JAPAN TRAVEL
 

FANCL Offers Food For Beauty Inside And Out

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Occupying prime Ginza real estate a block away from the main Sukiyabashi intersection, the basement of beauty product powerhouse FANCL's building home to a great organic cafe. Lunch specials at Dorobushi Kitchen include a delicious all-you-can-eat salad bar, your choice of a main dish and self-serve hot rooibos tea. The array of organic vegetables is varied and fresh.
 
The president of FANCL, one of Japan's largest purveyors of health and beauty products, ate at organic restaurants all over the country before asking the Kumamoto-based Dorubushi (Samurai of the Soil) to represent healthy food in his new flagship building.
  The choices will rotate seasonally, but some items like the lightly sour plum flavored lotus root (renkon)and tomatoes tossed in a light vinaigrette are addictive. Proteins such as boiled eggs and grilled chicken are quickly refilled. Steam rising from the bamboo container of sweet potatoes is enticing.
 
Dressings range from bottled balsamic to their own Japanese soy sauce based dressing to a homemade creamy pink beet dressing. The miso recommended as a dip for the veggie sticks is their own organic blend. Seafood fans will be pleased with the selection of shrimp cream pasta or the raw tuna and vegetable bowl.
 
For vegans, there is vegetarian "meat sauce" spaghetti and possibly the healthiest dish on the menu - a steamed vegetable plate served with miso soup, brown rice and a small glass of "green juice." The main dishes are petite in portion so come prepared to load up on your vegetables. One appealing point about Dorobushi Kitchen is that people dining together can choose to have Western or Japanese flavors, or both.  
  There is a fancier restaurant upstairs in the same building. Dorobushi Kitchen is clearly the casual, more affordable cafe. Although it is underground, the lighting is bright and the decor cheerful. The weekday price for lunch is ￥1,200 and on the weekends, ￥1,500. 
 
Drink and dessert sets are ￥850, ￥650 for dessert only and ￥550 for any of the drinks. Sweets are overtly health conscious as reflected by items like brown rice donuts and macrobiotic chocolate or macrobiotic banana cake. Drink choices are unique -- for example, green chocolate soy milk or organic ginger ale. Everything we tried here was delicious and knowing that it's also healthy, made us feel good - inside and out.