Tokyo, AoyamaELLE Café, the magazine's first ever café

The setting

ELLE Café is based in Aoyama in the University of the United Nations campus. At the weekend there’s a farmers’ market in front of the café and Brown Rice by Neal’s Yard is around the corner. You can take the subway to Ometosando station.

The space

ELLE Café’s outside has a minimal, sleek upmarket look. It has high windows with grey and white walls and shutters. Outside there’s a heated terrace with smart black metal tables and chairs. Dogs are welcome in this  section.

Inside is a grab and go café and a seating area with marble topped counters and tables. Lots of plants and flowers are scattered around and the waiters speak very good English.

The little things that make the difference

Around noon the sun shines right through the window which adds an amazing feeling of light to the restaurant.

When in Japan, you can’t miss out on their sweet potato skills. The flavour of their sweet potatoes are so different than the ones we have in Europe. These  were perfect golden brown and had a crispy skin. They were still so fresh and sweet.

Last, but not least, we had the strawberry bon bon, which was the only plant based dessert option, so we had to try it.

The first layer was a mix of fresh blended strawberries with coconut milk, followed up with a soy milk whipped cream, a lot of fresh strawberries and another dollop of soy whipped cream – a real guilt free plant based pleasure.

The bill

Vegan cleanse salad  1178¥
Beetroot hummus  864¥
Fried sweet potato with rosemary  648¥
Strawberry bonbon  1944¥