For those that are thinking about visiting Shiroi Koibito Park after my article about it here and are not quite sure yet, the menu might help sway you towards it. The Chocolate Lounge does not feature any main type food, the closet you can get is the tea set. As the lounge name suggests, it is focused on chocolate. However, there are a wide variety of sweet dishes and drinks that incorporate milk, dark and/or white chocolate.
Just before we dive into it though, I’d love to know, what’s your favourite hot chocolate? I usually go for dark varieties, but lately, I’ve been enjoying white hot chocolate! Let me know in the comments down below, and if you’ve been to the Shiroi Koibito Park Chocolate Lounge, I’d love to know what dishes and drinks you’ve tried and what you enjoyed most.
Getting to the Shiroi Koibito Park Chocolate Lounge
To get to the Chocolate Lounge, head to Shiroi Koibito Park by car, public transport, or take a tour. I’ve put detailed information on parking and public transport routes on my Shiroi Koibito Park blog post here. From the park, there are two ways to get into the Chocolate Lounge. The first is by taking the paid self-guided factory and museum tour. This is worth doing, but if you are short on time, you can also get to the Chocolate Lounge via the Tudor House entrance. It is located on level 4F. It is a bit confusing to go this way though. You have to take elevator 1 or 2 from the store on level 1F up to level 2F. From there you have to cross to the other end of the level and take elevator 3 or the stairs up to 4F. Fortunately, they do bring you out near the lounge.
Admission fees and other costs
Admission to the Chocolate Lounge is free, but there is, of course, your food and drink cost. Food and drink prices are all shown in the photos below of each menu, but on average they are pretty competitive and are comparable to what you might expect to pay at a typical cafe for similar items.
Opening hours
Shiroi Koibito Park and Ishiya Chocolate Factory are open every day from 9:00 am until 18:00 pm with the last admittance at 17:00pm. The Chocolate Lounge operates at this time as well.
The menu is mostly filled with parfait’s, to be honest. That said, there is an assortment of other sweet dishes and both hot and cold drinks. Don’t expect anything savoury though, this is literally a cafe for the sweet tooth!
The menu is provided in both Japanese and English. That said, very little English is spoken by the staff here (or at least when we were there), so if you don’t speak Japanese, have your pointing finger prepared to point at the items you want from the menu.
That is of course after you are seated. I mentioned in my main article on the Shiroi Koibito Park and Ishiya Chocolate Factory tour that there is a queue system in place when it is busy, and it was definitely busy when we were there. So plan your visit to take into account that you might have to wait a little while to be seated. First, you go up to the friendly greeter at the entrance and let them know how many people you need a table for. They will take you straight to your seat if there is one available, if not, they will write your name down and ask you to wait. There is a small number of seats available for waiting so be prepared to stand. Once a table is ready for you, they will call your name out or just come and get you.
Once you are in and seated, you get your menu’s, and a waiter or waitress will be around soon to take your order. Once they have it, service is very prompt, and I’m sure you will enjoy every bit of the food and drink they bring you!
The Promotional / Flagship Dish
Oddly enough, what appears to be the flagship dish on the Shiroi Koibito Park Chocolate Lounge menu is actually the Rich Melon Parfait. As far as I could work out, there is no chocolate in this except for white chocolate soft serve ice cream. It’s definitely one you would want to share, probably with a minimum of four people! This thing is enormous, and at about $20 Australian, it ought to be.
Hot Chocolate Menu
This is the real reason to visit the Chocolate Lounge while you are at Shiroi Koibito Park, the hot chocolate. We were here in spring, but if you are travelling in winter, I imagine this would be even better!
There is a choice of five different options, two milk chocolate, one dark chocolate and two white chocolate:
- Milk Chocolate Valrhona – French
Smells like milk and rich caramel but with a slightly sour taste. - Milk Chocolate Felchlin – Swiss
Has a mild, smooth and milky flavour. - Dark Chocolate Valrhona – French
Smells like roasted nuts with a well-balanced cacao taste. - White Chocolate – Japan
Made with white couverture chocolate. - White Chocolate Valrhona – French
Delicate, smooth and lightly sweetened.
Wifey got the milk chocolate Felchlin, and I got the dark chocolate Valrhona.
They were both fantastic and very chocolatey.
You probably wouldn’t want to have more than one, especially if you also have a chocolate dish.
Other Hot Drinks
- Coffee
- Cafe au lait
- Cafe Cappuccino
- Espresso
- Caramel Macchiato
- Hot milk
- Tea – Straight, lemon or milk.
Cold Drinks
Surprisingly, there is only one ice chocolate in the cold drinks menu plus a cafe chocolate (which I believe is an iced mocha). Even so, I’d love to go back and try it. It has corn flakes in it! Your options in the cold department are:
- Iced coffee
- Iced cafe au lait
- Iced tea with lemon, milk or black
- Iced chocolate
- Cafe chocolat
- Orange juice
- Apple juice
- Coca-Cola
- Ginger Ale
Alcohol and Soft Serve Ice Cream Menu
It’s a little odd to have these two together if you ask me, but they are. I really wanted to try the mixed chocolate and white chocolate ice cream, but we opted to share a parfait instead, and in hindsight, the ice cream would have been too much on top of that!
Your alcohol choices are:
- Original wine
- Original cocktail
- Draft beer
- Black beer
- Chocolate milk with baileys (iced or hot)
And your soft serve ice cream options are:
- White chocolate
- Chocolate
- Chocolate and white chocolate mix
Chocolate Fondue
This is one of the dishes that the Shiroi Koibito Park Chocolate Lounge is known for, chocolate fondue. It’s not cheap though, and after seeing some other people have it, it’s definitely a sharing size. I bet the chocolate is delicious!
Tea Set
The Ishiya Original tea set is the only ‘meal’ on the menu (if you could call it that). It’s the set menu that the Chocolate Lounge is famous for. It gives you a sharing tea set for two that lets you try a variety of options from the menu including all of the Ishiya Chocolates:
- White Shiroi Koibito Cookie
- White roll cake
- White Baumkuchen “Tsumugi”
- Blueberry Mifuyu
- i-gateau
- White chocolate Shiroi Koibito soft serve ice cream
- Your choice of 2x hot or cold chocolate or coffee drinks from the menu.
Not sure what all of those things are?
Roll cakes are a favourite in Japan and are basically a jam and cream scroll, but with an enormous variety of other fillings and cake flavours. In this case, the emphasis is on white chocolate.
A Baumkuchen is a German cake that has rings like a tree trunk, and its name literally means tree cake. I’ve always wanted to try one but never actually have. The Tsumugi, or ‘Shiroi Baum’, is one of Ishiya’s specialities. Read about it on their website here.
The blueberry Mifuyu is the third dish that comes from Ishiya’s line up. It features a filling, blueberry in this set, layered with puff pastry in the same way as a mille-feuille or custard slice. It’s then coated in chocolate. Yuuuuum. You can also read more about it on the Ishiya website here.
Then of course, if by now, you don’t know, the Shiroi Koibito cookie is what Ishiya is most well known for, and is what Shiroi Koibito Park is named after. These cookies really are amazing. It’s no wonder they are so popular in Japan! They are a pair of langue de chat cookies with chocolate sandwiched between them. Somehow, the chocolate centre is almost fudgy. It’s also on the Ishiya website here.
Jumbo Parfait Menu
It would almost be wrong not to try one of these jumbo parfait’s, but they are gigantic, and you are going to need to share! There are two choices in this enormous size.
- Jumbo strawberry parfait
- Jumbo chocolate banana parfait
Parfait Menu
The standard parfait size is still pretty substantial and is shareable between two people as well. Two of these parfaits share the same flavours as their jumbo counterparts, but you also get one additional flavour to try.
- Chocolate parfait
- Strawberry parfait
- Caramel coffee parfait
Dessert Menu
Yes, there is a dessert menu, just in case you didn’t feel you had encountered quite enough desserts already. You have two options:
- White roll cake
- Shiroi Koibito parfait
So, if you are keen to try some more of the Ishiya sweets without going for the tea set, you can do so here. The Shiroi Koibito parfait contains Shiroi Koibito cookies and some Tsumugi white Baumkuchen.
Baumkuchen Menu
Just want to try Tsumugi, the white Baumkuchen? It turns out, you aren’t the only one. You have a choice of how you would like it:
- Tsumugi with your choice of whipped cream, chocolate sauce or caramel sauce.
- Tsumugi as above, but with coffee, tea or milk to go with it.
More parfaits anybody? The last page of the Chocolate Lounge menu is full of little parfaits you can choose from. Unlike the others which are all prepared fresh in parfait glasses, these small ones are pre-prepared and served in disposable plastic parfait glasses (not really a glass though if it’s plastic, is it a cup?). These particular parfaits are also available to take away with you so you can savour the amazingness later.
These are the smallest parfaits on the menu and are the perfect size for one. That said, two can still easily share these bad boys.
Your choices in this range are:
- Strawberry
- Gianduja chocolate
- Pudding alamode
- Double berry
- Grape and kiwi
- Chocolate and banana
- Mango pudding
- Tropical
Wifey and I shared the Gianduja chocolate, and we are glad we opted to share. It tasted great, but it’s so rich. There was also a little surprise in it that we weren’t expecting. Gianduja is chocolate that contains around 30% hazelnut paste, and that was awesome! However, there was also a coffee liqueur in the bottom section, which wifey really doesn’t like. So, something to be aware of if you are not into the coffee flavour.
Pros
- Their pricing is very competitive. Nothing seemed expensive or opportunistically priced.
- The drinks and dishes are excellent quality and taste fantastic.
- You get to feel a little bit luxurious, drinking from fancy mugs with gold-plating that cost more than $80 Australian each if you wish to take one home with you.
- It’s a lovely spot to chill out after taking the tour with some tasty goodies.
- The menu is written in English as well as Japanese.
- Quite easy to get to by car or public transport, and tour buses also stop here.
- Depending on your timing, you can enjoy watching the dancing robotic animals when their show comes on in the clock tower that is located directly opposite the large lounge windows.
Cons
- There can be queues to get a table, and there is not much seating for people who are waiting.
- It can also be hectic, making it quite loud.
- It can be a bit confusing to get to if you don’t take the factory and museum tour.
- Regardless of how you get there, it’s a fair way from parking by the time you navigate your way into the lounge.
- This isn’t exactly a con, but there are no savoury options, so don’t go there expecting a full cafe range. It’s just sweets.
Overall
The Shiroi Koibito Park Chocolate Lounge is a great little spot to unwind after doing the factory and museum tour, or even just to experience the sweets that have made Ishiya such a well-known chocolatier and cookie manufacturer in Japan. It can be bustling so be prepared to wait, but in my opinion, it’s worth waiting for. The sweets we tried are excellent, and just a little bit decadent (or a lot if you go the jumbo parfait route) and the chocolate drinks are delicious.
I probably wouldn’t make the trip out here just for the Chocolate Lounge, but if you are visiting Shiroi Koibito Park, doing the factory tour, or just staying nearby, then it is a worthwhile stop on your trip!
Hotels near the Shiroi Koibito Park Chocolate Lounge
There aren’t any hotels within walking distance of Shiroi Koibito Park. The closest ones are near JR stations, and there are some nearish to the Tozai subway line. For the most choice, I’d look towards the city centre near a Tozai subway station. The options below are the closest and within walking distance of a subway station.
You can also do a search for nearby hotels using the search box below.
Helpful links
- Shiroi Koibito Park official website (English)
- Shiroi Koibito Park restaurant information – On the Shiroi Koibito Park website (English)
Don’t forget
I’d love to hear what your favourite kind of hot chocolate is. Let me know down in the comments below. I’d also like to hear your thoughts on the Shiroi Koibito Park Chocolate Lounge if you have been here, and what your favourite dishes and drinks are.
First published on: Dec 3, 2017 @ 16:59
