A day of reckless shopping or just idling your time checking out the myriad options in the busy Shibuya streets, sooner or later you feel the need to rest a while, refuel yourself with some food and drinks and then start off with new vigor. Now one can do that in the usual way in one's favorite cafe or otherwise one may check out a new one and if you are in such a mood or just wondering where to while out your time while waiting for your friend or even better if you have a special friend along-with you already then the 'Shibuya City Lounge' is just the right place for you two. An upscale stylish modern cafe-lounge/library, it occupies a cozy corner at the 2nd floor of Loft Shibuya.
The Loft Shibuya in itself is a favorite with 7 floors full of stylish interiors, cute stationary, trendy kitchen gadgets and modern art&decor and this cafe located inside the premises blends in perfectly with its style, design and class. Done up in classy black-brown and bold reds, this place has a warm, welcoming feeling to it. The menu is bilingual and covers a wide range of selected burgers, pizzas, pasta, snacks and rice dishes within a price range of ¥300 - ¥1400. They have separate menus for lunch, dinner and for weekends.
One thing that stands out about this Cafe lounge is that it houses a mini-library with around 500 books to pick from, though I think most books were in Japanese and hobby-oriented. The whole place is WiFi enabled and power points are strategically placed at sofa-table sides. Now apart from the high-ceiling and glass walls, the plush comfy sofas and the trendy decor what really makes me recommend this place is its outstanding food. We ordered ourselves some 'Ethnic fried chicken with spicy garlic sauce', 'Shrimp and vegetables in spicy mayonnaise sauce', a cafe mocha and an 'Apple mint Soda'. That's it. And that was enough to know the culinary expertise of this place. The fried chicken was deliciously soft and juicy with hints of garlic and parsley. The Apple mint Soda came in a tall slender glass with the extract at the base while the rest of the glass filled with mini ice-cubes. The ice melted in to extract the flavor and the portions were so perfectly set that at the end there wasn't any ice or extract left behind and the drink was equally refreshing with each sip. Even the cafe mocha was just perfect with a stylish finishing touch. But what stole the show for us was the Shrimp and vegetables in spicy mayonnaise sauce. A crunchy fried-bread bowl (tasting similar to the Indian Bhature) held the luscious gravy and tender shrimps in place. The taste was a beautiful combination of mild spices and creamy gravy that gently plays around your taste-buds and simply melts in the mouth. We had had nothing this exotic before.
There are some places that are fun and you know what to expect and there are places where you expect to be surprised, to be pampered. The Shibuya City Lounge is one such place, where you pamper yourself, treating your taste buds to delectable delicacies, reading few random books, watching the raindrops pitter-pattering the high glass walls and simply enjoying the moment with a refreshing drink and your special friend.
