Roll Ice Cream Factory (ロールアイスクリームファクトリー) in Nagoya, Aichi

I am not surprised to see the massive, growing popularity of roll ice cream all around Japan. Essentially, it is an ice cream dessert made by super-cooling creamy dairy products over a pan and scraping them off into little rolls. Top off with additional sweet toppings and you have roll ice cream. Simple, very cold, and delicious…

Roll Ice Cream Factory is a growing chain serving these desserts, but the reason we stopped this time was for their new Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun (Jibaku Shonen Hanako-kun) collaboration ice cream and tapioca boba drinks. These treats are patterned after different characters and it actually started on the day we went! Though, unfortunately due to shipping and production issues, the mascot characters shown on the menu were unavailable. Well, we ordered them anyway.

We opted for one roll ice cream of each collab flavor, @lavioli with the Kou Vanilla x Mango, @83castellas with the Hanako-kun Strawberry, and I chose the Nene Chocolate Mint at 900￥ ($8 USD) each. As expected of such a simple treat, they were all sweet and creamy, though I think the mango had the most prominent flavor of the bunch.

We also ordered some tapioca drinks which have really started growing in popularity everywhere <l>. Unfortunately, RICF is known for their ice cream and not their tapioca… the 800￥ drinks were too milky and not flavored enough and the regular black tapioca had no flavor and merely average texture. My strawberry bits and tapioca were a bit better, but a bit too sweet. These drinks are strongly not recommended; I would’ve gladly eaten another ice cream instead.

As part of the collab, we received a coaster with each item order though we got stuck with 3 of Tsukasa... too bad we couldn’t get an even collection of all the featured characters between us three!

 

Pizzeria Braceria CESARI!! (ピッツェリアブラチェリアチェザリ‼) in Nagoya, Aichi

I’ve been mocked for my reviews and writing style, but I’m just going to own it…

On our second food stop in Nagoya, we went to Pizzeria Braceria CESARI!, an Italian restaurant among a shopping street full of other foreign shops. I was surprised to see this was a Michelin Guide restaurant. My friends definitely made a good choice to come here.

Their lunch special, consisting of an appetizer, main, and dessert, was very reasonable at 1500¥ ($14 USD) although a few alternate options add a bit to the cost.

They first brought us some lovely, freshly baked bread.

My friends ordered the day’s Yellowtail Carpaccio salad and Chezari Oyster appetizers for themselves.

I opted for the Prosciutto Salad with 12-month cured ham and it was absolutely deliciously soft, salty, and divine.

It’s a good thing I liked it because I ordered the Prosciutto pizza for 650¥ more. My friends also decided on the Margherita and Chisato (4 cheese and honey) pizzas. From our cool little outdoor seating, we could see the kitchen staff preparing our hand-tossed pizzas, the delicious smell wafting out from the open door. The Margherita was the first to arrive and it was the “lightest” taste of the three. The other two arrived shortly after. All three pizzas were thin, flavorful, and quite reasonably sized.

After trying all three, I’d say the Margherita pizza was more the appetizer since it had a lighter flavor profile. My savory, salty, rich ham would be more of a main dish with the sweet and salty 4-cheese pizza more akin to a dessert.

I was glad I was hungry because I had to finish the leftovers. Oh, what a shame I had to consume the majority of all this deliciousness!

To top it off, we were offered a range of desserts. My friends ordered the mango and berry gelato and I opted for lemon dessert. Without a doubt, they were extremely delicious and a great finish to our plentiful meal.

I also want to note the extremely pleasant service we got from the staff, particularly our awesome waiter who did his best to speak English to us whenever possible. The whole experience really justifies their inclusion in the coveted Michelin Guide.

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