A note on the shop: MINISTOP is a Japanese convenience-store chain that has been making soft-serve for forty years. MINISOF is its standalone soft-serve shop, and this is the only branch in Tokyo.
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MINISOF, Tobu Ikebukuro on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Sweet-toothed readers, thank you for waiting. It is Hangover Meshi time.
This time, a soft-serve specialist I found in the basement of Tobu Ikebukuro.
Yes — as the by MINISTOP on the sign says, MINISOF is a specialist shop built on forty years of soft-serve at the convenience store chain MINISTOP. Hokkaido raw milk and cream used generously, with even the air content adjusted, for a smooth cone. “MINISTOP running a soft-serve shop?” I thought — though come to think of it they were always strong on ice cream and halo-halo.
And apparently the only branch in Tokyo is in the Tobu Ikebukuro food basement (B1F). Hear that and you rather want to stop for one.
They also sell plenty of ordinary ice creams and halo-halo.
Cone or cup. What topping. After much deliberation I picked the topped soft-serve with chocolate. Incidentally, in this photo — the ordering machine takes cash only, and the till is cashless.
Surely that is the wrong way round.
Normally the machine is the cashless one and the till takes the cash.
Grumbling aside, one ice cream bought, and a wait.
While waiting, a look at the shop’s design. Rather charming, in fact.
And here it is.
That looks good. Right, let us eat.
The base is the soft-serve MINISTOP has been developing for forty years. Hokkaido raw milk and cream used generously, with condensed milk for depth — a smooth, fine-grained milk flavour. They apparently adjust even how much air goes in, and it dissolves the moment it reaches your mouth, the sweetness of the milk spreading honestly.
And on top, the chocolate. The chocolate sauce poured over it suits the soft-serve very well. The Oreo alongside is clearly there to scoop up ice cream and chocolate together.
Yes, good.
So — I passed it and stopped in, essentially. It turned out to be a very pleasant place for a short rest. There are not many seats but it was not busy at all, and with the season coming, however well air-conditioned a department store is, you arrive from outside going “it is far too hot” — so let us get through it by crash-cooling with ice cream.
May you meet something good to eat today too.
MINISOF, Tobu Department Store Ikebukuro (soft-serve / Ikebukuro Station, Higashi-Ikebukuro Station, Toden-Zoshigaya Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.3
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
