. . "0"^^ . "5"^^ . . "1"^^ . "We went to the grand opening of the second floor sit down restaurant concept. We arrived 35 mins prior to the opening and waited like two hours. Was it worth is. Had it been warmer very much yes. Either was it was still worth it. \n\nThe tsukemen and the matcha soba are delicious. You can taste the earthiness of in the soba noodles. The tonkatsu soy dipping soup is flavourful, has good seasoning, creaminess from the soy, and barely a hint of spice. The accompanying chazuke that came with the kitsune soba is salty on initial taste but balances out with the rice and you don't even notice after eating a full bite. \n\nThe teas are both high quality. The houjicha latte has a nice creaminess with the soy but the soy itself doesn't alter the overall flavour of the tea. The kabusencha is highlighted by floral notes and is much more mild than the matcha. \n\nThe complementary Aoi Hana - Japanese High Tea has a variety of desserts with a choice of a black tea roll cake or matcha roll cake. My favourites were the Sakura ones as they had the contrast of the pickled Sakura flowers against the natural sweetness of the Mochi and the green tea/matcha and read been fillings. The cheesecake has hints of citrus (likely yuzu) zest, hit of salt, and very upfront cream cheese. \n\nThe souffl\u00E9 pancakes are like it name sake suggest not quite solid and has that inside of a souffl\u00E9 wetness as a pancake. The pancake is accompanied by matcha, houjicha, and whip cream as well as a fruit cup like peach. All of the accompaniments work well with the pancake, and of course no pancake is complete without maple syrup. Not as good as Mildred's temple pancakes but still interesting. \n\nThe atmosphere is very almost Japanese tea house style with the wood accents and simply design. The service is very good. The servers are all Japanese and very informative about the menu. They helped to put our teas in a to go cup and top it off with hot water. \n\nTo summarize the food is great quality, well seasoned. Service is above par. If you don't have to wait in the cold to get a seat this is a must try."^^ . "2018-04-21T00:00:00"^^ . "1"^^ .