Restaurant Review: TSUJIRI
TSUJIRI 10173 109th Street | tsujiri.ca Instagram: @tsujiri_alberta Co-Diners: The E.A.T Crew
Did you know that our city has a Japanese matcha-infused restaurant where almost everything on the menu is tea-green and full of delightful matcha flavour? If you're a fan of matcha and green tea you need to drop everything and GO. Founded by Tsuji Riemon in Kyoto in 1860(!!!), this matcha specialty store has been around for 163 years. They probably know a thing or two about matcha, I'm guessing. Their mission is to bring the spirit of Japanese tea-drinking to all over the world and to do so with omotenashi (to wholeheartedly look after guests). Tsujiri was featured on the Edmonton Food Faves We Crave 2022 list in the Favourite Dessert category and I couldn't wait to get myself over there to try as many matchaful items as I could! Edmonton actually has two Tsujiri locations but the main, larger one is found Downtown. It has been open since 2018 and you'll find it in the bottom of a tall apartment building, near the very busy intersection of Jasper and 109th. The clear lettering that states "Japanese Tea House" will signal that you have found the right place. Inside, the look is very sleek and somewhat mysterious. The colour scheme is quite dark with black paint on most walls, accented by pale wood. There is also photography on the walls depicting the green tea process and a glass case full of treats to greet you as you enter the space. The whole restaurant seems to embody the Japanese spirit and esthetic very well, right down to the jazzy, easy-listening piano music. On my Saturday afternoon visit the staff members were friendly and did a great job of assisting us with our choices. After making a (fairly large) order we chose a table and settled in. I will say that it did take quite a while for anything to arrive at our table but I also didn't mind relaxing and waiting. The menu is quite extensive! Everything from matcha, teas, lattes, and floats. And those are just the drinks! You might be asking "what's the difference between matcha and green tea?" Because I was. It's the same type of tea plant, only the preparation is different. Matcha tea is made with the entire leaf ground into a powder and then mixed with water. It's richer, more intense, and more concentrated. For green tea, the dried leaves are steeped in hot water. This results in a grassy and more earthy flavour. Matcha is generally viewed as the more superior option, as it harnesses the superpowers (like antioxidants) of the tea better. The production of matcha involves steaming and drying the tea leaves and eventually grounding them into a finely milled powder. You've probably seen a chasen before - a bamboo matcha whisk - an integral part of preparing matcha. The chasen is used to mix the powder with water in a bowl. I very much wanted to try some straight-up actual matcha and of course Tsujiri provides several options. Yutaka Mukashi O-Matcha ($5.75) seemed like the absolute best option for a true experience.
Served hot or cold (I chose hot) the server explained that it would be served in a bowl to sip out of. It's not a latte. It's literally pure matcha powder mixed with water, and that's all. Yutaka Mukashi is the best type of matcha that Tsujiri has to offer (it costs $1 extra) and I was excited to delve into the height of matcha experiences (or at least as close as I could get). The large bowl felt comfortable to hold in my hands and the frothy, viridescent liquid was warm. The flavour was rich and robust with a balanced combination of umami, sweetness, and slight bitterness. It's quite intense and I would compare it to drinking black coffee. It's just straight matcha. Very enjoyable and the purest way to taste it. Tsujiri also serves houjicha (made by made by slowly roasting the tea leaves), sencha, genmaicha, yuzu, and black sesame. There are a variety of flavour options apart from matcha but everything does remain within the same sort of tea family. Of course there is a matcha latte available and you know that it's going to be way better than the ones served at the huge coffee chains. It's kind of like how a chai latte is way better at an actual Indian restaurant. Unique to the Downtown location, they serve actual food that you can eat as a meal. The best part is that the menu is tea-inspired and they do an amazing job of carrying the entire tea house experience into their meal sets. I opted for a fusion-style noodle set and went for the Hot Soba in Bonito Broth ($16.00).
Each meal is served with a green salad, tamago, and a shiratama brown sugar syrup dessert. The hot soba soup was light, flavourful, and delicious. I absolutely loved that the soba noodles are green (they're probably made with matcha, if I had to guess) which just shows how well they've maintained the theme. The bonito broth was really nice with a hefty serving of bonito flakes on top. It tasted almost like a more robust miso, very easy to enjoy. I really liked the accompaniments with the meal as well. The salad was simple but dressed with a tasty vinaigrette and there was even green tea on top. The tamago (Japanese omelette) was sweet and custard-like. As soon as I bit into a shiratama I said "oh! This is mochi!" and that's exactly what it is. Chewy soft balls of glutinous rice flour. Fun and easy to pop into your mouth, I liked the brown sugar syrup flavouring with it. I really enjoyed that there was an option to order an actual meal of food at this cafe and that they were able to keep it so tea-centric. Wonderful! Next it was time to get into some real matcha madness. Time to kick things up a notch!! Matcha soft serve ice cream is a huge deal in Japan - you can get it almost everywhere. So you know that Tsujiri is prepared to deliver the magic in a whole host of ways; from floats to parfaits to cones to shaved ice. There are floats where they essentially make a cold matcha latte and put ice cream on top. Like the O-Matcha Float ($7.50).
Tsujiri has many milk options available and they are happy to make any of their beverages with your milk of choice. They have 2%, 3%, soy, oat, or lactose free. I had my float made with whatever they regularly use. There was nothing not to love about it! Imagine a creamy, cold, and delicious matcha latte except with equally creamy and delicious matcha soft serve on top. My co-diners all said that this was their favourite thing and I get it. It's a lot of full-on matcha and it's very fun. Tsujiri also has houjicha soft serve as well and you can choose which type of ice cream you want - or get the best of both worlds and order a twist! But let's circle back to the parfaits, which in my opinion might be the most wonderful thing that Tsujiri makes. These are like sundaes that use soft serve and other ingredients to create a really exciting flavour journey. There are three to choose from and on my visit I went with the TSUJIRI Parfait ($7.00 with the purchase of a meal set).
This might've been my favourite thing only because it had a lot of exciting elements going on. The matcha soft serve ice cream, of course, was amazing. But then you get jelly mochi in there for some chew and roasted brown rice for a big crunch and the whole thing is basically a textural masterpiece. I really love the toasty flavour of genmai a lot and it was super fun that some of it had even "popped." You can't go wrong with this treat and if you're only going to order one thing, make it this. I can't wait to try the two other parfaits on the menu! Lastly, there was cake. The aforementioned glass case houses a whole bunch of little cakes and pastries, which include cheesecakes and daifuku. I went for the Matcha Black Sesame Mousse ($6.00).
What a delight! Spongy layers of matcha cake, velvety layers of mousse. Plus the ribbon of black sesame added a little switch in the flavour profile that was nice. It wasn't too sweet and I loved it. This little cake is the perfect accompaniment to a warm beverage and really felt like a quintessential Japanese cafe dessert.
I really, really enjoyed my visit to Tsujiri. Anyone who is a fan of matcha or Japanese culture in general will love this restaurant. I appreciated the various ways that they managed to highlight their feature ingredient and each one was unique and well-executed. It's a definite treat to have an establishment like this in our city and I look forward to my return. ありがとう
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