After several years of stalled openings, TSUJIRI is finally open in Richmond! I’ve been looking forward to trying this place out for so long, that Trudy and I made reservations as soon as they were available. We made our reservation about three weeks in advance, but note that they are pretty much booked until May at this point!
There are two options on OpenTable for reservations – Tsujiri Patisserie where they serve their Japanese-style high tea and Tsujiri Soba Bar which serves their exclusive soba menu.
The space itself is quite small. There are only four tables in the Soba Bar and a high top that seats six for the Patisserie side. They have a few tables near the front that’s first come, first serve.
The mochi skin was the thinnest and silkiest mochi I’ve had outside of Japan. The craftsmanship of this was excellent. The daifuku was stuffed with a light matcha whipped cream with red beans throughout. It wasn’t too sweet and was very airy tasting. The kinako had a similar preparation, but was lighter in taste.
This was a pretty standard cake slice in my opinion. It was the least special of all the desserts that we ordered. It tasted like a cake you could get at any Asian bakery. The sponge was a bit dry, and there wasn’t a whole lot of flavour to this cake. I would not get this again or recommend it (there’s so much more other delicious things to eat!)
This was such a refreshing dessert! The syrup wasn’t too sweet and didn’t overpower the ice cream on top. With this dessert you have the option of matcha soft serve, hojicha soft serve or twist. We went with the twist and it was a great decision (in my opinion!) The hojicha soft serve was so creamy with a deep roasted flavour and went well with all the components of this dessert.
What an absolutely beautiful dessert. The pink contrasts beautifully with the dark matcha green and everything in this parfait was perfectly balanced. The “surprise” is a sakuramochi (桜餅) which is a Japanese sweet consisting of sweet pink-colored mochi with a red bean paste center, wrapped in a pickled sakura leaf.
Overall I had an excellent time at Tsujiri! The service was very friendly, and because we made a reservation we did not have to queue. We throughly enjoyed our desserts and we cannot wait to be back!