After visiting the DAB Tokyo in Harajuku and having such awesome time (you can read about it here: http://www.foodlovergirl.com/dominique-ansel-bakery-omotesando/), we decided to try their second location in Ginza. It is located inside Mitsukoshi department store, on the second basement floor. It had “fancy” written all over it, but yet, cheery with all bright and colorful.
I liked the cute wall decorations in more of a pastel color. This place also had a cartoon version of Dominique Ansel, which was pretty cute. They do fun designs in Japan for sure!
Here, I found all the delicious and beautiful looking sweets, just like at the other shop. But then, it seemed like they have more offerings here… And then I saw the red lettering under some of the items stating “Only in Ginza”!!! What!!! Yes, they actually have several items that are offered only in Ginza.
Some of the Ginza only items includes: hot dog, apple marshmallow, Mr. Kabuki, soba croissant, etc. I knew I had to try some of them, addition to the few items we were already planning on purchasing. One thing to mention is that this DAB does not come with any seating, so you have to take your purchases elsewhere to eat them. We went to the top of the Mitsukoshi building where they have a large public space with tables and tables.
The first purchase of the day was this adorable little guy! Roasted Tomato Hot Dog Bun (400 yen), shaped like a little puppy chewing on a hot dog in his mouth. How adorable! I wish if I could get him at other locations too, but he is only going to be waiting for you at Ginza…
He has a body too, and the body part is filled with tomato onion sauce. The hot dog is coated with spicy brown mustard where it is hidden inside the puppy’s mouth. The combination of spicy mustard and tomato onion sauce was perfect. The bread was very nice too, dense and moist, yet fluffy as a puppy should be. The most adorable item I have ever seen from all the DAB locations I’ve visited so far!
The second item was Mentaiko Focaccia (370 yen), also sold only at the Ginza location. It looks like an onigiri, or rice ball. But, it is not made with rice, and there is no rice in it either. Another unique and fun creation! The foccacia bread was dense and almost chewy, in a good way. Each bite was satisfying.
It is actually a foccacia bread, made into look like rice ball. And, since rice ball usually have a filling in a middle, this foccacia also have a filling of mentaiko, or spicy cod roe in the middle. Well, it was not so much of “filling” per say, but it was placed under the black piece which is imitating the dried seaweed over rice ball. It still had a nice amount of mentaiko on it, and it went great with the foccacia bread. And, what I really liked about this is the shiso that is put around the foccacia. The combination of pickled shiso flavor and spicy cod roe went great together, turning foccacia bread into a unique Japanese snack. Creative and tasty!
Then we had Mr. Kabuki Melon Pan. The DAB in Japan offers Mr. Roboto which is a hojicha melon pan, but here at Ginza, they also have Mr. Kabuki, which I thought looked really cool! Kabuki is a classical Japanese theater performance, kind of like classic opera of Italy. They are known mostly for the elaborate make-up worn by the performers, and that is what’s depicted on this bread.
Melon pan is a sweet bun popular in Japan, I’ve always loved it since childhood. It is bread that is covered with a layer of cookie dough. I know, sounds great, right? The traditional kind looks like an exterior of melon, thus the name Melon Pan (“bread”). Mr. Kabuki Melon Pan comes with a unique Japanese drama. It has a filling of custard cream AND sweet bean paste in the inside! Mr. Kabuki is bring out some Kabuki drama to an ordinary bread! I wasn’t sure how the custard and sweet bean would taste like together, but it was very pleasant, sweet, deep and rich. Sweet bean was more creamy and velvety with the custard cream, and yes, went great with Melon Pan bread. Yum!
After all the baked goods, we also had one of their cakes. They had just one item that was Ginza Only: Square Watermelon Mousse Cake (720 yen). It looked really cute, and yes, we do have real square watermelons in Japan. They grow the watermelons in a square box, forcing the watermelon to conform into the shape of the box. They are easy to stack and transport, but takes more manual labor and time, therefore, more expensive.
But, this is a cake, so they don’t need to wait for their watermelon cake to grow into the square shape. Still, very intricate and yes, looks really gorgeous. It was decorated to imitate the watermelon really well, but had shiny, glossy exterior that was very appetizing. It is made with pistachio mouse filled with watermelon gelee and raspberry mouse. This little guy was so decadent and delicious! From the first bite, it was dessert heaven. Even thought it was mostly mousse and jelly-type ingredients, it was firm enough while providing amazing, smooth, velvety texture that melt in your mouth. I could’ve had a huge bowl-full of this and still would want more and more…
Now, let me talk about one of the most unique item that are sold in DAB in Japan. This item is available both at Omotesando and Ginza locations. It is called Zero Gravity Chiffon Cake (1,000 yen). What does that mean? Well, it is a chiffon cake that is placed inside a balloon!
The balloon is rather large, and it was packed to the maximum with helium. It had small cake with colorful confetti. It was kind of fun to carry the balloon around, felt like a little kid again. Just to make sure you hold on to the string real tight, as it the balloon is filled with helium so much, if you let go, it will fly up in a sky or ceiling real fast (might or might not be speaking from my own experience…).
The balloon also came with kind of an instruction card, and a large safety-pin. The card said to pop the balloon with the safety-pin from over piece of tape (DAB logo sticker was on the balloon) so that the popping noise would not be so loud. I have heard in the past that popping a balloon of a sticker or a piece of tape will reduce the popping noise. So, I trusted it and did as written on the instruction. The result? Total fail!!! The balloon made a HUGE popping noise, it was sooooo loud that a man sitting next me left quickly, and a security man came to see what happened… Super embarrassing…!
After the dust (or rather, confetti and noise) settled, I finally got calmed down (from the popping noise and embarrassment), I got to my chiffon cake. It was really small, and even thought it was fluffy and airy, I don’t think it was worth all the trouble… The cake was ordinary, nothing special. I think this item was more about the “journey” itself rather than the “destination.”
After the eventful day with balloon incident, we took few more delights from DAB and took them back with us for our evening desserts. The first one was Paris-Tokyo (725 yen). This is one of the Japan Only item. We saw this at DAB Omotesando, but we didn’t get to try it at that time, so we had to get it!
It is made with puff pastry, sandwiching matcha and vanilla cream, topped with matcha chocolate. It had the general amount of cream which I was happy to see. It was so awesome, velvety, sweet but not overly sweet, with wonderful flavor of matcha. The puff pastry was light and airy. The chocolate on top added extra texture and flavor.
And then, I noticed something underneath the cream. It was Passion Fruit Jam! My goodness, what a delicious surprise! The jam went great with the matcha and vanilla cream. The addition of fruity flavor brought this dessert to the next level. It was as good or maybe even better than I wanted it to be. Not mentioning, beautifully prepared. Bright yellow ginko leaves, a symbol of Tokyo on the top added a pop of color, and elegance to the item.
Another Japan Only that I really wanted to try was this cute little monkey! It is a Monkey Religieuse (680 yen). It is a seasonal cream puff, the look and/or flavor will change each season. Just look at this guy…so adorable! And if his smile is not enough, look at his butt! It has a red heart (upside-down) below the tail. How adorable is that?
When I was purchasing this monkey, the staff asked me to choose which Monkey I wanted. As their faces are hand-painted, each one has a slightly different face and therefore, different personality. I think I picked a monkey who is jolly, happy, and a bit mischievous. It is made with caramelized banana and milk chocolate ganache. The filling was from rim to rim, awesome! The cream was fluffy and airy, buttery and milky. Wonderful banana aroma and flavor, and the mild flavor of milk chocolate rather than dark chocolate was a perfect choice. It worked really well with caramelized banana flavor, without overpowering it or mask it with strong chocolate flavor.
And what’s more? The small cream puff on the top, a.k.a. his face was also filled with as much cream as possible. I felt bad for eating this cute monkey, but he was sooooo delicious! At least he was loved very much…
And last but least, the most intricate, delicate, and yes, expensive purchase of the day. Pull-Apart Flower Cookie (4,500 yen). It is offered only at Ginza store, and it is not always available. It is best to pre-order, unless you have a couple of hours to wait around while it is being made. To match the price tag, it is quite large. They put it in a nice box, and wrapped it up with a ribbon.
It is made with rose cookie and lychee ganache. The cookies are very thin and complex, no wonder it takes a while to make this delicate flower. Another thing is that it does not do well with humidity or heat, so it is best if it is made to order. It was fun pulling the flowers off, piece by piece, enjoying the robust flavor of fruity lychee cream and sophisticated rose cookie. We shared among four people, and it disappeared pretty quickly. It was enchanting, tasty, lovely and delightful. It came with a steep price tag, but I am glad we got to try this Ginza Only item.
It was another wonderful visit to the second DAB location in Tokyo. Everything we tried was delicious, all met or exceeded my expectation, which is not easy to do. I loved each and all items, and we had great time in dessert heaven. The staffs there were all very nice, polite and sweet. Perfect customer service! I wish if they had some seating available right there, but that was not a big issue. I would definitely want to go back again to try some more of their Ginza Only items the next time I am in Tokyo!
Dominique Ansel Bakery Ginza – 4 Chome−6−16, Ginza, Chuo, Tokyo Japan