We were travelling through Utsunomiya City in Tochigi Prefecture and were looking for a breakfast/brunch place. One of our friends recommended Musashinomori Coffee that was known for their coffee and fluffy pancakes. The place was located just north of Hachiman-yama Park in the northern part of the city.

The parking lot was pretty large and was a testament to Musashinomori Coffee’s popularity. The front of the building was beautiful and had a modern yet distinctly Japanese feel to it.

The interior was quite spacious with a nice variety of seating options. They had individual seats for people looking to study, all the way up to semi private rooms for larger parties. We really liked the vaulted ceilings and how open the space felt. The contrasting color combinations of the walls, ceiling, and flooring looked great. We were led to one of these nice semi private rooms.

Musashinomori Coffee Menu

The menu was quite extensive. They had a good selection of classic cafe/brunch foods like pasta and meat plates. There were also numerous cakes and plenty of fruit teas and other cafe drinks to choose from. We stuck to the seasonal menus and ordered a Nice Day set which came with a shrimp & avocado pasta in a salty lemon sauce, a side salad, drink, and their signature pancake with seasonal peaches. We also go the rib steak loco moco which came with a drink and pancake.

Musashinomori Coffee Food Review

Our food started to come out soon after. First to come out were the drinks. I’m a pretty big fan of matcha, so I decided to order a Matcha Latte. It was quite rich, there was a strong matcha taste, but it was quite creamy and not very bitter. It was delicious and very easy to drink. We also got our salad and soup that came with our set. The soup had good flavor, but the dressing was a little heavy.

Next to come out were the entrees. The lemon salt pasta was amazing. The tanginess of the lemon sauce, combined with creaminess of the avocado was absolutely delicious. It was our favorite by far. The shrimp and bacon were nice additions. The loco moco was tasty as well. The meat was cooked medium to medium rare and was smothered in a sweet teriyaki sauce. The egg was a bit overcooked, but the grilled vegetables and pineapple were a nice supplement.

Last, but not least were the pancakes. We were getting pretty full at this point and the pancakes almost put us over the edge. Fortunately for us, the fluffy pancakes were super light. Almost to the point that they were too light. We’ve had fluffy pancakes on multiple occasions and these we by far the lightest. The standard pancake absorbed the maple syrup nicely and had an almost souffle like texture. The seasonal peach pancake was delicious. The fresh peaches combined with with the sweet and tart sauces was wonderful. The gelato was a bit too tart, so we decided to eat it separately.

Final Thoughts

We really enjoyed the food at Musashinomori Coffee. The drinks were good, the entrees were filling, and the pancakes were delicious. We greatly appreciated the variety of set and course meals that were available to choose from. It gave us a lot of options and we were able to find one that suited our taste. Another thing that we liked was that they had a seasonal menu, which ensured that there will always be something new to try when we go back. If your looking for a brunch place with delicious food, then we highly recommend Musashinomori Coffee.

We later learned that the restaurant was part of a chain with some 70 locations located throughout Japan. We also learned that it is apart of the Skylark Group which owns over a dozen other restaurant brands and includes Gusto & Yumean among others. It’s crazy to think that we had never heard of this place until now. It just shows that there are so many great restaurants to try in Japan.

More to Come…

Here is a link to their website.