The objective of this trip was to eat at “Le coeur (French restaurant in Ashikaga)” and “Nikkoken (ramen shop in Sano),” the two major HALAL restaurants in Tochigi Prefecture, and for the whole family to experience strawberry picking at Tochigi Prefecture, a well-known production area of strawberries. One-way trip to Tochigi Prefecture from Tokyo only takes two hours and the fare is about 2000 yen including the price for the express ticket, making it a very convenient and affordable trip.
My husband was working until evening on the day of the trip, so we left home past 16:00, but we managed to arrive to our first destination, “Le coeur” by 18:30.
https://www.halalgourmet.jp/restaurant/692
Le coeur is one of the precious stores that serves French HALAL cuisine.
Kazuhito Takei, the owner of the restaurant, trained in France and is now one of Japan’s highest ranked pastry and savory chef.
The earnest personality of Mr. Takei was reflecting the kind service of the staffs working in the restaurant, creating a comfortable atmosphere making you want to part from the stress of everyday life and stay as for long as possible. We were very fortunate to enjoy HALAL food without worry in such a wonderful place.
Le coeur has a wide selection of dishes for their course and à la carte menus, and had the most selection of non-alcohol drinks than I have seen before in any other restaurants.
Even people that can’t drink can enjoy one of these fancy alternatives to alcohol.
It was our first time visiting the restaurant, so we had a full course HALAL food from the chef’s choice.
The course consisted of soup, appetizer, salad, risotto, meat entrée, home-made baguette, and dessert.
They were very considerate to our daughter, and served her a kid’s plate consisting of salad, omuraisu (omelette with fried rice inside), and soup. She was extremely pleased.
All the dishes were pleasant and impressive. No one would notice that it was HALAL unless they were told so. Of course, I mean this in a positive way.
Among all, the main meat entrée “HALAL grilled chicken topped with soybean-taco meat” and the chef’s special order menu, “olive leaf baguette” left the biggest impression on me.
The texture and taste of ground beef was amazingly reproduced in the tofu taco meat.
The olive leaf baguette was crunchy outside and soft inside with a scent resembling green tea.
They were fabulously delicious!
The chef mentioned on the difficulty of offering HALAL food, which has many restrictions and different interpretations depending on the person. However, from his words, we were able to feel his strong consideration of “wanting to have Muslims enjoy eating food in the same way as Japanese people” and that these feelings were directly reflecting on his cooking.
After learning through our conversation that it was almost her birthday, Mr. Takei arranged a surprise for our daughter consisting of live piano performance of the happy birthday song and a cute dessert plate. The dinner was satisfying to our stomach and soul.
We checked in to our hotel “Select Inn Sano-Ekimae” past 23:00, but the receptionist warmly welcomed us. This hotel was located 20 minutes by both car and train from “Le coeur” and “NIKKOKEN” only a few minutes away by foot, making it a perfect place to stay for Muslims. We left our luggage at the reception after checking out, so we were able to go strawberry picking the next day without having to carry along heavy luggage.
http://select-hotels.jp/pc/hotel/sano/
Restaurant Le Coeur
- Tel
- 0284-43-3232
- OPEN
- Lunch 11:30-14:30（L.O 14：00） Tea Time14:30-17:00（L.O 16:30） Dinner 17:30-22:00（L.O 21:00）Sunday: Lunch 11:30-15:00（L.O 15：00） Tea Time 15:00-17:00
- Address
- 315 Otsukicho, Ashikaga-shi, Tochigi 326-0005
- Website
- http://www.le-coeur-heart.com/index.html
- Halal Gourmet Japan
- https://www.halalgourmet.jp/restaurant/692
