Tokyo · Hibiya
Imperial Hotel Tokyo
Gargantua since the Meiji era
The Imperial Hotel, opened in 1890 to host the guests of the Meiji government, runs Gargantua, one of the oldest French bakeries in Japan, and an afternoon tea in the Old Imperial Bar tradition.
The Imperial Hotel opened in 1890 as Japan’s state guest hotel, was rebuilt by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1923 and again in 1970, and keeps pieces of Wright’s building in the Old Imperial Bar. Its kitchens introduced much of Western food to Japan, and Gargantua, the hotel bakery and pastry shop, has sold French bread, cakes and the hotel’s famous French toast ingredients to Tokyo for decades. Afternoon tea is served in the Rendez-Vous lounge in the lobby, and the Imperial’s classic Western pastry, the shortcake, the mille-feuille, the pound cake, is the reference for a generation of Japanese pastry chefs.
The Imperial is the historical stop of a Tokyo sweet day: the Wright bar, a Gargantua box, and the hotel across from Hibiya Park where it all began.
The signature
The Gargantua pound cake and the hotel French toast
At a glance
