Unnamed "Restaurant" #2

⭐⭐⭐

🍦 Ice-cream / 📍 Shibuya

📓 Visits: 1

Authentic is one of the (few) big openings of 2026. Another "assiette dessert" restaurant but this from chef Masaki Takahashi who was pastry chef at Narisawa for over four years and who went on to co-open Restaurant Yuu in New York in 2023, which won a Michelin Star. Authentic serves a single, dessert omakase, consisting of 8 dishes and a 7-drink non-alcoholic pairing at the inclusive price of JP Y21,780. I'm less trusting of Tabelog reviews when it comes to desserts but at that price I'd be wanting to see a lot more reviews above 4.0. And doesn't everything look a bit small? Five months on, I still haven't been and it remains an easy reservation, so I was only recently wondering if the chef would start a cheaper offering to get the punters in. Well today he opened a gelato shop just 10 minutes away.

You can choose from ten flavours with a single, double and triple cup priced at ¥740, ¥860 and ¥980, respectively, with an extra ¥220 yen charged for "premium" flavours. I chose milk, chocolate and fig milk. The chocolate was the pick of the three, a quality bean with fruity notes. The fig milk had very little taste of fig and I might have said "mild mint" if I was blind tasting. None of the ices had any real body and they were more akin to a milk sorbet base rather than a frozen custard base, i.e. more watery and "refreshing".

In other dessert-related news, L'Historique is the biggest pastry shop opening in a while. Chef Takuya Asai worked under Kiyomi Mikuni, first at Hotel de Mikuni and more recently at (the pretty decent) Hills House Dining 33 atop Azabudai Hills. Haven't made it to his new place yet but I'm sure this won't disappoint. The cake selection looks pretty similar to what's available at the boutique attached to Dining 33, which isn't too well-known but I'd rank in the top three to five patisserie in Tokyo. You can also reserve a cake to take-away from L'Historique, online, which seems very convenient.

As I did here I'm not going to name this place simply because I don't want a negative review of a brand new place to be on page 1 of a Google search. And as always, this is one opinion. If you like this style of gelato then you might be very happy. The place is in a cool location and is open till late. If you want a proper ice-cream though, head to Teal or Patisserie Mayo Flat.

📌 https://tabelog.com/...

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.35

📍 Location:

The Tokyo Gourmet

Search This Blog