Aoyama Cafe

My perception of this place is this: Owned by rich chinese people who make the price as high as there are still customers and minimize the cost for them to keep the restaurant going and make the profit as high as possible. The prices are pretty overpriced for the food and there was only one waitress on an afternoon. The customers had to keep waving her down for whatever they needed. The place is formal and for ladies with rich husbands who go there to chat. Their couches are ducted tape, too cheap to get that fixed.
Their pizza toasts are really good. I’m a fan of those, and everything else, especially the drinks, I don’t find it worth my money enough to order.

This fancy Japanese café with corian table tops, dark wood and faux leather padded booths and chairs temporarily transports me back to Tokyo. It is appropriately located in a plaza which has shops that sell high-​end watches, jewelry and offer foot massage services. A Rolls Royce pulls out of the parking lot as we walk up to their door.
Per
, siphon brewing consists of the following process: you dump coffee (freshly ground) in the top chamber, water in the bottom, and set it on the stove. The stove heats the water, causing pressure to force the liquid up into the top chamber, where it mixes with the grounds.
Kill the heat, and the lower chamber starts to cool, creating a vacuum down there. That sucks the water back down again, passing through a filter on the way. You end up with a smooth, delicate brew with little to no bitterness; certainly one of the best ways to draw out the flavors of an individual bean.
Bella orders a café au lait (charcoal roasted coffee with hot milk) and I order a Colombian coffee. I visit the cake display case and decide on a lemon blueberry cake with a layer of mascarpone cheese inside. Bella orders a tuna melt pizza toast. You press a button at your table to page your server.
This siphoning method of brewing (see photo of the «chemistry beaker» they bring to your table) results in a superb cup of java. At first glance, my cake looks similar to a coffee crumb cake but the layer of mascarpone cheese adds a creamy texture. Powdered sugar is dusted on the outer edges of the plate. A lemon blueberry explosion occurs in the mouth instantaneously. Combined with the coffee I am in a gastric paradise.
The tuna melt pizza toast is served on Japanese bread and is very good with a soft and doughy crust. My Colombian coffee is medium in body, has above average acidity, is beyond smooth and possesses a beautiful aroma.
They serve their brew in ultra-​thin fine China (Japanese brand Noritake) which improves the taste as it rolls across your lips. It is similar to what occurs when you sip wine out of a thick wine glass versus an ultra-​thin one.
I add a 100% Kona coffee to finish the remainder of the cake. It is a medium roast, slightly sweet and even smoother than the Colombian coffee.
On my visit a week later I opted for the Kilimanjaro java and a piece of crème brulee cheesecake. The coffee is listed as a medium roast and medium intensity but it slurped up nearly my entire mini creamer pourer while making a minor dent in the brew’s color. It has a smoky aroma, a robust taste and with a little sugar in the raw it becomes very drinkable.
The cheesecake is a light lemon color with flecks of vanilla bean throughout. Caramel is drizzled in a zigzag pattern across the plate and a dusting of powdered sugar covers the edges as well. The texture is noticeably creamier than a traditional cheesecake which I’m guessing is to emulate a crème brulee dessert. The taste is delicious and the flavor is very crème brulee like.

Stopped in for lunch today. Was skeptical because nothing on the menu jumped out at me and it was 3 stars. I ordered the pork katsu and an iced tea. Be forewarned: no refills on the iced tea. Also, if you ask for water they will give it to you in a shooter glass which holds like 6 oz… maybe. On to the food, like I said I was skeptical and have my curry places that I like already. The katsu was on the smaller size, but it was breaded nicely and had a nice crunch to it. The pork itself however, wasn’t that great. You couldn’t cut it with your fork and had to struggled a little when putting the knife to it. It was rubbery, but tasted ok. The highlight was the sauce, it came with a single serving of potato, a little chunk of carrot and sliced almonds. Sliced almonds on curry? Turns out, it was very good. It was the perfect blend of spices and heat. I was very pleased.
The fiancé ordered the tuna pizza toast. I cringed when she ordered it, but when it got there I had to give it a try. Goodness. It was amazing. I never thought I would like it, but I ended up loving it. For some reason it just all went together. Genius.
We split a few desserts as well: the cinnamon sugar crêpe and the fruit harumaki. Both were excellent. The cinnamon crêpe was filled with vanilla ice cream and covered with cinnamon and caramel. I’m not a big crêpe guy, but it was very good. The harumaki was also good. It’s like a cheesecake filling inside of a crispy pastry thing and comes with fresh fruit: strawberries, blueberries, bananas, and canned pineapple. Thought they may get flack for using canned pineapple, I think I understand. Canned pineapple is much sweeter and candy like so it goes well with it.
All in all, a good experience.

Three stars is a pretty accurate rating, in my opinion.
I’ve been coming here since it was still UCC Café. Slightly pricier than most places in the the area. Food is okay to good. Nothing seriously amazing. On weekdays, the lunch sets are a good value, since it comes with coffee/​tea. HOWEVER, the service is not very good/​attentive, which is surprising considering how much time they take to lay down the utensils… one…by…one.
Today, I went with my mom and she got the Chicken Katsu Curry with Rice dinner set, and I got the Seafood Spaghetti in Light Tomato Soup. When we ordered, we asked for the katsu on the side because we didn’t want it already drenched in the curry sauce. We also asked for a glass of warm water. When the curry came, surprise surprise, it was in the rice, covered with curry — the opposite of what we asked, despite the fact that we saw the waitress WRITING IT DOWN. Warm water never came, I had to ask for it again from a different waiter. We also had a dessert that came with our meal, and the waiters never asked if we wanted it. We had to flag them down and ask for it.
Could not find the service button at our table, and I also noticed that the number sign in the back was gone. It used to be on the wall, near where the baristas made their coffee. HMMMM… maybe that explains it.
Overall, good ambience, decent food, inattentive service. Good if you’re not in a rush and you’re patient enough to not mind asking for things more than once.

Fusion Café
clean design, romantic ambiance, wifi, prices vary from reasonable to pricey, menu includes hot/​cold beverages, large menu includes pastas, noodle soups, salads, rice dishes, desserts, etc, service button, parking lot

I dont really understand why this place has so little stars. Albeit the service is very slow but aside from that I’d say this place is a nice little spot to catch up with an old friend — especially if you’re not in a rush. I was there one afternoon into the evening and didn’t feel pressured to leave or pay or anything.
The food is good — I always order the hayashi and omelet. Its just an omelet with rice and the hayashi sauce (onions and then some). Its a good portion. The coffees here are also delicious — especially their iced coffee. If you’re stopping in just for coffee you should try their dessert as well!
Its honestly one of my favorite places in the area and has a good vibe to it.

i’m going to give this place a 3.5÷5 stars.
first of all, this restaurant is located in the middle of a jewelry mart. its surrounded with high end brand names that even jay –z couldn’t afford. so i thought to myself that this place would be super expensive. but to my surprise, it was decently priced.
they’re a bit pompous when it comes to their coffee. UCC is main supplier of their coffee and coffee needs, and they try to act like its the best coffee in the world. don’t get me wrong, its good. but for 4 – 5 bucks for a small cup of coffee, its a total rip and not worth the money.
the pizza infusions are a hit or a miss. the tuna pizza toast was just alright, but the veggy one was actually pretty tasty. its rare for the word healthy and pizza to go together, but i feel like this was healthy enough for justin bieber, so its good enough for me.
i ended up getting the seafood casserole. lots of cheese and a decent amount of seafood items. it was just meh for the price i paid. (you know that concert you go to, and it was just meh… but you are still glad you went, yeaaaa that kinda described this casserole.) i don’t know what the fuck i’m talking about.
The ice cream was just alright… it was more fun to look at then to eat. just like the mona lisa painting.

FAVORITE: tuna pizza toast!
their spaghettis are ok, they are usually a hit or a miss.
— salmon pasta: salmon didn’t taste too fresh
— unagi mushroom: pretty tasty
— chicken chili garlic: boo
— curry spaghetti soup: not bad and very interesting
their pizza toast is something that i almost always get when i go there, the flavor of it all is just really interesting! this comes at a decent price and definitely fills me up!
i hear their desserts are pretty good, i tried it a long time ago, but haven’t gotten it recently so i dont want to judge.
however the name of this place has changed a few times, but dont let that deceive you its still the same menu!

Nice interior, but everything else is not so nice.
Coffee is overpriced, small, and not good. Iced green tea was ok. The crepes with fruit and ice cream was a disappointment — THEY USE CANNED PINEAPPLE even though the picture shows a fresh pineapple. WTH? And the green tea ice cream did not taste like green tea ice cream; it was just sweet.
The service button was cool, but the service was still bad. They didn’t really check on us. We were there for three hours and no one bothered to take our dirty dishes out of the way.

Brunch on Sat, 2÷12÷11
My fiancé and I walked in and was seated promptly. The server was quite attentive in taking our order. The wait for the food wasn’t long. We usually order the hazelnut latte and then try something different on the menu.
Their coffee is quite tasty. We ordered the salmon and spinach spaghetti for $ 12.95 but it was a bit too fishy for me. On the next visit, we ordered from the dinner specials menu which is offered all day on the weekends for about $ 16. We had the chicken katsu over rice that comes with salad, coffee, and a dessert. The curry wasn’t too thick or spicy but the chicken had quite a layer of fried batter on it. It looks dry but it didn’t taste dry. We upgraded the dessert to «Cinnamon harumaki» and it was delicious. It’s like a Xango from Tokyo Shabu Shabu-​fried pastry filled with cheese served with ice cream and drizzled with caramel.
It has a nice ambiance and free internet. The service can be slow but it’s nice if you’re trying to enjoy your coffee and surf the net.

Only in America where you’ll find an Asian/​Western fusion restaurant, that has franchises mostly in the Philippines, that owned likely by a Chinese person, with Hispanic servers that serves coffee from Japanese manufacturer. Melting pot indeed.
Décor: Think IKEA. Modern interior, nice. Times must be tough though, they had to use masking taped to fix some of the torn booths.
Coffee: Is okay, a tad pricey.
Food: Is on par, a tad pricey.
Deserts: Looks great!
Bottom line: Nice place to hang out with your female friends.
Thumbs up~

Ahh~ I feed on atmosphere, and this place has it! Once upon a time, this café was UCC. I can say that the quality has deteriorated a bit after the change in management, though not enough to offend past the point where I’d never come back. Some dishes that I recommend is the spaghetti with sausage ham and mushroom. THAT is what I come here for! oh, and to suck up some of that atmosphere. It is a nice place to go and have a cup of coffee with a friend, though the coffee is a tiny expensive, and may not be worth what it’s priced. once again atmosphere, people

So we were looking for some really cool coffee shops and this place is it!
Friend took me here to try the ucc coffee… blue moutain. the best one that they had. It was super strong and I LOVED it.
We also ordered the salmon and spinach spaghetti… that was SO good! Reminded me of the pasta I used to eat in Japan. yummm!
We also got this breakfast scramble which was just… ok

Since we can’t give halves whatever I still wanna give the place 3.5, I have yet to come back here but man after living Japan, this is one café that comes closest to what I’ve had while living in Japan. I would come back here any day for their curry. Their tonkastu and curry were straight on point. If you’ve never had Japanese curry it’s more sweet and not as strong smelling as other curry like indian curry, but still has a little of that spicyness to it! I think I got really excited over the fact that it was straigh J café and their food was good, and o I had to mention they have PIZZA TOAST!
Exactly is what it sounds like, but it’s all texas toast. The place looks like a lounge café ++ on that, the food gets super ++++ yet they have really odd hours of operation because we went not knowing if they were open or not. :\ service was decent but I’d come back for the food.

over the months, aoyama has just gone «DOWN DOWN DOWN down down yeahhhh»
the service was always SLOW but what’s the point of those waiter summoning buttons on the table… IF IT DOESNT WORK WHEN YOU PUSH IT!.. ours worked in the beginning of our meal then seemed to do nothing after we got our food!
the water cups are TOO SMALL and getting a refill is so difficult
the food isn’t AS great anymore! the eel rice i used to love so much has become a heap of HALF CHEESE and barely any of that curry rice i love! i suppose their food is still a 3 star. but w/​the hassle of all the other items. i’ll pass
it’s free WI FI but only the booth in the back corner has an outlet, and the seats in that booth are all taped up from over use!
oh why OH why

I’m giving Aoyama a 3 star rating to start out because I’ve been here a few times back when it was still UCC Café (and since it technically is a «new» place now, this review voids as separate from my UCC Café one). Now I don’t know if it’s just a change in management or if UCC has officially renamed their café chain, but either way, the menu is supposedly still exactly the same.
I’ve been to Aoyama 2 times at least since the place changed over and each experience was good. The first time I went was for lunch and I remember ordering the hamburger curry followed by a fruit crêpe for dessert. The hamburger curry was alright and the fruit crêpe was very tasty (didn’t finish it, though).
My second and most current visit was yesterday for a quick coffee and meet up with a friend. I’ve ordered their UCC Iced Coffee before so this time I spontaneously ordered the Chestnut Coffee. I have to say that either I’m not as experienced a coffee drinker as I seem to be or the coffee here is nothing special, almost flavorless, should I say. Now keep in mind that unfortunately at only 21 years old, I’m a hopeless coffee addict. I live off cheap Korean 3-​in-​1 powder mixes (1 to 3 cups a day) and I’m too lazy to spend money on a plain coffee maker or a flashy coffee machine. Maybe my tongue is too used to overly sweet/​flavored coffee? It was like that when I went to Europe this summer (all the cappuccinos and coffees tasted bitter as hell to me). I’m guessing I’m just not used to what REAL, true coffee should be like. I know UCC is hailed as a great brand, so maybe I need to be drinking more legit coffee. So as far as the coffee goes, I probably need to come to Aoyama more to give a better review of the coffee.
Service wise, this place is ok. I feel either I always come on Sundays or there’s always the same guy working. I don’t want to complain about service because the guy working is always rushing back and forth. Also, the ring bells located at each table make me feel bad for him. I’d hate to be busy as hell, then have people RINGING BELLS at me. I never use the bell and try to use eye contact at the most, although the waiter misses me a few times. All is forgivable though, as the service ethic is very polite (typical of Japanese establishments).
Overall, I recommend this place to any coffee fanatic or anyone who wants an upscale coffee shop experience. It’s surprising to me that there aren’t more of these modern, designer like coffee places in the Diamond Bar and Rowland Heights area. Definitely a potential future business venture of mine. I know a lot of groups of adults like to frequent Aoyama Café, and groups of students like to pop in, too. The café is a great social spot, and the variety of coffees, desserts, and meals make the place ideal. Keep in mind that prices are a bit high (at least for coffee can be at $ 5/​cup), but this place is more upscale, so it’s expected.

Since this used to be UCC café, I was expecting superior quality coffee here. I ordered hazelnut coffee, chestnut coffee, and café au lait for $ 4.50 each! Pretty expensive, especially the small sized cup we received. I think they were about 8 oz cups.
The coffee tasted silky smooth, yet bland and a bit watery. The silky texture felt weird for my taste buds for coffee and it didn’t have a nice aroma or weight to the flavor. Their coffees seems like they are catered to people with a specific taste, but that wouldn’t be me.

I was sad when my Aoyama café at Gardena Marukai was closed… then Nick H found this place. Thank you Nick H.
I grabbed my laptop there to Unilocal while I enjoy my kiwi juice. The place was crowded. It was hard finding a table. I guess it’s a pretty popular place. It was hard to find a table with a plug.
Free wi-fi…what free wi-​fi? I was having a problem trying to login. even one hour after.
The Kiwi juice wasn’t as good and fresh as Gardena location. Clean restroom.
Aoyama Café is kinda yummylicious but seriously… fix the wi-​fi please.

I had the coffee here… the best siphon Blue Mountain that they had. It was bitter and burnt. The taste just was awful. Among all the blue mountain I’ve had (japan, HK, different parts of the US)… this is probably the worse I’ve ever had. The Blue Mountain Siphon at Fresh Roast in San Gabriel is MUCH, MUCH better.

*** Fresh Kiwi Juice! **Fresh Kiwi Juice! **Fresh Kiwi Juice***
Duck Duck Goose. get me some kiwi juice!
Fresh and green, No caffeine!
5 Star Kiwi Juice. I don’t care about the rest of the stuff here. Just the Kiwi Juice.
Did I mention Fresh Kiwi Juice?
~ Parking. You can enter from the back. The rear gate opens.