Andersen

Name: Andersen
Type: Eat In / Take Out French / Japanese Bakery
Customer Service: 0120-348817



In Brief: With average coffees and the usual "French style" Japanese pastries, Andersen isn't exactly fine dining but it's very easy to find location in Ueno Station JR Exit makes it a great place to wait for friends who are new to Japan and don't know their way around before starting your day.

Review: I must have passed Andersen hundreds of times during my time in Japan and not once has it occured to me to give it a try. It looks rather cheap from the outside and the food, not that special. It wasn't until I was scouting for locations for SmokeFreeJapan that I decided to take a closer look and would you know it? There was a No Smoking sticker on the door!

The selection of pastries was actually more varied than I thought it would be, but unfortunately mostly in the sticky, sugary variety, so those on a diet looking for something healthy, might want to look elsewhere which really shouldn't be that much of a problem as it's obvious that while Andersen has seats and tables, it's main focus is takeaway and offering a quiet place to sit down for tour groups or, as previously mentioned, meeting a friend. It's wall size window offers a perfect view of the main JR Exit and ticket machines, so if you're waiting for a friend, they should be easy enough to see and visa versa. All you need to tell your friend is to meet you at the bakery opposite the ticket machines. Great for Ueno first timers.



Something worth noting is that, as with most bakeries in Japan, the pastries are uncovered. i.e. well within sneezing and coughing range of the public. However while I was there, they did seem to go through their pastries and bread quite quickly. I'm guessing the average exposure time would be about 20-40mins per batch. Not so bad. And it is 100% Smoke Free.