A note on the words: yoshoku refers to Western-influenced dishes adapted to Japanese tastes over the past century, while a kissaten is a classic Japanese coffee shop. A croque monsieur is a grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich, and a katsu sando is a sandwich filled with a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet. Here, the author stops in for a Western-style breakfast sandwich of grilled eggplant, cheese, bacon, and tomato alongside hot coffee.
Ueshima Coffee Ten Akasaka Hitotsugi-dori on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. I feel like I have been eating soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles) for breakfast almost every day, and like with JAIME, once in a while a yoshoku (Japanese-style Western food) breakfast is nice too. Feeling that way, this time I skipped soba and decided to head to “Ueshima Coffee Ten” on Hitotsugi-dori in Akasaka. Every time I passed by, seeing the terrace seats, I thought it looked like quite a stylish spot, but I never had the chance to go in. There is a hotel upstairs, right? I wonder if they issue hotel breakfast vouchers that can be used here? There certainly seem to be a lot of foreigners.
Hot coffee R — 580 yen
Grilled chicken and Caesar salad — 780 yen
Grilled eggplant and cheese with bacon and tomato — 780 yen
Ueshima Coffee Ten katsu sando — 790 yen
Three-cheese croque monsieur — 620 yen
Wondering which one to get, I walked up to the register, and huh? It feels like the price displayed at the register is higher…
Then I realized the price at the register is for the set combining the sandwich and coffee.
Thinking about it that way, that is pretty pricey, ha. I chose the grilled eggplant and cheese with bacon and tomato, but coffee does not come with this, so where ordering coffee separately would be an extra 580 yen, as a set it is 1,050 yen. What a deal! I thought, but isn’t that a bit expensive? ha.
I thought kissaten (traditional coffee shops) these days were cheaper, ha.
So, first I picked up my coffee, took a seat, and checked my email on my phone.
As I thought, there seem to be a lot of foreign customers. The woman at the register was speaking English too.
The coffee is good, but pretty lukewarm.
I prefer my hot coffee a bit hotter, though…
And once the pager they hand you buzzes, you go to the counter to pick up the grilled eggplant and cheese with bacon and tomato.
Yeah, it looks delicious, but the size is quite compact.
Taking a bite, the flavor is good. The eggplant is pleasantly juicy and goes perfectly with the cheese and tomato.
The bread is crisp on the outside and easy to eat. Delicious, it certainly is delicious!
So, that it tops 1,000 yen for this is my honest impression.
How is it that JAIME is cheaper, ha? Having gotten a bit curious about cafe-style breakfasts, maybe I will look around various spots in the Akasaka area.
Ueshima Coffee Ten Akasaka Hitotsugi-dori (Cafe / Akasaka-mitsuke Station, Akasaka Station, Nagatacho Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★☆☆☆ 2.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
