Restaurant Review: Adastra Los Angeles Bakery & Coffee Shop

You know the synopsis by now: grizzled old former spy or lawman is living a quiet life in the suburbs… but then his child is taken from him. He tried to walk away from that life - he was through with it… but it wasn’t through with him. Now he’s gonna fight whoever he’s gotta fight and kill whoever he’s gotta kill, unleashing fury on those who have attacked his family.

That’s what happened to me this past weekend. I have not had my daughter kidnapped by movie villains. I had something much worse happen. My favorite coffee shop was taken from me.

Eriko and I used to love going to a place called Streamer Coffee Company in Kobe. They had delicious lattes, delicious sweets, and delicious chairs to sit in while sipping coffee and doing puzzles. Plus, dogs were allowed inside! I even went there on my birthday a couple years ago. Whenever we were near Kobe Harborland Umie mall and its conjoined twin Mosaic, we would stop there. But sadly, the pandemic came for Streamer.

This past weekend it had finally been two weeks since my second vaccine dose, meaning I could go out in full again. We celebrated by going to our favorite mall to buy things we absolutely did not need. While shopping for headphones, I got hungry and demanded a trip to my favorite place… only to find it was no more. Streamer has been replaced by some restaurant that I vow never to set foot in as a protest against this great injustice.

Since we couldn’t have treats there, we walked on and found a new coffee shop, and since every other place was insanely crowded, we decided to eat lunch there. Meet Adastra, or ADASTRA according to their signs.

Adastra’s decor and signage make it clear that this place was founded in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles, though I’m not familiar with any LA locations. The couches looked pretty comfy and they projected documentaries on the wall. It looked like your average trendy coffee shop.

There were limited food options, so we went with the only two sandwich and fry choices available, which came with soup and a non-alcoholic drink. Because it’s Japan and liquor licenses are not really a thing, they also sell alcohol, but that’s not our style. I got a latte and Eriko got a homemade lemonade.

One thing that consistently blows my mind is that outside of the US, all lemonade is sparkling. I can’t tell you how many place I’ve been where I saw lemonade on the menu, expecting the refreshing cool sweet drink of my youth, and was instead greeted with some sort of bubbly monstrosity. Japan is no different, and Eriko’s lemonade was full of bubbles. She seemed to enjoy it, but I say flat lemonade or nothing.

The latte was well-crafted with some nice latte art, but sadly the coffee used was rather lacking in flavor. It was… not as good as the old Streamer coffee shop. I shed a single tear, then several dozen more, and then the food came.

The soup was an onion soup with a fairly flavorful broth and many little bits of onion in it. I did not finish mine as I am not an onioneer, but if it were a cold winter day I could imagine a free cup of soup being a quite welcome addition to lunch.

The roast beef sandwich looked spectacular, big hunks of beef and sprouts and mustard on it. However, the baguette was quite tough, difficult to tear with one’s teeth, making it hard to eat. Paired with large beef slices which were ALSO difficult to bite through, the sandwich was a chore. They also cut the bread in a pocket fashion where the slit was only on one side, which is fine for soft bread, but on this made it so the filling was all on one end and prone to falling out. Also, I would have liked more mustard.

Eriko agreed that the sandwiches were difficult to eat because of how tough the bread was. Her chicken Genovese was even worse than mine: at one point I asked if I could try a piece of chicken, and she held a piece up and said, “Maybe… this?” The chicken was so thin and watery, she couldn’t even tell which parts of the sandwich were chicken.

Given that this place bills itself as being from LA, home of the world’s greatest sandwich (which also comes on a baguette), I was very disappointed. It doesn’t matter if you use baguettes and add little sprouts and position the beef to stick out in a pretty way when you can’t get the sandwich to taste good. The fries had a nice potato taste, but some were crisp while some were soggy. Keep in mind that each of these sandwiches was $15. Overall, much like Frances on Great British Bake-Off, this was a case of style over substance.

I doubt I will ever eat lunch at ADASTRA again, though I might stop in for coffee if I’m having a frustrating man-at-mall day and need a fix. But it’s a poor substitute for my baby. What places in your town do you miss? You can’t tell us because we don’t allow comments. Go screw.