Dinner at Caffe, the casual restaurant in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Tokyo, can run upwards of 6000 yen. But if you get there during tea time, which runs from 2:30 to 5:00pm, you can order a special pizza set for 1900 yen (2257 yen with service and sales tax)
If you’re lucky, you’ll get a seat with a nice view of the holiday lights:
Not as nice as the view these people have.
Although the pizza is listed as “pizza of the day”, I had a choice between Margarita and Three Cheese pizza. I chose the former.
The course comes with a garden salad and a choice of drink. In addition to coffee and soft drinks, red and white wine are also available. I decided to try the white wine.
If you think you’re going to get drunk without heading up to Eau de Vie, think again. The quantity is not terribly generous.
A little stingy. But I’m not one to whine about it.
To make up for this, you are served a very special wine that is not available from the drink menu:
This is Caffe’s freshest wine. I’m pretty sure it’s made with actual grapes!
The salad is pretty such the same as the salad I’ve made for myself dozens of times in the Regency Club Lounge:
Although those experienced with the Regency Club will not that this salad has onions.
The pizza arrived about 10 minutes after placing my order, just after finishing my salad (though long after finishing my wine):
See fork and knife for an approximation of scale.
The taste was somewhere in the broad expanse between a frozen pizza and something you would get from an actual pizzeria. But with some Tabasco sauce, this was perfectly acceptable, and for me was filling enough to pass for an actual dinner.
As you can tell from my tone, this wasn’t the greatest meal I’ve had. But at under $20 with today’s exchange rate, it may be a reasonable option for those on a one night stay looking to cut costs without leaving the hotel.
If you’re fortunate enough to have a Hyatt Regency Tokyo Point Card, this meal will net you 110 points. Order this early dinner 228 times, and you will be upgraded to Premium Card status!