Murata's Cafe Hana (8) $

Café Hana is located in Kintetsu Restaurant Mall. Amid the other traditional Japanese restaurants, but is more of a delicatessen than a restaurant. I stopped on this occasion just to have desert after a couple hours of shopping. The case line was filled with beautiful tempting treats like, mango mousse, chocolate éclairs, Swedish princess cake, black forest cake, and fruit tarts.

My husband and I decided to share a chocolate raspberry mousse. (I am not usually a fan of mouse of any flavor but I tolerate chocolate the most). I am happy to announce that I was pleasantly surprised. The mousse was very rich, but not too sweet. It had a smooth light texture, but did not taste frothy. The garnish raspberry was fresh, and the chocolate leaf was made of a sweetened dark chocolate. Half way through we found the raspberry mouse filling. This mousse, like the chocolate, was light and not too sweet. It was almost fresh tasting.

The only down side was that I was unprepared to like it so much and I ended up eating more of it than I had anticipated. I had to send Kris back to buy a glass of milk to go with it.

Café Hana receives a 6 (out of 10) on the atmosphere rating. It has quite a few tables all surrounding a large rock indoor fountain and part of the café is actually a florist giving it that garden café feeling.

Price wise; it was very average for the kind of drinks, chocolates and pastries you would buy at any other delicatessen or coffee house. I give it a $ because the dessert was big enough and rich enough to share and we could also have bought a drink each for under $20.

For taste and quality I give the chocolate raspberry mouse a 7, because it was pleasant, light, sweet and fresh, but I would not make a special trip just to have dessert there.

Over all I give Café Hana a 8. Though the food was very good, the cafe has a cute atmosphere and the price was very competitive it is a very small café, with a very limited menu. Its not a place to stop for a meal.

Other places of note in the Kintetsu Restaurant Mall:

Nippon-ya. Its not really a delicatessen or a café but they do sell mochi and other imported candies. Each product is carefully displayed and is explained in English for the inexperienced mochi shopper. My favorite is the pineapple chews wrapped in edible rice paper wrappers.