You have a date today or tonight, but you have no idea where to take your date. You don't want to take your date to the local Saizeria, that is a family restaurant, not romantic at all. You want to take your date to someplace romantic, some place she or he will be awed and think this place is really "kawaii." Some place where the food is French and fancy. Some place that looks like it came from an old fairy tale. Where is this romantic place you are writing about in Ibaraki you ask? Well my friend, no need to worry, I got you covered. Head on down to the Doho Park area in Tsukuba and take your date to a romantic lunch or dinner at Agato. This restaurant will be sure to light the mood.
Agato is a really nice place as you can see. When you walk into the outside garden area of the restaurant, you are surrounded by plants and flowers. You and your date have the option of eating inside or if it is available, eating in the outside garden area. If the weather is nice, I highly recommend eating outside. The last time I went with my wife, we chose to eat in the outside area and found it very pleasant. It was a beautiful day and the birds were chirping around us. I was on edge a few times though because one or two bees were buzzing around where we were sitting. But they didn't really bother us. I do recommend bringing mosquito repellent during the summer. They ate me alive while we were sitting outside. I do not know what it is about my blood but mosquitoes love it.
The classic set
The menu is mainly crepes, galette style. You could order the galettes by themselves and the dessert crepes by themselves as well, but I went for the sets. The galettes by themselves could be a little pricey. There were three types of sets when I went. The classic set, the A set and the B set. The classic set comes with a drink, the crepe and dessert.
A and B set
The A and B set comes with the soup of the day, the galette of the day, dessert and a drink. For my non-Japanese speakers, sorry to say that the menu was mainly in Japanese. I really didn't see an English menu. There were some parts of the menu that had English but not an explanation of the food. The staff were also mainly speaking Japanese. That day, my wife ordered the A set and I ordered the classic set. So we sat and waited while enjoying the romantic scenery around us.
Lunch menu
I also wanted to post the lunch menu to show you a price comparison. As you can see, it is a little cheaper and you would get the same food as the dinner menu. But the difference is the A set doesn't come with soup during lunch time.
Back to my romantic dinner.
My wife and I started with our drinks. I ordered iced chamomile tea and my wife got a kind of mixed berry drink. I liked my tea but out of both of our drinks, hers was really good. I highly recommend ordering that berry drink. It was sweet and refreshing. A perfect drink on a nice warm evening. I actually considered ordering one for myself but I stuck to my chamomile.
Pea soup
Next came the soup of the day. This was my wife's soup since her set comes with soup. The waitress informed us that it was pea soup. I thought, "pea soup, really? No way this is going to be good." Yeah, I was wrong about that. The soup was delightful. It was very creamy and cool, perfect for the warm weather we were experiencing. It tasted like peas of course but it wasn't a heavy flavor. Careful with the small red ball in the middle. I am not sure what it is, but it was a little spicy.
Ham an Cheese Galette
Then came our galettes. As I stated before, I ordered the classic which is a ham and cheese galette. It came with a little side of salad on top of the galette. I have to say that I really did enjoy this galette. There was even a surprise in the cheese, big slices of tomatoes and a small poached egg. Mixing the salad with a piece of the crepe was a great combination. The cheese, the ham, the lettuce, the egg, the cheese, the tomato, the cheese. It was all so good. The actual crepe itself is a bit harder than usual dessert crepes but not by much. I really did enjoy it and hope to have it again soon. But then I looked over at my wife's galette and I became a bit jealous.
Salmon Galette
The salmon galette was wonderful. This galette came with salmon of course, cheese, radish, lettuce, a sort of white cream sauce and a nice little lemon to give it more flavor. I am not sure where Agato gets its salmon from but it tasted delicious and fresh. I actually thought they were catching the salmon in the back somewhere. Every piece of that galette was delightful. The cheese, salmon and white sauce together was a great combination. My wife really liked it and she was kind enough to share it with me. Out of the two crepes, I got to say, the salmon one was above it all.
Dessert time!
I was once again jealous of my wife's set. Her dessert was a rose flavored ice cream crepe with a peach yogurt. Since roses were in season at the time, this was the main dessert for June. It really did taste like roses and the crepe was so soft and delicious. The peach yogurt was also really good too. It had small slices of peaches on top of the yogurt and they went perfectly well with each other. Her dessert was excellent but that is not to say that mine wasn't.
My dessert was pretty simple but delicious. A soft tasty crepe with powered sugar, maple syrup and butter. Just the kind of dessert to have after this meal. It was very light and delicious.
Once we finished our meal we headed inside to pay and found that they have a lovely little flower and accessories shop by the door. They sold hair clips, bracelets, earrings and other accessories, I believe they were all hand made. They might make a great gift for your date!
Agato was a really nice experience and the food was great. The scenery is nice and everything about it says "romantic dinner or lunch." I do plan on going back and trying their other galettes, soups and desserts. I am always up for another romantic dinner with the wife.
Because of the current pandemic, Agato has had to shorten their hours. They are now open till 6:00 p.m. Hopefully, they can return to their normal hours soon. Another thing, parking around the Doho park area is usually in the pay to park parking lot at the entrance of Doho park, but Agato does have free parking. It is across the restaurant in a small shopping area. Look for the parking spots with the Agato sign on them. If you are worried about eating at the restaurant because of covid, Agato does do take out.
I hope you can stop by this charming crepe place with your date and have a magical evening or afternoon just like we did. And remember, if you eat outside during summer bring the mosquito spray, you will thank me. Who knows, you might see me there on another date with the wife, jealously eyeing her galette.
Enjoy!
For more information on Agato check out their Facebook page:
Phone number: 029-896-8889
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