Boulanger Artisan Terra Setagaya Koen Patissier in Tokyo, Japan

Station: Sangenjaya
Train Line: Denentoshin

Features: 100% no smoking
Menu Language: Japanese

Address: 世田谷区下馬2-44-11 アルティザン・テラ
Setagaya Ku, Shimouma 2-44-11 Artisan Terra

Phone Number: 03 5787 8850
Online: www.Laterra.com (Japanese) + @LaterreStaff

Map: View on GoogleMaps
Directions: Boulanger Artisan Terra Setagaya Koen Patissier (which I’ll just refer to as “Artisan Terra” from now on) is about a 10 minute walk from Sangenjaya Station. Head out of the South-East Exit (南東口) and walk up the stairs to the street level.

There is a major road called Tamagawa Dori. Once you’re on street level turn right and walk along this major road. You should walk past a Mos Burger restaurant on your right hand side within a minute of walking if you’re going in the correct direction.

After Mos Burger you should pass a small street also on you’re right and after that a Family Mart convenience store. You’ll then walk past another small street on your right before getting to a major intersection. Turn right at this intersection and walk down this road.

Artisan Terra is directly down this road just after the second side street on your right.

At first glance, Artisan Terra (it’s full name most possibly being the longest business name I’ve seen in Japan yet) appears to be just a small pastry shop filled to the brim with overpriced pre-packaged cakes and sweets gift sets. It wasn’t until I checked it out on a whim did I see that it also doubles as a cafe with it’s own separate cafe area though it becomes quite obvious very quickly that the main focus of Artisan Terra is in manufacturing and selling their gift pastries and not on offering an impressive cafe experience.

I had to double check that it was indeed a cafe and after they confirmed that it was it took me several minutes before I had to ask the staff where I should order from and then another few minutes of looking desperately for any kind of menu to order from before asking where that was as well.

Eventually I settled on a genuinely interesting (and delicious!) macha, strawberry and chocolate cake which was very well made and really impressed. The tea however was a bit of a mixed bag though. While I really enjoyed the lemon ginger tea and thought it was presented well in it’s own glass pot to fuse, I quickly realised that it and the majority of the other teas on the menu were just taken from the imported teas that they sell which come in boxes of twenty teabags for under 1000 yen. Still tastes great but expected something a bit more authentic with greater value considering how much emphasis the staff seem to be putting on the value of their brand.

By no way did I have a negative experience at Artisan Terra though. The place was very quiet and the food at least was well worth trying both for the taste and novelty of trying something a little out of the ordinary. The cafe though seems like more of an afterthought with very little thought put into offering a user-friendly and welcoming experience for the customer. Nice for something different though I’m not sure if I would drop by again if I was in the area.