A few months back, I was scrolling through the Food for Tsukuba Residents group on Facebook and one post caught my eye. It was about a nice tropical looking café that served Costa Coffee. At the time of reading that post, I had no idea what Costa coffee was and neither did the wife. We were both curious to try it and wanted to check out the café. So during Golden Week we headed to Tsukuba to drink some coffee at the ChuChu Café.
ChuChu Café
The ChuChu Café is located near Doho Park in Ninomiya, Tsukuba. If you go by car, there is parking in front of the café but I believe there are only about four spaces. The outside of the café has a western style house design to it which looked nice.
The wife automatically loved this café. I can't count the times she said "かわいい" kawaii, which means cute, especially about the stuffed bear at the entrance.
Tropical Themed
Inside the café, everything had a kind of Hawaiian tropical them to it which was cool. We were the only ones in the café that day so the staff asked us if we wanted to sit at the table or the sofa area. We chose the sofa.
The sofa is kind of like a doubled edged sword. Sure, you are super comfortable and I highly recommend it if you are only drinking coffee. But if you are eating, you are going to have to sit up and bend down to reach your food and say goodbye to the comforts of the sofa back rest.
Costa Coffee Menu
"How is this Costa Coffee?" I kept wondering. Well, that day I was going to find out. The awesome thing about the Costa Coffee menu was that it was in Japanese and English. All the coffees looked enticing but then I saw the Cortado. Cortado or Cortadito, as we call it back in Miami, is what everyone drinks in my hometown. It runs in our veins and keeps us going during the work week. I was interested to give this Cortado a try, so I ordered it. The wife ordered the Iced Flat White. I had no idea what that was but we were going to drink it.
Food Menu
First off, I want to say that the food menu is more extensive than what this picture shows. The picture shows the lunch specials of the day we went. The A special is a tonkatsu sandwich lunch plate and the B special is a miso mayo chicken sauté and rice plate. There was another menu in the restaurant that had more options. There were about four different sandwiches to choose from if memory serves. I almost got the BLT but decided on the hot ham and cheese sandwich instead. The wife chose a French toast bacon plate that looked pretty good.
Cortado
It was judgement time. Impress me Costa Cortado. I took one sip of this Cortado and I was very happy with my coffee. I do want to make one thing clear, it comes nowhere near close to Miami's magical Cortadito, but it was good and I liked it. It was a bit thicker than your average Cortadito, but I found that difference to be nice. The coffee was strong which I liked but it needed a little sugar. I am glad I ordered this Costa Coffee and was thinking that I will probably try some of the other coffees on the menu.
Iced Flat White
I was in complete mystery about this coffee. I had no idea what it was and I had to Google it. Basically, it is an iced coffee with milk steamed from an expresso machine, or so Google tells me. I tried this Iced Flat White and found it to be pretty good. It had a good level of sweetness to it that was well balanced with the coffee. The wife loved it and commented that was should drink Costa Coffee more often. This coffee was not as strong as my Cortado, but it was good and the wife really enjoyed it.
Hot Sandwich
Finally, our food arrived. In front of me was my hot sandwich which looked delicious. I took one bite of this sandwich and after getting past the hot burning sensation in mouth, I found that I enjoyed the sandwich but I think the cheese is all wrong. I believe the cheese was mozzarella, which is fine, but another cheese like maybe cheddar might have improved this sandwich for the better. The mozzarella did enhance the flavor of the ham and ChuChu Café was not stingy with the ham. There was quite a good amount in there. The fries were good as well. But this sandwich really does need a different kind of cheese. I enjoyed my sandwich and thought it was good, but I most warn you to be careful when eating it. The wife took a bite and got a bit of fat from the ham which pulled out a huge piece of ham that fell onto her chin. It wasn't a nice warm sensation but more like a burning hot one according to her.
French Toast Plate
One thing I will say about ChuChu Café is they do French toast pretty well. It isn't the usual square sandwich loaf bread but instead a baguette bread. That weirded me out a first but I was still ready to try it. The wife gave me a piece of that French toast to try and I really liked it. It had that great French toast flavor that I love with sweet syrup on top. I then mixed a piece of French toast with a piece of egg and "bacon." (Yeah not crispy bacon, Canadian bacon, but at this point was I really supposed to expect crispy bacon) I highly recommend doing that mix. The saltiness of the bacon with the sweetness of the French toast was great. The small salad was a nice little addition to this meal but I don't think it really needs it.
Apple Caramel Waffle
This is the dessert that the wife really wanted to try. It came with banana slices, round apple slices, big pieces of waffle, vanilla ice cream and caramel. The waffles were really thick and delicious. I tried getting some ice cream, waffle, banana and apple in one spoon and failed the first time. Everything fell back on the plate. The second time though, I got it! It was an amazing mix of fruits and caramel. The wife really enjoyed this dessert and was hoping we could order it again on our next visit to the ChuChu Café in the future. But I believe this dessert is only available during the month of May. So get this delicious dessert now while you still can.
Affogato
Being that I love Affogatos, it was only inevitable that I would order this. It was also inevitable that I would make a video of the wife pouring that amazing expresso into that delicious looking vanilla ice cream. After the wife finished pouring that amazing smelling expresso into the ice cream, it was time to give it a try. I got a full spoon of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and expresso. It was heaven in a spoon. The strong expresso mixed with that sweet vanilla ice cream was a perfect way to end our meal.
After finishing all our delicious food and coffee, we thanked the staff at ChuChu Café and headed to Doho Park to take a stroll around the park and enjoy the rest of the day. All in all, ChuChu Café was a pleasant experience. Both the wife and I really enjoyed Costa coffee. I plan on trying everything else that is on the Costa Coffee menu. My sandwich was good, not great, but the French toast was great. The desserts were delicious and it was a nice relaxing café. I hope I can come back to this café soon and try their other sandwiches and coffee.
So, if you are in the Doho Park area in Tsukuba and are in the mood for some good Costa Coffee and delicious desserts, why not give ChuChu Café a shot. Who knows, you might see me there, enjoying a cup of Costa Coffee and most likely having the Affogato again.
Enjoy!
Special thanks to Carlos Guads for posting about ChuChu Café on the Food for Tsukuba Residents page o Facebook. Thanks for the recommendation!
For more information on ChuChu Café, check out their website;
By the way, this month there is an online Tsukuba Festival going on. The festival has a bunch of different recipes from many other countries on its website for you to try. Some of the food looks amazing and I might try to cook some of these recipes myself (even though I am a terrible cook). Check it out and learn about different cultures and cuisines.
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