries.  The current menu is available (in a mix of Japanese and English) on her Website.

The first dish, a classic milk pudding and milk ice-cream, was probably my favourite.  The quality olive oil and salt on the side meant the dish never got boring.  However, it needed a deeper flavour of milk and the ice-cream needed to be grain-free to score higher than 9/10.  The next three dishes of citrus dessert, shin tama negi panacotta and the bread were not too sweet and probably the most interesting.  After that, in comes the sugar.  The chocolate dish was pretty rich and the portion a little large.  The strawberry vacherin and orange souflee were very sweet.  More sugar followed with a sugar-coated, freshly-fried churro and then a strawberry macaron (not much difference in flavour profile from the preceding vacherin) and a one-bite sweet potato 'Mont Blanc'.

The non-alcohol 'pairing' comprised strawberry soda, and three teas, i.e. just four different drinks for 9 different plates and only one was original.  The alcohol pairing seemed to contain more drinks.

It's a bright and comfortable space.  Haruka-san is very friendly and service was excellent.  All the dishes are thoroughly explained but you need to be able to understand Japanese for completeness.  Haruka-san had limited English.

I might sound stupid to say there was too much sugar in a dessert course but there has to be balance and (to my pleasant surprise) I didn't feel that at John or Yama (reviews to come) or As or Souka and, believe me, I have a very sweet tooth.

Long story short: too much sugar + unsatisfactory 'pairing' = not recommended.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1307/A130701/13295424/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.6

📱 Booking: 🟩 A week in advance via TableCheck.

📍 Location: 

1-21-9 Minami-Aoyama.  5 mins west from Nogizaka Station Exit 3.

Map data ©2024 Google

📅 Visit May 2024

Mt. Fuji IDEBOK milk
Kuromitsu's Hassaku and several citrus, Amazake Gelato
Awajishima's new onion mousse and carrot tuile
Freshly baked focaccia kneaded with aged Kitano Kaori
Water cacao
Souffle from Ehime Prefecture
Strawberry vacherin
Churros
Strawberry macaroons/sweet potato Mont Blanc

💴 Damage: 17,600
⏱️ Time taken: 1h45m