6. Softserve

Have you seen the instagramable multicolour softserve on a cone? You can get yours at Daily Chico! There are a total of eight flavours to choose from – Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry, Coffee Milk, Sesame, Sweet Potato, Green Tea and Soda Pop. Besides choosing the flavours, you could also decide if you want it in single flavour (small), with two to four flavours (medium) or have it all eight flavours (large). Overall, the flavours were not very distinctive for me but you might enjoy this if you have a lighter palate.

Shiro-hige's Cream Puff Factory is for all the Studio Ghibli and Totoro fans out there. Its Totoro-shaped cream puffs flavours vary from seasons. We had Strawberry and Banana, which were both seasonal flavours. The choux was delicate and crisp, while the cream was velvety and thick. I would have finished the puffs if the drinks weren't too sweet though. If you are just having the cream puffs dine-in, it is compulsory to order minimum one drink per person. Otherwise, they cost lesser if you take-away as compared to dine-in.

11. Crepes

Harajuku is not only the place for all-things-hippest but also home to one of Japan's longest-running crêpe shop. That said, with about 4 crepe shops situated along Takeshita Street 竹下通り, you can’t leave Harajuku without having one crepe. I was spoilt for choices and just when I thought my woes are over after I have decided which stores to get my crepes, I was wrong…picking one flavour or fillings out of the hundreds is just as bad. I couldn’t recall what I got, but I’m pretty sure it is filled with strawberries!

12. Dango 団子

Another traditional Japanese sweet dumpling and is available all year round. The dango are often served skewered in threes or fours. They also come in different “toppings” or flavours, and as black sesame lover, I went with dango covered with black sesame for sure. Other favourite flavours include anko, soy flour and soy sauce syrup. Go with your first instinct, because there are simply too many flavours to choose from and you wouldn’t want to hog the queue.

Monaka Ice Crea from Tokyo's convenience stores

Matchaya 抹茶屋 was founded in 2015 when the dual, Kaelyn and Kevin took on a life-changing journey around Japan, in search for the finest ingredients from different prefectures and that story can be told through their signature teas. Besides the tea beverages, Matchaya also offer soft serve, swiss roll, macaron, toast as well as the latest product of tarts.

They started off with having pop-up stores around the island and now a physical store (takeaway counter) at Icon Village. A big congratulations on your success!! Support local C 

Since the houjicha soft serve was sold out the other day, (UPDATED below) We tried the Brulee Toast | $5.9 $6.7 which came in two spread – matcha and houjicha. Although it comes in only two choices but we were in a dilemma, and Kaelyn suggested to top up $0.8 to get both flavours on the toast instead. Our opinion was that the toast seems a little dry and was hoping for stronger tea flavours as well.


Updated! We managed to get hold of the last cup of Hojicha Soft Serve | $5.9 just before it's being rotated to Matcha, as it was requested by the public to have it and they brought it back for a week (stay tuned to what flavours Matchaya are serving that week on their Instagram account). The Hojicha soft serve were rich and it has the aromatic texture to it. I wouldn't say it your regular soft serve as this is really thick and can be too heavy for one, hence sharing is recommended.

They are churning out Goma soft serve now! Sadly, it was available only for a day on Sunday last week. I didn't get to try it though boohoo!

Next, we tried the Houjicha Roll | $4.9, a matcha sponge roll with houjicha cream filling. Indeed a brilliant idea to enjoy the best of both worlds, the cream was good but the led down was the matcha sponge which turns out to be drier than expected. It comes in Matcha Roll too; houjicha sponge roll with matcha cream filling.

Matchaya goes by the regime that all Japanese milk tea flavours are carefully and meticulously selected and gone through at least 100 taste-tests before soft launching to the public for feedback. Not only are they passionate in serving high quality Japanese milk teas, but they have ours health interest at heart as well, by using organic-certified, no preservatives and using minimal sugar in their teas.

Note: the soft serve flavours are on a rotating basis and they are currently only serving matcha soft serve. Those who wish to try houjicha, will have to wait :)