Day 104: Coffee Kings

After a bit of a slow start, I dragged myself out of bed and went to meet Kumraz in her local area, Gakugaidaigaku (I have so much trouble remembering the name of it!) for lunch. There is this little restaurant she was talking about the other day who tell you where everything in sourced from which sounded quite cool so we headed there for some much needed food and chats.

Lodge Bistro Saru is like a Japanese take on a log cabin in the Canadian woods (or so I imagine) and serves meat and fish dishes. I opted for the fish sandwich because I have this soft spot for fish between bread. Could it be from my childhood days where a Filet O'Fish was my favourite burger at Maccas?

It's not the prettiest of things, I know, but I enjoyed it. A healthy dose of pickles, salmon and mayo was exactly what I needed. Also, I don't hate those martini sandwich spikes either.

See, it's kind of lodge-y? 

I am Sophia and I approve the name of this apartment building.

After lunch Kumraz took me to this impressive cafe about a ten minute walk from the restaurant. Factory & Labo is set up in this huge warehouse-like space and is set over two floors with their coffee roastery taking up a big chunk of the space.

If you look at the top photo the baristas wear lab coats and when they are making the coffees, they put them on this section which lights up. Kumraz asked one of them what it was all about and he said that they were heat lamps set to keep the coffee at the perfect temperature while they were making it. Well, well...

Okay, so the coffees are anything but cheap here. I think my ice latte was about ¥700 or something. But I suppose nobody kicks you out if you've been there a while which meant we could chat for a goof hour or so on their comfy couches.

The serious coffee machine.

I'm amazed they can have this huge space for coffee in the middle of Tokyo. I really liked it here and if I can bare spending that much money on coffee again, I would definitely do it.

Kumraz then took me for some fresh made doughnuts. Now I am not one of those people that go crazy for doughnuts but this guys makes some gooooood doughnuts. 

His doughnuts were delicious (I loved the cinnamon ones) and you should definitely try the weekly special flavour he makes too. Apparently the owner (pictured) was a designer who decided to quit his job and open up a little doughnut shop. Good work, dear man!