The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps
Other than the desserts and music boxes, you can also find beautiful glassware in Otaru. Kitaichi Glass (“Kitaichi”) with a century-long history is the most famous and oldest place in Otaru to discover this glassy treasure. Kitaichi is the pioneer of Otaru glass when it began in 1901 with the manufacturing …
Other than the desserts and exquisite glassware, you can also find beautiful music boxes in Otaru. Otaru Music Box Museum is a must go place if you ever visit Otaru. Also, under the same umbrella of Orgel Doh Group, there are a few other places related to music box. …
As mentioned in my previous post of what to eat in Otaru, we stayed for a night at Dormy Inn Premium Otaru because we were making our way to Sapporo from Niseko. Hence we were able to start our day early at Sankaku Fish Market before the Sapporo crowd arrived. Yeap, most people come to Otaru as a day trip from Sapporo. :) In any case, this post is dedicated to those of you who have a sweet tooth. We didn’t manage to taste all the desserts in Otaru, but still had a sugar overdose that day. >.<
I have included photos of the shopfronts in this post to help you locate the restaurants. I too brought along such photos to recognise the shops! Otherwise, I would have more difficulties finding them by their Japanese signboards. Moreover Japan’s addresses can get confusing on Google map.
Use this map to locate the places to eat in Otaru as listed below. Zoom in at this high resolution map.
Rokkatei (六花亭) and Kitakaro (北菓楼) are two famous dessert and pastry shops in Hokkaido. You can be sure to find their shops and products around the prefecture. So, if you don’t want to buy and carry much stuff around Otaru, you can buy them in Sapporo or at New Chitose Airport. But we did see many people carrying big paper bags of goodies from these 2 shops.
These two shops are situated side by side along Sakaimachi Street as in the photo below. They’re just a short walk from Merchen intersection and Music Box Museum.
Btw, I love their architecture!
Rokkatei Otaru has a cafe on the 2nd floor, but by the time we reached Rokkatei we were quite full from the fresh seafood breakfast, Kamaei fishcake and Kitakaro’s cream puff. I read a review about Rokkatei’s cream puff tasting more like eclair and not as nice as Kitakaro’s, hence we skipped the puff at this stop.
On the first floor, you will find a range of food souvenir to buy home – from sweet to savory – in nicely wrapped gift box sets or in individual packs. We didn’t buy any because we decided to consolidate our orders from other brands at New Chitose Airport to hit the minimum amount for tax rebate.
Personally I think the desserts look so appealing at Kitakaro! We made Kitakaro our first stop at Sakaimachi street because someone blogged about the famous cream puff running out by early afternoon.
So we tried, and this no-preservatives cream puff was absolutely awesome!! It costs ¥180 (S$2.30). I was tempted to get another one, but told myself to save my stomach for other desserts. I missed another opportunity to eat it at New Chitose Airport because I was already full from lunch. :(
We also bought their strawberry mochi at ¥150 (S$1.90) and it was again yummy! On the other hand, we tried samples of its popular baumkuchen and decided it wasn’t for us. However, if you liked it, you can always buy a whole baumkuchen from their New Chitose Airport’s branch and carry back to Singapore.
We also sampled their green tea cookies that are similar to the famous Shiroi Koibito. The taste was quite interesting and nice, so we bought them at the airport to bring home. Other available flavours include vanilla and chocolate.
There are 6 LeTAO stores in Otaru, and 5 of which are along Sakaimachi street: 1) LeTAO PATHOS, 2) Cheese Cake Lab, 3) Plus, 4) le chocolat and 5) main store. Can you spot them?
LeTAO PATHOS is LeTAO’s largest store with confectionery products sold on the first floor and a cafe on the second floor. Here you get to enjoy their popular Double Fromage, crepes, other sweets and even pasta.
LeTAO Cheese Cake Lab offers a variety of cheesecakes, including Double Fromage and the store-exclusive Deu Fromage roll. There’s an open kitchen to look at how the pastry chefs made those delicious cakes.
LeTAO Plus sells their main products, including Double Fromage and Royal Montagne. According to their website, the soft serve parfait of Double Fromage and raspberry sauce is exclusive to this store. Other than this, you can consider their signature rich vanilla milk ice-cream and cheese soft serve using camembert cheese.
According to some, LeTAO served the best hokkaido ice cream. I think it would be so if we had tried their pure vanilla soft serve instead of the ¥420 (S$5.30) chocolate and vanilla soft serve twist at Le Chocolat. It was nice, but Yamanaka Dairy Farm’s ice cream had a stronger milk taste (more on that soon). But I must say, the chocolate in the ice cream satisfied the chocolate lover in me. Their hot chocolate is apparently recommended too.
LeTAO Le Chocolat is LeTAO’s chocolatier that offers many exclusive chocolate products made from premium ingredients. Every time we passed by a LeTAO shop, we were given a piece of chocolate, think Royce’s pyramid chocolate. They’re really generous with their samples! The chocolate we sampled was really nice, and hence we bought a box back to Singapore. Try all you want in Otaru, because there wasn’t any sample when I went to buy at their New Chitose Airport’s outlet.
p.s. LeTAO was originally a chocolate shop.
LeTAO Main Store is probably the original shop when they opened in Otaru in 1998. They have a cafe on the 2nd floor where you can try their Signature Double Fromage Cheesecake (ドゥーブルブルフロマージュ). We got the chocolate double fromage cake with a cup of tea for ¥864 (S$11). Instead of tea, you can also choose coffee or orange juice for the cake set.
So, what’s our verdict? It’s woooo lala! Okay, we were too busy enjoying the melting cake in our mouth to show any over the top reactions. But it’s so delicious we finished it in no time!! Too bad it’s so small. :( The tea also had a sweet aroma. I was tempted to buy the tea leaves which were sold sold in the store, but thinking of the many tea packets at home, I dropped the idea.
p.s. Do look out for their cake buffet that happens once a month (reservation required).
Don’t go just yet! Head up to the 3rd floor of the main store and enjoy a 360 degrees lookout of Sakaimachi’s landscape and surroundings. From this vantage point, you can observe the bustle at Merchen intersection.
After sharing an ice cream cone at LeTAO, hubby and I decided to share another cone at Yamanaka Dairy Farm’s ice cream store (山中牧場) (“Yamanaka”). Yamanaka is a famous ice cream shop that has outlets around Hokkaido. Otaru alone has two outlets.
Since Hokkaido is famous for its milk, how could I not eat the soft serve ice cream made from Hokkaido’s milk?! Moreover, what better way to try the milky ice cream than one made by a dairy farm! Of course, we ordered vanilla to fully enjoy the milky goodness.
At ¥270 (S$3.40), this ice cream is cheaper than LeTAO’s and the taste didn’t disappoint – it was thick and not diluted. It has a rich milk taste. LeTAO’s ice cream is nice because of the chocolate mix , but we prefer this. Even hubby who doesn’t like milk products prefer this! I’m shocked!
Amato is a long-established shop that’s patronised by Otaru residents for its Western confectioneries. This shop is not as well-known as other shops like Rokkatei and I regretted not visiting it. Because unlike those popular shops, this shop seems to have outlets only in Otaru. I’m not sure if it’s one or two outlet because the shop’s original location on the referenced map differs from that of their website, otaru-amato.com/amato.canal.html.
Based on online reviewers on the original AMATO, you can buy takeaway desserts at the 1st level or try “cream zenzai”, a red bean paste with ice cream dessert, at their cafe on the 2nd floor.
Another place for ice cream! This is a must go if you are up for some unique ice cream flavours like: sea urchin, rose, beer, Japanese sake, squid ink, etc. Try beer! It’s housed in a converted warehouse built in 1892, look out for the ice cream banner at 1-2-18 Ironai, Otaru, Hokkaido.
Have a great time savouring the desserts in Otaru! Now, if you are thinking of what to eat in Otaru for your meals, be inspired by “5 Places to Eat in Otaru (Hokkaido, Japan)“.
Coming from Niseko where we skied for the first time, we would pass through Otaru before reaching Sapporo. Otaru is usually a day trip from Sapporo, but since we were on the way, we stayed one night at Dormy Inn Premium Otaru. It was a good thing, because …
Whether you are skiing at Niseko (Hokkaido) or elsewhere, here are some useful pointers based on our skiing experience at Niseko. Simply skip the first part about ski rental if you’re not skiing at Niseko. It was our first time skiing and it was tiring but so fun! Moreover, …
Is it your first time skiing? Have you come across ski terms you don’t understand? Here’s a quick rundown that’s useful for first timers. I came across the last term often while researching for my FIRST ski trip.
p.s. You can always drop by another post if you want to know what to wear for the ski slopes. :)
Now, learn some lingo and ski away!
White Out: When visibility drops to almost nothing caused by heavy snowfall, fog, or both. We experienced this when we went up to higher grounds and totally freaked out! But the ski instructor, on the other hand, was excited. For her, this meant fresh tracks that’s smoother and nicer to ski on. With snow falling, the slope would not be seeing any ice and slush.
Herringbone [her-ing-bohn]: The herringbone is a method to go up a slope. The skier sets the skis in a V-shape, with the heels together, and pushes upwards in this formation, using poles for support. The steps leaves a herringbone or chevron pattern in the snow. This is one of the basics we learned at the beginning of our ski lesson.
Piste [peest]: A piste is a track or trail for skiing. It can also refer to a track made by a wild animal. The word is borrowed from French and ultimately can be traced back to the Latin pinsere meaning “to pound, crush.”
Backcountry: Known as off-piste. It’s away from the crowd and pisted motorways. This place is for experts only because it’s skiing and snowboarding at your own risk. However, it’s some of the best places to ski for the experts.
Hot-dog: Adventurous skiers and snowboarders hot-dog down the mountain. This means to perform unusual or intricate maneuvers in a sport, especially in a showy or boastful manner.
Yard sale: If someone fell spectacularly mid-slope, leaving your skis, poles, etc scattered in a trail of destruction behind you, then congratulations, you’ve hosted one. In skiing, this term refers to the site of such a crash.
Tuck: The tuck is a method used to maximize speed on the slopes. The skier goes into a crouched position and holds the poles close to the chest, extending them back under the arms and parallel to the ground. This lowers the center of gravity and thus boosting aerodynamic efficiency.
Après-ski [ah-prey-skee]: Yays! The time to rest after a day of skiing. Some people go for good food, drinks or a a cup of hot cocoa, dancing, live music, or swapping stories from the slopes with fellow skiers. For us, we went to soak in a hot onsen to relax our muscles! That’s one superb thing about skiing in Japan.
References from: dictionary.reference.com; www.skipeak.net/blog/the-modern-day-ski-lingo-language
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I’ve written two informative posts on how to layer your clothing for the different temperatures in winter: How To Layer Clothes for Winter? (Part 1) and Layering Clothes for Winter (Part 2). I’m sensitive to the cold, so what works for me should would for you too! …
If you’ve not been to cold countries and you’re thinking of how to start layering clothes for winter, you’ve come to the right place! And you must definitely read Part 1 and this post if you’re a Singaporean and a female. In Part 1, I shared important tips to fight the …