4/18/2013

Pizza Toast and Pudding Pancake at a retro coffee shop /
レトロなお店でピザトーストとプリンパンケーキ

I was reading a whole bunch of articles online and happened to find a webpage which shows decent pancake places in Tokyo.

As I was in Ginza area, I decided to go to "Coffee Shop Benisica (珈琲館 紅鹿舎)" near Hibiya station.
This coffee shop was founded in 1957 and around 1964, pizza was too expensive to afford for most of the consumers.
Then, Benisica created "pizza toast" with a hope that everyone would enjoy pizza at a low cost.
This is why Benisica is not only famous for its pancake but also it's the very first place where produced "pizza toast."
From outside, it looked pretty classy and old and inside, there's a glass showcase where all the successive mini milk pitchers were displayed.
And also, as it's a coffee shop, there're coffee grinders, too.
I heard they take time and serve you pretty decent coffee but neither of us drink coffee unless it's sweetened and added milk.
If they have cafe au lait, I'd try if I go back there.
I wanted to try the pizza toast but I ordered a "pudding pancake" since it's on the website and this is why I came here.
My husband ordered corned beef with cheese sandwich. (850 JPY)
Somehow my pancake was served faster than his sandwich.
(No photo of the sammie but I liked it. No mayo was used either!)

This is the pudding pancake with brown sugar syrup. (600 JPY)
White stuff on the top is the layer of vanilla ice cream.
From the top.
I thought the ice cream was thick but when I cut into half, I saw them piled up over a whole pudding on a pancake.
It was a regular pancake with a little bit hard pudding.
As there's a lot of sweet ice cream and brown sugar syrup, I couldn't taste much in the pancake.
It wasn't bad, yet I'm not sure if the pancake was really flavorful one.

To be honest, I wish it wasn't ice cream.
I think it'd be still tasty if there's less ice cream and served with whipped cream instead.
The pile of ice cream gave me a slight ice cream headache and made me really cold...
So I decided to take pizza toast after eating this pancake.

I asked a waitress for the pizza toast pointing at a handmade ad on the wall.
We waited for 5-10 minutes and it's brought to our table.
This is the pizza toast and pretty big. (800 JPY)
Here is my hand to imagine the size of the toast.
(FYI, my hand is larger than some girls.)
The bread was super soft and thick, maybe about 3cm (1inch) or more.
The topping was green pepper, mushroom, onion, and ham.
Over the melting cheese, parsley and paprika were sprinkled.

It was really hot and cheese was melted and when I pulled a piece, cheese was flowing.
Even though ham was cut into skinny pieces, I could smell and taste in the cheese.
Green pepper and onion were finely sliced but still had some nice texture.
Mushroom somehow reminded me retro coffee shops where they have napolitan, a Japanese-made ketchup-based spaghetti.
Not sure if they used a lot of pizza sauce or tomato-based sauce as it's hot, but thick cut bread (which was soft) and simple toppings went really well.

I'd like to try their baked pie next time!


Benisica / 珈琲館 紅鹿舎

1F, Matsui bldg.
1-6-8, Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
東京都千代田区有楽町1-6-8 松井ビル1F

Open: 9:30 AM ~ 11:30 PM
Open every day.

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