Le Café Michi - Excellent Japanese Food yet not too too pricey

Recently, I was recommended to try Le Café Michi by a few people when they found out I am a food-fanatic. So JT and I decided to give it a try as a special treat to ourselves. The trouble was finding the place. For such a well-known authentic Japanese café, its black and white faded store sign is hidden among convenience stores, fast food chains and small family eateries.

When we finally arrived at our destination, our stomachs were growling with hunger. Despite being situated in a run-down plaza, the decor constituted of white walls, carpet floors, mild lighting and a brick wall between the dining area and the counter. We quickly ordered the Café du Lait chirashi and Eel & Egg rice dinner combos. The Eel one was part of a list of a few dinner deals that include miso soup, a small salad, main entrée, coffee or green tea (apparently you usually have to pay for tea), and a slice of cake of your choice. The combo prices ranges from around $15 - $22. The chirashi was much more expensive, $32 including a cucumber and seaweed salad 中華沙拉, main entrée (the chirashi), coffee or green tea and a slice of cake as well.

There's pictures this time! Yay :) And to make-up for the picture-less posts below, I'll upload a ton in this post.



The eel arrived first, and to be honest, it was just alright. Egg & eel on a bed of Japanese rice. I found some bone in some eel :(.


Then the chirashi arrived, and JT and I were amazed.


The verdict: all the different fish/seafood pieces were very fresh and from good quality cuts. You can taste the difference between this and the cheap fish you get at AYCE Japanese Buffets. Additionally, with a variety like this of quality raw fish/seafood on a layer of Japanese rice with vinegar where you savour each bit of rice, it's well worth the price.

Craving for some sea urchin (umi), we also ordered two umi nigiri on the side ($4.95 each). Don't they just look SO GOOD? My mouth is salivating already.


A close-up shot:


All done! JT loves eating too :)


Next was dessert. We were one of the last ones out of the restaurant, so there weren't many choices left. We chose the Green Tea cake and Japanese Sake cake.






My green tea cake was filled with flavours of matcha, but I thought the colour green was a bit too fake. In between the soft layers of cake, there were red bean which you can see in the photo below. Although I hate the taste of red bean, I didn't want to let it go to waste so I forced myself to finish it off. It would be good if you like red bean but I liked the cake anyway since I love the flavour of matcha.


The lady at the counter said the Japanese Sake cake only had 1 shot of sake in the batter, so it shouldn't be too strong. I thought otherwise; one bite and it felt like I was drinking it. The cake was alright nonetheless, soft cake layers with sake cream.


You can purchase some cute kitty beanie toys too for $5:



The place:



Pricer than AYCE Japanese Buffet, but the food quality you're getting is well worth the price difference. Service is excellent; the waitresses are all Japanese so they do have a Japanese accent on their English but nothing you can't figure out if you ask them to repeat themselves. They also have a sushi bar at the back, but it's probably for more expensive dinners like omakase. What I liked most about this place was probably the small details, like the strong wasabi, the small cafe atmosphere, homemade desserts and that we didn't have to wait too long for the food either.