Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on August 2010

Courtesy of Partycompany Inc.

We wouldn’t normally review a place so soon after it opened, but then we were pretty excited about On the Corner. There’s a simple reason for that: it had “dream brunch spot” written all over it. The restaurant is decked out like the sleekest diner you’ve never been to, with whitewash walls and black booth seating. What’s more, the premises are shared by No. 8, a Shibuya outpost of Shimokitazawa’s Bear Pond Espresso—as in the best coffee shop in the capital.

Bear Pond regulars should note that the drinks menu is more limited here: it took Katsu Tanaka a decade to perfect his espresso, and the younger guy working the machine at No. 8 clearly has a few more years to go. Still, he makes an excellent latte (¥370), which we took through to the main room and washed down with a plate of fried egg, toast and creamed spinach (¥650). The larger Power Breakfast (¥1,000)—a casserole dish loaded with bacon, sausage, tomato, potatoes, mushrooms, eggs and cheese—is the way to go if you need a stodgier start to your day, and the pancakes (¥650) also looked promising.

But if it’s darn good for breakfast, On the Corner morphs into a decidedly more average cafe as the day goes on. While the food menu is bilingual, there’s little else to distinguish it from what you’d find in any other fashionable hangout in the area: pasta, curry and sandwiches at lunch, haphazardly priced “international” cuisine in the evenings. Dean & Deluca it ain’t. Plus points for the mojitos (¥800-¥1,000) and commendably al dente pasta (¥900-¥950); minus points for the worst falafel we’ve had in Tokyo (¥800). Given that No. 8 is only open until 6pm, too, this is one place that’s best visited early.