Azuki to Kouri
If there’s one type of Japanese dessert I love it’s kakigori. Maybe it’s because I grew up in Hawaii eating the local-style shave ice… or maybe because kakigori is just an awesome dessert.
So when I heard of a kakigori shop opened by a pastry chef from a Michelin-starred restaurant in Tokyo, I knew I wanted to try it. The tricky part is… so do many others. Azuki to Kouri only seats about 7 people at a time and reservations are a must unless you enjoy standing around hoping someone no-shows to theirs. The reservations open up at 9PM JST 7 days prior. Since we would be on the western side of Tokyo (the shop is in the Roppongi area) in the back part of our trip, I had to gamble that I could book a reservation for a specific day while we were already traveling in Japan.
And luckily, I did! Here’s a recap of our visit on April 2, 2023:
Azuki to Kouri store front
White Cacao kakigori
Strawberry Chiboust kakigori
Azuki & Meringue kakigori
Potato kakigori
Even with reservations we ended up waiting about 15-20 minutes for the party before us to clear out and free up space at the small counter.
In the end, Azuki to Kouri was worth the hassle and small wait… at least for me. They offer about 5-6 different kakigori variations each day with their signature Azuki & Meringue being the only constant. By the time we were there at 4PM they appear to have already sold out one or two of their daily options, leaving us with a handful to choose from. I recommend you try as many as you can!
The signature kakigori - Azuki & Meringue - has unseated the now closed Sebastian’s Layered Cheese kakigori on my personal list of all-time favorites. It was just that good.
I also appreciate that they try to make some more experimental options like the potato chip variation we tried.
Keep in mind due to the complexity of the kakigori here and the level of ingredients used that this will likely be the most expensive shave ice you get. Each one will run you about $20-$25 USD.
But… worth it. At least to me.
Azuki to Kouri
1-46-2 Yoyogi, Shibuya
Tokyo, Japan
https://azukitokouri.com
