Hidden Relaxing Spot near Fushimi / Yaba-cho: The Flow Café and Lounge

Japanese required: Advanced (katakana / hiragana and some kanji)
Cost: 500 to 2000 on average, per person
Good for: Anyone (1-4 people for the Flow Café is best)

The Flow Café and Lounge, which is located near Fushimi, is a great place to have a meal and relax for a while. It has a calm atmosphere, and the mood is suited to just taking a bit of time sitting with someone and talking.

When I went there for the first time, I went alone to the second floor and had an enjoyable lunch of pasta. Though the lunch set menu options were a bit limited (two pasta dishes and one rice dish), the food was good. The room they seated me in was lit via a covered window, so it was dimmer than outside. I found it very relaxing, and the comfortable chairs made it all the better. All of the seats are made of soft materials (leather, fabric), which makes it easy to just sit back and enjoy the music (which includes quite a few songs in English). The way the restaurant is spaced made it feel that I had my own private area even with several groups of people around me. I had some white sauce pasta with corn and broccoli for my meal. There was so much sauce that even after I had eaten all of my pasta, there was a small pool at the bottom of the plate. Since it was a lunch set, I also had a croissant and a small salad as an appetizer.

About half of the regular menu was made up of pasta dishes, but there weren't any pictures. Because of this, it would be very difficult to order without being able to read Japanese. You can order a variety of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. I had some orange juice. I would recommend it for eating alone or with one or two others. The restaurant is rather small, and most seating areas are limited to about four people.

The second time, I went to the first floor with a group, and we all spent about two hours talking and eating. We had a separate room from the rest of the restaurant, and it had soothing background music with comfortable, leather seats. The food was alright but not memorable. I enjoyed the atmosphere and company more than anything. The room we had was oval-shaped, so it was easy to have conversations with a lot of people without moving a lot.

 I went there on a Saturday, so the only menu options were Eggs Benedict or traditional Japanese food. I'm not a fan of Eggs Benedict, so I had a Japanese meal instead. The menu had pictures of the different Eggs Benedict dishes, but the normal menu did not have pictures for anything but desert when I looked at it. This would probably be best to take a date or some friends for lunch.

In the evening, the Flow Garden opens, which is an open-air bar / barbeque on the third floor. I've never gone there, but, if the set up is as good as the other two floors, then it'd be a great place to relax and have a few drinks.

Overall, a great place that has variety to suit anybody's interests.