Japanese Breakfast at Ajitoya

Ajitoya is Japanese cafe/deli/eatery run by a lovely couple, Adam and Maya who welcome you as if they are inviting you into their home. They’re so darn friendly it’s hard to not give them a little hug as you walk in the door The thing that stands out the most about Adam and Maya is their love of the food they’re serving and their eagerness to make authentic Japanese dishes that will please their customers.

I was very excited to see on their facebook page that as of this weekend they were starting to open on weekends for breakfast. We’d been to Ajitoya for dinner a few months ago and it was just delightful so I could only imagine how wonderful the breakfast would be. I’ve always wanted to try a savoury Japanese breakfast so I was waiting impatiently all week for Saturday to come around to give it a go.

The menu covers are so beautiful!

It was a lovely rainy morning so we had a little sleep in and arrived ready for breakfast at 9am. We chose a seat along the window, taking advantage of the weekend newspapers available to read and ordered a few drinks to start.

Adrian enjoying the newspapers and the rainy morning

Adrian was super excited that they were serving a Japanese pour over using coffee from the sensory lab. The flavour was apparently lovely and fruity with no bitterness and ended up matching rather well with his food. The ever friendly Adam came over at this point and had a chat with us about the coffee, it was so nice to see him as excited about it all as Adrian was. He explained that the sugar they provided was a Colombian dried whole sugar cane, it was pretty darn awesome.

Pour over sensory lab coffee, Japanese tea and Colombian sugar (I loved the little wooden spoon!)

I ordered a Japanese tea and it hit the ‘it’s-a-rainy-morning’ spot! I love the mug you get with the tea, you just want to hug it with your hands and not put it down

Now, to make the decision on what to eat. Last time we visited they were more than happy to abide my egg yolk allergy and pescetarian fussiness and gave me a thorough run down on menu items suitable for me. Again, this morning they were just as kind to offer alternatives to the omelette that was offered as a side to a few of the options.

Adrian chose the Japanese Style Breakfast #1: 2 Onigiri rice balls of your choice (pickled plum and bonito / takana pickles / miso marinated salmon / bonito with wasabi mayo) + miso soup + Japanese omelette and one side dish of the day.

Japanese Style Breakfast #1

Adrian’s onigiri choices were the pickled plum and the salmon and his side dish of the day was a cold soba noodle salad. The only time I’ve had onigiri before they’ve been a little on the stodgy side so I was so happy that these were light yet filling and the flavour was spot on. The omelette was apparently the best Adrian had ever eaten, he described it as super fluffy, full of flavour and delicious.

I chose the Japanese Style Breakfast #2: Grilled salmon + rice + miso soup + Japanese omelette (in its place I was given a green salad with ginger dressing) and one side dish of the day (the cold soba as described above).

Japanese Style Breakfast #2

SALMON FOR BREAKFAST = HEAVEN!! Although I would have preferred the salmon to be a little more rare, the flavour was perfect and it was a nice surprise to discover it was laced with a lovely soy dressing. The miso soup was also surprising, it was a little sweeter than any I’d had in the past and had some nice additions like cabbage and small pieces of plump potato. It was the perfect breakfast miso soup  :-)

We both felt the servings were rather large for breakfast, we were pretty full by the end of the meal and it was actually tempting to go back home for a sleep! This aside, we weren’t bothered as it was all so lovely and we’d intended for it to be a bit of a treat anyway.

This experience completely lived up to my Japanese breakfast expectations! Each individual dish had so much care put into its creation and the atmosphere was really friendly and relaxing

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