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| - Despite the rave reviews, I wasn't all that enthused after my first experience at Tsujiri - maybe I'm just not enough of a matcha fan? Although there appeared to be no lineup outside of the store, looks can be deceiving, and in the end I still had to wait about half an hour for my sundae. The store is really small and set up in such a way that you have to line up in this narrow space in front of the counter... after a while it definitely gets a bit uncomfortable and stuffy, being crammed in such close proximity with so many other people.
I like that they have a really extensive menu with lots of drinks and treats - hot and cold lattes, sundaes, shaved ice, cream puffs, cakes, you name it, they have it, all (or mostly) featuring matcha flavours. The Tsujiri sundae seemed to be one of their most popular items - crunchy roasted brown rice in a cup with a layer of red bean paste and topped with soft serve (either vanilla, matcha, or a mix of the two), a sakura cookie, a mochi and a chestnut. At the end of the day, it wasn't at all bad - the soft serve was smooth and creamy, unlike at other places (I'm looking at you, Sweet Jesus!) and the red bean paste added a nice touch of sweetness. The rest of it... I'm not sure. The brown rice was kind of interesting in that it had a really strong roasted flavour and added a different texture to the whole thing, which was kind of cool, but I found the flavour to be too strong and too bitter and overpowered the matcha and everything else. I don't know what sakura is supposed to taste like, but the cookie tasted like coconut to me.
I overall thought the sundae was kind of cool to try and it looks great (lovely for those instagram photos!), but didn't love it enough to especially want to come back. I don't know if it's just that they're understaffed, but they had two people prepping food and they were just taking their sweet time with each order. Although the wait wasn't terrible (30 mins), even then I didn't think it was worth the time spent or the money ($8+). I think I would come back here if there were only like 2 other people here, but would not line up for more than 10-15 minutes.
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