TOMO is a sophisticated Japanese tea house, hidden away in the rue Chabanais, located in Paris’ buzzing “quartier japonais“. The capital’s Japanese area is set inside a triangle formed by the avenue de l’Opéra, rue du Quatre Septembre and rue Richelieu. It is a dream-come-true if you love Japanese food and, as someone who has never travelled to Japan, it is where I got my first taste of authentic Japanese cuisine. Naturally, with a sweet tooth like mine, you’d expect me to stop for some Japanese sweet treats along the way… Yet, I have to admit that the idea of sweet red bean purée and glutinous rice paste didn’t really appeal to me initially… How wrong I was!

TOMO serve a variety of traditional Japanese pastries known as “wagashi” that you can take away or enjoy “sur place” with a cup of tea. Their best-sellers are the matcha and black sesame “daifuku“, which are filled with a beautiful ganache made using white chocolate, surrounded by a sweet and jammy red bean paste. Their signature pastry is the “dorayaki“, with a special range drawing inspiration from both France and Japan. Not very surprising, seeing as one of the chefs is French (but lives in Japan half of the year) and the other is Japanese (his family are renowned wagashi-pastry chefs!).

Together, they created TOMO to showcase the art of Japanese pastry. A difficult challenge in a country known for its “pâtisseries” but one that, in my mind, they have succeeded in!