BENGALURU: In the bustling lanes of Residency Road, in a space that could pass off as a residence, lies a cafe where the city’s Oriental expat community heads to when they’re home sick. We make our way through the winding staircase wondering if we’re at the right place, until we reach the third floor, the entrance of Azuki cafe. Japanese dolls, chimes, hanging kimonos and a rack of green tea-- with a couple of tables where guests are having a quiet meal--puts our doubts to rest.
Quite apparent that the space is a home-turned-restaurant, Rie Goto, founder and managing director of Azuki café, has been running the cafe for the last two years. Her initial idea was to start offer only Japanese sweets, but within six months she found increasing number of customers wanting a quick bite, which is when she decided to expand her base. Four chefs, two of whom are Japanese, manage the kitchen where dishes such as Wagashi, a traditional Japanese confectionary often served with tea has been freshly prepared. Other popular dishes include Dorayaki (a sandwich of Azuki bean paste filled between two small pan cakes and a favourite of popular Japanese anime character Doraemon),Tachi bana (a pastry stuffed with creamy white bean paste Kimi and egg yolk), Japanese-style parfait ( made of a scoop of matcha ice cream, scoop of sweet azuki bean paste, piece of warabi mochi and a slice of anko paste and topped with matcha powder). “We supply traditional sweets to a number of Japanese hotel here. We often get bulk orders ( sometimes upto 500 pieces) for Dorayaki from the Japanese and Korean communities,” Goto says, adding that all the ingredients, including the azuki beans and rice powder are brought in from Japan. “For a while, we did try to use rajma in place of azuki beans and a couple of other daals. But somehow it didn’t taste the same. I even tried cultivating some of the crops in Ooty and Manali but somehow the climatic conditions didn’t suit the crop requirements”
Interestingly, Goto claims that over 70 per cent of the customers are Indian, one of the reasons they are adding to their vegetarian menu. “Japanese who frequent the place come here for home food. We don’t have such strong stomachs for the masalas that go into Indian food,” she says with a laugh.
While it’s evident that the place has gained prominence through word-of-mouth recommendations, Goto – a nurse-turned-travel guide and now entrepreneur, who first moved to India in the ’80s – agrees that their online presence is mostly on restaurant search platforms. “Right now, we can accommodate around 30 guests, whom we seat on another floor when the crowd is large especially during the weekends. But with a growing number of people getting to know the place, we are planning to move to a location close-by which can host upto 90 people. That’s probably going to happen in the next three months,” says Goto, pointing out that their timings between 11am and 7pm (with last being at 6.30pm) hinders them from catering to a larger crowd, many of whom are keen to try Sake.