On July 6th, I went out to Sapporo to go hangout with a friend, and then get afternoon tea with her and her friend! A while ago I went to the strawberry fair of ANA Crowne Hotel’s afternoon tea, and when I showed my friend, she wanted to go. June and July were going to be cherry themed, and so we made a reservation for the 6th.
I got on my usual bus and arrived around 10:20, but since that’s a bit early for my friend (and I just want to get my bus money’s worth, ha!), I took the solo time to do some window shopping. I stopped by the Jupiter in Tokyu to pick up a few things, and then looked at some swimsuit options. There was a pop-up in the Tokyu building, and though the swimsuits were cute…the average price was 30,000 yen each. That was crazy, and so I figured maybe it was a luxury brand, hence the pop-up. I checked out another swimsuit store in Apia, and the prices were better, but still an average of 20,000 yen each. I’m not paying $150 for a cute swimsuit, so I guess that’s out of the picture for now…I’m sure there are other places selling swimsuits, but these were the only stores that popped up in my quick Google search. I ended up in Stellar Place to go check out the theater, not to see showings, but to see the merch that was on sale for current movies…
My friend arrived at Sapporo station around 12, so we decided to go grab a bit of a light lunch (I wanted something savory and a “lunch” before devouring all the sweets later, and I hadn’t had anything that day yet besides a bottled drink and some free samples). She wanted to go some shopping at Uniqlo in the Tokyu building, so we headed there to choose somewhere to eat (and yes, I was just there, ha!). As expected of peak lunch time, most of the restaurants had a line forming, but we settled on Ruth Lowe, a cute, Italian place that didn’t have a line. Plus, I had been meaning to come here because apparently the drama First Love shot here! Pasta should be light, right?
There were some pretty delicious-looking ones, but we decided to order two we were interested in and split. First, was this summer seasonal exclusive grilled eggplant and water buffallo mozzarella cheese cold pasta, and then a scallop and vegetable butter soy sauce pasta. The cold pasta was indeed cold, and came out on a iced plate. Each set also comes with salad and homemade bread.
The bread was super good! I think it was trying to emulate foccacia, but it was thick, a bit oily on the outside, and super soft and fluffy on the inside. The salad was refreshing, with a light, kind of fruity dressing. Both of the pastas were really good! I’m a scallop girlie all the way, the the Japanese-style butter soy sauce made for a light sauce that went perfectly with the mushrooms and scallops. I’m also glad we tried ordering the cold pasta, because that was a unique experience! The pasta was cold, and super refreshing, which made the noodles extra chewy. The cold tomato sauce, basil, and mozzarella reminded me of a margherita, and the eggplant was also not bad.
While waiting for her friend to arrive, we did some purikura (the Japanese cute photo-booth thing). I don’t believe I’ve done one in a hot minute…last one was probably two years ago? It was very fun, and definitely an experience to do with friends, but I’m not a huge fan of the deformed face adjustment.
Her friend arrived around 2, and we headed over to the hotel to wait for our reservation at 2:30. Since we were a bit early, we waited in the lobby for a bit, but we were called into the lounge shortly after. This time, there wasn’t a whole fake recreation of the afternoon tea displayed at the entrance, but oh well.
This time, the set menu consisted of a ladybug cherry tart*, passion fruit and honey mousse, cherry and pistachio lemington, black forrest cake, cherry and matcha mini tart, coffee macaron, matcha cream puff, nama choco*, cherry verrine*, and a pistachio and chocola gateau (again, *’s mean there’s some kind of alcohol mixed in). The savories were pork pinchos, octopus salsa, and a shrimp and avocado canape with a saltine cracker. The Haagen Daaz were the same, except chocolate was swapped with caramel, and the drinks were the same selection, except the mocktail this time was a kiwi and salty lychee with the option to make it a soda or dilute with water.
I liked the savories a bit more than the last time, but still not entirely to my palate. The mocktail this time was also very good, and came in a different glass, and very refreshing. I liked how some of the treats were cutely decorated like snails, sunflowers, bees, instead of just being mini treats. I would have preferred the chocolate over the caramel ice cream, but it is what it is. All the cherries were super juicy, unlike the tart strawberries the last time! For whatever reason, the strawberry was 4000, and the cherry was 3800 (weekend price, weekday is 3600), and I believe the next one is aso 3800…
I’m not sure if its because I was with other people, the staff came around more often, or something else, because we went through so many more orders than when I went my self sitting in the corner. I had 6 scoops of ice cream (I think?), and tried the Darjeeling, Earl Grey, English Breakfast, and Iced Jasmine, a Camomile, and a Midnight Hour. Yum. I was pleasantly surprised a couple of the teas this time around had an iced option, when last time I came they were all hot.
With very full bellies, we used up the entire time we were alotted (150 minutes!), and left around 5pm. I wanted to catch the bus at 6, and obviously get my boba. We headed over to Akarenga Terrace, where there was a Beer Festival going on. Food smelled good, but we were all full from just eating and drinking nonstop for 2 hours.
Right before getting on the bus, I got my boba. Read about my boba here!
And then I got on the bus at 6 to go home.
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