Hamburger for dessert

I was up in the air about whether to get the angel food cake with raspberries because it sounded delicious or the dessert hamburger to see what it was like. (I thought of Penelope Trunk's post about how choices are often between happiness and interstingness.) I went for deliciousness and happiness and raspberry cake, but I was fated, again, to interesting. The waiter, by a sympathetic reflex unquashed by his uniform, put his hand on my arm as he apologized that the last piece of cake had just been ordered. (Do you get how unusual this is?) He looked even sorrier when I said Well, then, dessert burger it is.

It wasn't terrible. But The coy questions in the menu about what was in it had disappointingly straightforward answers: hard, hollow pastry shells for buns and a moist chocolate sponge for the burger. A squirt of custard sauce for a convincing mayo. Miki's angel food cake with caramel sauce was great.

The place is called Skew (short for "Sweets kitchen eat well," of course) and is on the third floor of OIOI (pronounced "marui," of course). Window seats look straight onto the Shinkansen trains gliding through Yurakucho Station. It's one of those places that's mostly intended, I think, for women. My guess is that the dessert burger is there for guys who get dragged along with their girlfriends and want to hold onto their masculinity among the cute decor and all-male staff. Or maybe it's just there as blog bait. A nice spot, but I got the burger so you don't have to. Have some cake.