Shirohige’s Cream Puff Factory

I first discovered Shirohige’s while browsing through «Must-​Eat» lists online. The moment I saw the cute little Totoro cream puffs, I knew I had to go — even if it was a bit of a trip outside of the main area of Shinjuku and Shibuya. Shirohige’s is located in a fairly residential area — the route that Google maps gives you sends you through several backstreets that are basically people’s backdoors!
You know you’ve reached the store when you see a huge sign for Tolo Café — the café that’s on top of the store. At the store, you can buy any of their rotating flavors of cream puffs — they have 1 – 2 different flavors depending on the month/​season. There’s also their standard custard and chocolate flavors along with a variety of Totoro-​themed cookies. The cookies will last a while if you want to take them home but they do sell out quickly.
We opted to go upstairs to Tolo Café, where they serve the cream puffs, but you have to order one drink per person. We were seated on the balcony, which was great because it was a super nice and sunny day. I had all four flavors of cream puffs as well as a café latte, which served to cut the sugariness of the cream puffs.
The puffs themselves were so good — a bit crunchy on the outside and super creamy on the inside. I think my favorite was either the banana, which was special to March, or the chocolate, which tasted kind of like a mousse.
Be sure to go early or else they’ll be sold out!

First saw these cream puffs in some food article four years ago… and somehow I’ve managed to finally get a taste of one after a long trek and several times getting lost due to a wrong map location… sigh. (Don’t follow the Google maps location for this— it leads to an empty lot on the outskirts of rural Tokyo.)
Seriously? These are some good cream puffs! And so expertly cute. After venturing so long– barely any signage pointing us along– we came upon the Shirohige Cream Puff sign with a big sigh of relief.
The bakery is attached to a small restaurant which I’m not entirely sure if it is actually related to the bakery despite sharing the same building. There was a long wait for seating at the café, but thankfully if you’re just grabbing the Totoro cream puffs you don’t have to wait in it and can go straight to the bakery.
The bakery is extremely small. With a counter, case, a large window with cookies and Totoro themed items decorating the interior. They only have four available flavors marked with different head decorations— matcha, strawberry, chocolate, and of course, custard.
The custard one came with the tiny leaf. Between all in our group we got all the flavors. I got the custard, and a chocolate puff. My friend got a strawberry and another friend got the matcha and strawberry. The chocolate one was a bit of a mess, but very good. I definitely preferred the custard over it. Didn’t get to try the strawberry or matcha but my friends said they were very good too. The matcha also had bits of red bean. I also bought a small mushroom shaped cookie which was a nice snack and also pretty cute.
Now there isn’t really a place to sit after you get them since the patio was closed off so we rode the train back to our destination and found an area to safely eat our precious cargo. They provide a tiny ice packet though to keep it chilled for your travels and will opt to not completely seal the case with a Totoro sticker in case you want to keep the sticker. We immediately took them out after getting out and snapped some photos though. Haha.
The cream puffs are also pretty huge! And super tasty– at least in my opinion. I’m a fan. After hours of being lost along with walking and walking in the hot Tokyo summer/​spring heat… I probably wouldn’t be too pro-​Shirohige cream puff if they were not up to snuff at least that’s my story for my admiration of these adorable sweets.

(My rating is really more like 3.5 stars)
We ventured out to this neighborhood specifically to find this bakery. It was a bit of a walk from the subway but not too crazy. We walked in and there was an option of going into the bakery or going upstairs for the café/​restaurant. We just wanted cream puffs, so we went into the bakery — but they informed us it was only for take away and there was no where nearby outside to sit and eat these cute cream puffs… so we went upstairs and put our name in for the wait list. (cashier assured us they served cream puffs upstairs) Restaurant also serves a pasta prefix lunch menu for 1,000 yen.
We were seated about 20 minutes later. When we finally got seated, and looked at the menu, we realized that cream puff prices were higher in the café (about 440 – 485 yen, instead of 400 yen in bakery) and they require each person to buy a drink… not a deal breaker, but a little annoying that they didn’t tell us that upfront in the bakery. So instead of paying 400 yen per cream puff, our two cream puffs ended up costing us 1900 yen because of the required drinks (~400−500 yen each for coffee drinks).
The cream puffs themselves were delicious and pretty much the cutest pastry I’ve ever eaten! I would definitely come back, but would do take away instead of eating in their café.

My first stop in Tokyo… I took the Bullet train 7:40am from Kyoto to Tokyo just tried to come before all the Totoro cream puffs selling out. This nice little shop is hidden in a quiet residential area. I almost missed the place even with Google map. I saw two girls chatting up the hill and figured it got to be over there. When I got there, there were only 2 strawberry cream puffs left, then the baker brought out more. I was excited like a little kid: taking a huge bite of the strawberry cream puff then thinking out of loud «this is so freaking good»…not too sweet… very light but creamy with fresh strawberries whipping cream. It was worth the little detour.

Japan is not lacking when it comes to cute desserts and after a recommendation from a food blog, I had to go and search for the Totoro cream puffs. Charming, hidden, and delightful, Shirohige’s Cream Puff Factory is a must visit for fans of the character and for dessert lovers too.
Finding this place like many places in Tokyo can be quite a task but thanks to Google Maps and a little bit of Japanese, a foodie quest can be accomplished! You have to take a metro line or two (good luck with that) because it is in a residential area and then navigate your way to a quiet oasis away from the bustle of central Tokyo
From the outside the place is gorgeous and when you think of a hidden gem, this place is it. The first floor has a few Totoro-​related souvenirs and you can grab some to go if you don’t want to eat at the café. Upstairs is the restaurant/​café area where you can sit down and enjoy the awesomeness of Shirohige. They have a menu of Italian pasta dishes such as carbonara, fettuccine, and spaghetti and a few different sauces. My friend, Kat and I, decided to order off the menu and I ordered a delicious spaghetti with little shrimps, lemon, saffron, and two buttery pieces of bread. It was a light lunch and the flavors were clean and vibrant at the same time.
Now those Totoro cream puffs. Hands-​down the cutest desserts I’ve ever had the chance to devour. Kat got the strawberry one while I chose the matcha with azuki bean. When they arrived, we couldn’t containment our joy from seeing them. Only those with no soul can’t help but smile at those cream puffs. I split my Totoro in half (poor Totoro) and got a taste of the filling. Great matcha bitterness was balanced with the sweet azuki red bean. The strawberry flavor had a delicate sweetness and the puffs themselves had a nice crunchy texture. If I lived anywhere near this place, I’d go back often.
Happy eating and remember: Don’t deny, satisfy!

Eins vorweg, wer mit Totoro oder den Zeichentrickfilmen des Studios Ghibli nichts anfangen kann, kann sich den Weg sparen. Alle anderen die von Totoro nicht genug bekommen können, sind hier genau richtig!
Das Café liegt mitten in einem Wohngebiet und es gibt wirklich nichts was in der unmittelbarer Nähe interessant sein könnte aber es ist so wunder, wunderschön :-)
Reservierungen sind absolut erwünscht!

Cutest dessert I’ve ever seen! We stopped here before heading over to the Ghibli Museum (definitely not necessarily on the way, but went with the theme of the day). I was expecting these to be more of a novelty, but the cream puffs were not only adorable, but delicious! They were quite large, but we easily managed to finish 3 amongst our group of 5.
We tried the peach, the chocolate, and the traditional custard. Even though this was months ago, the flavors were so memorable. The chocolate was very rich, almost like a dark chocolate. The peach custard, which was my favorite flavor, had small chunks of peaches throughout the custard. The texture of the pastry itself was perfect (not too dense), and the ratio of pastry to custard filling was perfect. Literally amazing!
The service was also great. We took them to-​go (the wait at the upstairs café was quite long) and they packed the cream puffs with a miniature ice pack. It’s definitely a bit of a trek from Tokyo, but I wouldn’t hesitate to take a trip back to the area just for these cream puffs! If you’re a fan of Totoro, this is a must-​visit!

The staff were friendly & accommodating for guest even if you didnt have a reservation. Waittime was 15 – 20 min w/​o reservation. English menu. Totoro themed décor. Try the Italian pasta in the restaurant & totoro cream puff (choice of banana caramel, strawberry, custard, or chocolate)!
Totoro– Forest spirit from the iconic animated film my neighbor Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki.
If you love Japanese classics such as ponyo, arriety, princess mononoke, howl’s moving castle, castle in the sky, kiki’s delivery service, or spirited away; you must also check out Ghibli museum while in Japan!

Totoro-​shaped cream puffs? Super adorable!
Obviously, I had to make a detour stop! They have a few different flavors (cream, strawberry cream, chocolate, banana), and each Totoro has a different accessory depending on its flavor. Shirohige also offers other packaged snacks/​cookies! I got the cream-​flavored cream puff, and it was pretty filled. They packaged it in its own carry-​out box, with a small ice pack to keep the cream chilled, and even gave a Totoro sticker! All in all, I thought it tasted good, a little messier to eat than regular-​shaped cream puffs, but I think the whole appeal is mostly because they look so cute!
If you have extra time in your trip schedule, I would recommend dropping by! Otherwise, not sure what else there is to do in the area.
NOTE: CASH ONLY! For foreigners, you can get here by taking the Odakyu line at the Shinjuku station to the Setagaya Daita station! It’s about a few minutes walk from the station to the shop. I recommend Google-​mapping it beforehand, as there aren’t really signs directing you to it.

Really enjoyed the pastry, they’re definitely worth the trip. Unfortunately the place only takes cash, which was hard for me to find as a foreigner.

I don’t think I’m the only Ghibli obsessed person here. I probably spent more time researching Ghibli related activities than anything else for my first trip to Japan. This is a place that you have to go to if you worship Miyazaki and the wonderful worlds he created. At this café, you get the opportunity to celebrate Totoro, everyone’s favorite forest god, by slicing him in half before devouring his plump, cream-​filled body. Totoro, you were delicious. I love you.
The destruction of your fond childhood memories aside, Shirohige’s café upstairs serves Italian dishes. I see Italian food quite often in Tokyo, but didn’t give it a second thought. After all, I’m here to eat Japanese food, right? Wrong. Well, right, but work with me here. They cook up delicious pasta dishes here! I guess it makes sense since they really know how to prepare noodles. And they perfect their craft. And you’re on vacation so everything you do is exaggerated in your mind? Yeah… No… Really though, I think it was worth it.
Everything about this 2 story home-​turned-​Totoro-​sacrificial-​chamber is beautiful. Even if you skip the pasta, you cannot skip this as a destination on your trip.