With its high ceiling, comfortable seating and impeccably cool soundtrack, Koe Lobby ticks all the right boxes. It only opened last month and already this buzzy cafe/bakery/restaurant/lounge space has become a magnet in Shibuya for both the hungry and the hip.
What sets Koe apart is its all-day dining. Early birds will like the baked goods and eggs at breakfast. Later on, there are good-value lunches of pasta, burgers, gratin and the like. In the evening, the kitchen rustles up a more extensive dining menu till late. And, at any time, you can drop in for a drink while you sit and surf the web.
The quality is good, but you¡¯d expect nothing less from executive chef Satoshi Kakegawa of Ata fame. Among the dishes that look set to become signatures are the Teriyaki Egg Burger ¡ª a perfect rendition of what U.S. celebrity chef David Chang might term ¡°Ugly Delicious¡± ¡ª and the light, revivifying ramen noodles, which come with a delicately red-tinged ajitama egg and a fluffy bao (steamed bun) on the side.
Look out, too, for the oozing-moist, two-bite morsels of French toast that appear fleetingly on the take-out counter and disappear equally fast. It¡¯s an impressive debut for what is actually, as the name proclaims, a hotel lobby ¡ª albeit one with lashings of style.
Breakfast from ?550, lunch from ?750, dinner a la carte; English menu; English spoken
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