Hanazono Saryo / 花園茶寮

A Japanese Sweets Cafe Owned By "Hanazono Manju," Japan's Priciest And Tastiest Shop

「日本一高い、日本一うまい」の看板がある花園饅頭のカフェ「花園茶寮」

Hanazono Manju, a Japanese confectionery shop, was founded in Tenpo 5 (A.D. 1834) in Kanazawa city, Ishikawa prefecture and the brand name was "Ishikawa-ya."

In Meiji 39 (1906), the third generation Yoichiro Ishikawa came to Tokyo and opened shops in Aoyama first and moved to Akasaka, but due to a fire in Showa 4 (1929), they all lost the shops and factory.

Next year, in 1930, the shop is moved to Shinjuku, where the current location is, and it's by the Hanazono Shrine so that they'd created a new product named "Hanazono Manju" and changed the company name into it.

They sold their manju (steamed bean-jam bun) about 2 times more expensive than other general manju thus, they advocated an advertising pitch with the line, "日本一高い、日本いちうまい” which means the most expensive and the tastiest in Japan.

And this phrase is on the headquarter building with big letters.

Since I moved to Shinjuku, I always wanted to try the priciest and yummiest confectionery in Japan so we finally tried this place today.

There's always flags in front of the shop while it's open and one of them is "ぬれ甘なっと (Nure Ama Natto)," which is sweetened azuki beans.

First floor, it's a shop so that you can buy the sweets.

When we got into the shop, we said we'd like to go to the Hanazono Saryo, the cafe's name, and she said we could go up the stairs.

On the 2nd floor, there're tables and chairs to enjoy Japanese sweets.

It was about 3:30PM and there're still enough seats so we took one by the window.

There's a menu book on the table and when we sat, a waitress brought us 2 wooden tray with a wet tissue, a paper napkin, cold barley tea, and their famous Nure Ama Natto as a complimentary snack.

This is a close shot of the sweetened azuki beans.

This is the menu.
One of the page had a notice that they don't have them currently so I took photos of other pages.

This is for summer only menu (June - September) and these are shaved ice.

I chose "Anmitsu" that is a Japanese dessert made of small cubes of agar jelly, fruits, sweet bean paste, and brown sugar syrup.

My husband got a shaved ice with strawberry syrup.
All the syrups they have is homemade.

While waiting, I took some photos of the tea salon.
There's a vaulted ceiling and a big lamp from the top ceiling.

And other lights are little but there're 2 big windows so it was bright enough.

This is my Anmitsu.

This is a little jar of brown sugar syrup.

As you can see, both the bowl and jar have same bird patterns.

There're several fruits; cherry, peach, pineapple, mikan (mandarin orange), and dried apricot.
Those 2 white cubes are called Gyu-hi, which is similar to Turkish delight.
Brown paste holding cherry is smooth sweet bean paste.

This is an agar jelly cube with azuki paste.

I couldn't see from the top but there're a lot of "Mitsumame," a type of bean which is famous used in this confectionery.

Dried apricot.

Mikan.

Matcha (green tea) flavored agar cube.

I thought this brown cube would have sweet bean paste flavor but it was actually brown sugar syrup flavored.

This bowl was small but also filling with all the agar cubes and sweet brown sugar syrup.
Maybe this bowl of Anmitsu was the most expensive one I've ever had in my life.

This is my husband's shaved ice.
Strawberry syrup was already poured over the ice.

The syrup was like jam as I could see seeds in it and it was sweet but sour like fresh strawberries.

On the right side of the entrance of the shop, there's Hanazono shrine and it's well-known for holding a festival for prosperous business so that there's a customized big bamboo rake sold at the festival.

And also there're paper lanterns with the salon's name on.

Anmitsu: 945 JPY
Shaved ice: 945 JPY

Hanazono Saryo / 花園茶寮
5-16-11, Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
東京都新宿区新宿5-16-11

Open: 
10:30 AM ~ 7:00 PM (Monday - Friday)
10:30 AM ~ 6:00 PM (Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays)
*Order stop is an hour before the closing time.