Mont Blanc The Hakuzan is a sweets shop so nice it’s named twice.
Tokyo Station isn’t just one of the most important places in the city for travelers and commuters, but for sweets fans too. Both within the station itself and inside the attached Daimaru department store are an array of dessert specialty stores, and we’ve been wanting to try one of them for months now.
Make no mistake, the reason we haven’t yet tried the desserts from Mont Blanc The Hakuzan, which opened in October, has nothing to do with willpower to resist the temptations of desserts, as such psychological fortitude is in very limited supply at SoraNews24. No, the reason it took us half a year to do this taste test is because of how incredibly popular the place is, and thus how hard it is to actually buy their desserts.
See that “sold out” sign in above photo? Notice how nicely made it is, as opposed to being a handwritten notice that the staff needed to suddenly make? That’s because they know that their entire batch of Mont Blanc, the candied chestnut dessert that’s the store’s specialty, is going to sell out on a daily basis.
We’ve walked by The Hakuzan (as we’ll call the store for short, seeing as how both “Hakuzan” and “Mont Blanc” mean “white mountain”) plenty of times since it opened, but never at a time when we could get our hands on one of the coveted desserts. When we rolled up on a recent Sunday afternoon, just as we’d expected, all of the Mont Blanc that had been stocked that morning at 10 a.m. were gone. But that was OK, because we’d gotten to the shop at around 4:30, and there’s a second batch that comes out at 5 p.m.
This was what we were aiming for, but even then, it turned out we’d cut things very close. The Hakuzan sells its Mont Blancs in boxes that contain two servings for 1,980 yen (US$13), and they limit each customer to a maximum of two boxes. However, they only make 30 boxes per batch, so it’s possible that as few as only 15 customers will be able to buy any, and there were already about 20 people waiting ahead of us in line.
Thankfully, to help with crowd control at around 4:50, the staff asks how many boxes each person in line plans to buy, so they could guarantee us the single box we wanted, and gave us a purchase placard, shown in the photo above (note, though, that you still have to wait in line – leave the line, and your voucher will be voided).
Mont Blanc gets its name because it’s supposed to look like a mountain covered in snow, but a lot of stores and cafes shape theirs like a mound, closer to a hill. The Hakuzan’s version, though, really does look a steep-sided mountain, and we couldn’t wait to dig in…except actually, we had to wait. The Hakuzan’s Mont Blanc comes frozen, and they recommend a total thawing time of six hours (combined getting it home and then putting it in your refrigerator) for the optimal texture.
That’s a longer deferment of gratification than we usually like, but after waiting a little more than six months to try this, another six hours wasn’t going to kill us. And when the Mont Blanc finally was ready to eat, our patience was handsomely, and deliciously, rewarded.
Starting at the top, our fork passed through creamy candied chestnut paste, whipped cream, and a base of crunchy merengue, and there’s a nicely sized chestnut in the middle too. This is, without question, a sweet dessert, but not in an overly sugary or oily way, and the touch of rum The Hakuzan uses gives its Mont Blanc a mature, elegantly quality as well.
So yes, we’re happy to report that the 30 minutes we spent standing in line for The Hakuzan’s Mont Blanc was well worth it. At the same time, we realize that not everyone has space for that in their schedule, and we ourselves might have lucked out by happening to visit on a less-crowded-than-usual Sunday, and on busier days getting there even 30 minutes before the batch comes out might not be early enough. Currently The Hakuzan only has this single shop inside the Tokyo Station Daimaru, so it’s not like you can cut down the waiting time by going to a more remote branch, either.
If you want to get a taste of this dessert without lining up, though, there is a way to do it, as on the 20th of every month, online Mont Blanc pre-orders start for the following month. Granted, that means you’ll actually be waiting weeks, not minutes or hours, for your Mont Blanc, but as least you won’t have to be standing in line the whole time.
Shop information
Mont Blanc The Hazizan / 店名 モンブランTHE珀山
Located inside Daimaru Tokyo / 大丸東京
Address: Tokyo-to, Chiyoda-ku, Marunouchi 1-8-9
東京都千代田区丸の内1丁目8-9
Open 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
Website
Photos ©SoraNews24
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