Mango Cafe, Ebisu マンゴカフェ、恵比寿

A sunny Sunday afternoon in recently chilly Tokyo and long-missed friends were visiting from the old country, sunny Sheffield to be precise. As they had their freshly unwrapped bonny boy with them an akachan friendly venue was the order of the day. 

Despite having my sights set on an extremely tempting, relatively new gyoza-ya near Ebisu station it turned out to be closed on Sundays.  At a loss, not being one for lunches generally (hard to excuse a liquid fixation at such an early hour in public and in the company of the young), I readily accepted one of our party’s suggestion to look for somewhere among the various restaurants housed within Ebisu station’s Atre building.

Having not investigated its interior much, save when sent on missions to purchase ladies' hair ornaments, the chance for a gander was no bad thing. In the end we chose Mango Café, a mainly Thai-themed Asian eatery offering reasonably comfortable surroundings, service – of a kind – and reasonably priced, if slowly delivered, lunches covering a decent range of food types from rice, curry and noodles to veggie and meat heavy dishes.

After much rearranging of tables to accommodate the bonny boy’s buggy (I want one… A buggy that is, not a bonny boy, yet…) we settled in, ordered drinks and scanned the menu.

Orders made, we got on with the business of the day – catching up. The food arrived and all looked delighted. All except myself, as my plate didn’t arrive until a good ten minutes after all the others, and only then because I inquired as to the reasons for the tardiness of its delivery.

Overall it was all tasty enough, came in respectable portions and didn’t offend the wallet – but then lunch rarely does in Tokyo. Mine was the Gay Yang BBQ Chicken Combo Plate, which although long in name, was short in the devouring.

Tel: 03-5475-8349