Hello buns!
Earlier this year a brand new PERMANENT Pokémon Cafe was announced, with it's location being in Tokyo. Once I had heard of it and seen a video, it became a little dream to visit one day. I had a trip to Tokyo planned for the end of March and decided to see if there was a way I could get to this adorable new diner! Much to my delight (and shock) I was fortunate enough to get a seat in the cafe about a month or so after it had opened.
Here is my review on my experience at the cafe. It's pretty long, so make sure you are comfy!
Happy reading,
Keri aka Ichigo Bunny
When I was looking into going to the Pokémon cafe, you could only eat there if you had previously booked online in advance. This has since been updated to being able to book same day reservations and you can read more about that here. I had looked online and found a really helpful guide on Nintendo Soup. The guide is a step by step walk through, and I would have struggled a lot without it! If you want to make a booking at the cafe, I would really recommend using it. Please remember that you can only make a reservation 30 days ahead of the current date, you can book for up to 4 people to dine and you have set time slots to book into which are 90 minutes long. There are several time slots throughout the day that you might be able to book into, depending on the availability.
The booking does require you to have a Japanese telephone number to finalise the reservation. I had ordered a Japanese sim card that comes with data to use as my number for the booking of this restaurant, but the clever clogs that is TDR explorer mentions using the number from the hotel that you are staying at as your Japanese number for the reservation. Read his excellent review on the Pokémon cafe here. If you have ordered a sim card to use for internet access during your stay in Japan it will be fine to list that number, but if you haven't, I would recommend listing your hotel number to save you money.
I had ordered my simcard from Mobal. The website is quick and easy to use, and the bundle I had ordered wasn't too expensive. I bought the card so I could use the number for my booking, and as a back-up for internet use in case I got split up from the person I was holidaying with. The card didn't end up fitting my phone however, so I would really recommend checking that the sim will fit your phone before ordering, if you can.
Once your reservation has been made you will receive an email to confirm that your booking has gone through. Make sure that this email has come through! Print this email off in both Japanese and in English to take to the cafe on the day of your dining experience. Please be warned that it does say on the email to ring the cafe before the day you have booked to visit to confirm that you are still attending. I hadn't realised this until a few hours before I was due to go to the cafe! I had to ring the cafe using a payphone in the hotel (dirt cheap btw!) and confirm with them that I was still attending, which was a little difficult as there were a few language barriers.
All of these points are important to remember when booking and dining. Some of these are points that I have already mentioned, but I feel that they are so important that I need to remind you of them!
Earlier this year a brand new PERMANENT Pokémon Cafe was announced, with it's location being in Tokyo. Once I had heard of it and seen a video, it became a little dream to visit one day. I had a trip to Tokyo planned for the end of March and decided to see if there was a way I could get to this adorable new diner! Much to my delight (and shock) I was fortunate enough to get a seat in the cafe about a month or so after it had opened.
Here is my review on my experience at the cafe. It's pretty long, so make sure you are comfy!
Happy reading,
Keri aka Ichigo Bunny
Booking a seat in the cafe
When I was looking into going to the Pokémon cafe, you could only eat there if you had previously booked online in advance. This has since been updated to being able to book same day reservations and you can read more about that here. I had looked online and found a really helpful guide on Nintendo Soup. The guide is a step by step walk through, and I would have struggled a lot without it! If you want to make a booking at the cafe, I would really recommend using it. Please remember that you can only make a reservation 30 days ahead of the current date, you can book for up to 4 people to dine and you have set time slots to book into which are 90 minutes long. There are several time slots throughout the day that you might be able to book into, depending on the availability.
The booking does require you to have a Japanese telephone number to finalise the reservation. I had ordered a Japanese sim card that comes with data to use as my number for the booking of this restaurant, but the clever clogs that is TDR explorer mentions using the number from the hotel that you are staying at as your Japanese number for the reservation. Read his excellent review on the Pokémon cafe here. If you have ordered a sim card to use for internet access during your stay in Japan it will be fine to list that number, but if you haven't, I would recommend listing your hotel number to save you money.
I had ordered my simcard from Mobal. The website is quick and easy to use, and the bundle I had ordered wasn't too expensive. I bought the card so I could use the number for my booking, and as a back-up for internet use in case I got split up from the person I was holidaying with. The card didn't end up fitting my phone however, so I would really recommend checking that the sim will fit your phone before ordering, if you can.
Once your reservation has been made you will receive an email to confirm that your booking has gone through. Make sure that this email has come through! Print this email off in both Japanese and in English to take to the cafe on the day of your dining experience. Please be warned that it does say on the email to ring the cafe before the day you have booked to visit to confirm that you are still attending. I hadn't realised this until a few hours before I was due to go to the cafe! I had to ring the cafe using a payphone in the hotel (dirt cheap btw!) and confirm with them that I was still attending, which was a little difficult as there were a few language barriers.
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| One of the cute images on the wall by the cafe |
How easy is it to find?
The Pokémon cafe is a short walk from Tokyo station (approximately 10/15 minutes depending on the exit) but there is Nihonbashi station that is closer to it. It is located just past Nihombashi Takashimaya Shopping Center. When you come off the main road, you will want the shopping center on your left hand side as you are walking along, and you will see a building across the road where the Pokémon cafe and Pokémon Center is located. It is sign-posted on the corner, but it isn't a very big sign so you may not see it at first (I only found the sign by accident!). There is an address on the guide that you use to book your reservation, but I didn't find it easily with that address, so I'm not sure just how accurate it is.
I recommend finding some time before your reservation to find the location so you can use Google Maps and drop a pin on the location (if they haven't added it to the map already). I found it helpful to have gone there previously before the date of my booking so that I wasn't late or stressed out with trying to find the cafe. Once you have found the building, take the elevator up to the 5th floor where the cafe and the Pokémon Center are located.
I recommend finding some time before your reservation to find the location so you can use Google Maps and drop a pin on the location (if they haven't added it to the map already). I found it helpful to have gone there previously before the date of my booking so that I wasn't late or stressed out with trying to find the cafe. Once you have found the building, take the elevator up to the 5th floor where the cafe and the Pokémon Center are located.
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| One of the pieces of wall art |
First Impressions
I had been to the building where the cafe is a few days previously so I wasn't late, as it does ask that you turn up ten minutes before the time of your booking. One of the things that I had first noticed is that you are unable to see into the cafe at all, which I thought was really cool as it keeps it a complete surprise for any first time diners and really gives you that wow factor.
On the day of my booking I had been feeling really anxious and was worrying that there might of bee a mistake with my reservation. As myself and other diners were waiting to go in, one of the waiters came out with a clipboard and was making his way along the line to check and tick off peoples names. When he got to me, he ticked my name off and went back inside. A few minutes later, the cafe was opened and people started to be allowed in. Waiters and waitresses were coming to meet the diners as they booked in and take them to their seats, something that I thought was a lovely little personal experience for each diner. As the waiter got to me, he called out to someone in Japanese. Not knowing a lot of Japanese, I was starting to panic until I realised that he was calling for someone who spoke a little English, who then came over and took me to my seat.
As I first entered the cafe my breath was taken away. It was bright, pristine and looked so so cute! There are 4 pay points immediately to your right, tables around the perimeter of the dining area, a glass unit containing pokémon plushes, some faux grass pokéballs (they are so cute!), some wall art, a pokémon stand and a long table with the Kanto starters, Pikachu and Eevee. There are soundtracks being played from various games that have been released over the years, and it adds to the atmosphere! I really liked listening to the songs and trying to work out what game it was from, and where in the game it is played. For those of us who have grown up with pokémon, it adds a wonderful nostalgic feel to the cafe.
The lady guided me to my chair, which was in front of Bulbasaur, and I was incredibly pleased about this as Bulbasaur is one of my favourite starters. In front of me was a paper mat that had been turned over, a little clip stand, a glass and a tablet which you use to order. She explained how to use the tablet to order your food, and told me that you can only place orders in the first 60 minutes. She also told me that the paper mat is the dinner mat but we are more than welcome to fold it up and take it home as a little keepsake, which is something that I thought was incredibly cute! Each paper mat is a different pokédex entry to the one next to it, and I really enjoyed the personal touch that it gave!
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| My personal paper mat that I had |
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| the view from my seat, isn't Bulbasaur cute! |
How to order and what I ordered
Each seat/ table has a tablet to order your food, and it is really easy to use. The tablets have four languages programmed into them, which are Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin if I think), English and Korean. You click what language you would like to read the menu in, and then the menu opens up. You can order anything from the menu that you want, regardless if it a dessert or dinner! The menu is easy to navigate, but some items like some drinks are located under 'desserts', so look through the entire menu before ordering!
There are several drinks you can buy. Some come with a collectable cup, which is a little more expensive (roughly about £8-9). You will be given a free glass of water as well. If you do order a collectable cup you will be given a token to take to the till so the cashier can give you a clean cup in a box to take home with you. When I ordered my drink, I ordered the collectable cup version and was completely confused on what I was supposed to do in order to receive it until I had clicked that the little eevee face token was to be taken to the till so I could receive mine!
At the time that I visited the cafe there were a variety of dinners that you could order, but none that were vegetarian or vegan. Each one had been made to resemble some sort of pokémon, for example the Eevee teriyaki burger had the Eevee face on the bun, or the Snorlax hamburger that had been shaped to look like Snorlax. A few people around me ordered the eevee teriyaki burger and it did look pretty tasty! Hopefully there will be some veggie options in the future.
The dessert menu had as much variety as the dinner menu. There are ice cream floats, a cheesecake, a fruit salad, pancakes and a lot of drinks, such as the Gengar smoothie, are placed in this part of the menu. Thankfully, there are veggie options in the dessert range. One thing to note is that when ordering desserts, you can order it as a package with your meal, so be careful to look through and see if the dessert you want can be ordered with your meal. I hadn't realised this until after I had ordered my main meal, and I had wished that I had looked through and seen this before I had ordered!
I already knew what I wanted to eat and drink before I had even booked my reservation! I ordered the Eevee latte, the Pikachu hide and seek carbonara and the Jigglypuff cheesecake. The latte came in the cutest eevee mug with it's face sprinkled on top of the drink. I enjoyed it as it wasn't too strong, was perfectly sweet and didn't need any sugar adding to it. The Pikachu carbonara looked really cute! I loved the design and the playfulness of the dish. It didn't taste too bad, and the portion was a decent size. The one item I was really looking forward to was the Jigglypuff cheesecake, and it didn't let me down! It was soft, tasty and super cute! The music note biscuits were a really sweet touch and hints at how much Jigglypuff likes to sing! The berries were drizzled in a super sweet sauce, and all of the flavours combined were delicious. If you have a sweet tooth, you will love this dessert!
The dessert menu had as much variety as the dinner menu. There are ice cream floats, a cheesecake, a fruit salad, pancakes and a lot of drinks, such as the Gengar smoothie, are placed in this part of the menu. Thankfully, there are veggie options in the dessert range. One thing to note is that when ordering desserts, you can order it as a package with your meal, so be careful to look through and see if the dessert you want can be ordered with your meal. I hadn't realised this until after I had ordered my main meal, and I had wished that I had looked through and seen this before I had ordered!
I already knew what I wanted to eat and drink before I had even booked my reservation! I ordered the Eevee latte, the Pikachu hide and seek carbonara and the Jigglypuff cheesecake. The latte came in the cutest eevee mug with it's face sprinkled on top of the drink. I enjoyed it as it wasn't too strong, was perfectly sweet and didn't need any sugar adding to it. The Pikachu carbonara looked really cute! I loved the design and the playfulness of the dish. It didn't taste too bad, and the portion was a decent size. The one item I was really looking forward to was the Jigglypuff cheesecake, and it didn't let me down! It was soft, tasty and super cute! The music note biscuits were a really sweet touch and hints at how much Jigglypuff likes to sing! The berries were drizzled in a super sweet sauce, and all of the flavours combined were delicious. If you have a sweet tooth, you will love this dessert!
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| My Eevee latte |
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| The hide and seek Pikachu carbonara |
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| The Jigglypuff cheesecake |
Dining Experience
Before I went to the cafe I was really nervous about dining alone. It turns out that there are many people who come to this cafe to dine alone! So don't worry about standing out or having people stare at you for eating alone. In Japan a lot of people tend to dine alone and this cafe isn't an exception. There were people of all ages eating alone, and it was really lovely to see that here! When I visited the cafe there were a few families, even fewer groups of friends and loads of solo diners.
During your visit you will hear a pikachu song being played, and as that song is playing one of the chef pikachu's will appear! They come around the whole restaurant to greet everyone, so don't worry if Pikachu doesn't come near you at first. You will get a chance to meet them and take some cute pictures of them as they are walking around! Someone does come out and talk to you with Pikachu. I didn't understand what they were saying but I grasped that they were getting everyone to clap with them to encourage Pikachu to dance. There is a lot of clapping and chanting "Pika! Pika!" so be prepared to get cheesy and have a little child-like fun.
The food does come out pretty quick but that depends on what you order. My dish came out after a lot of the burger orders had been brought out from the kitchen, but it wasn't a particularly long wait. My latte had been brought out just before Chef Pikachu made an appearance, and my food came out about 5 minutes after Chef Pikachu went back to the kitchen.
As I was dining a member of staff was visiting everyone at the table with a tablet. If you have ordered a drink you are invited to play a game on the tablet. The game consisted of 8 pokémon cards with pikachu on, and you just simply have to choose a card. I chose the pikachu wearing a flower crown, and was given the prize of a bulbasaur coaster. This was something that I hadn't been expecting at all, and it added a little magic to my visit. I thought that it was a lovely little extra to add to the overall dining experience.
During your visit you will hear a pikachu song being played, and as that song is playing one of the chef pikachu's will appear! They come around the whole restaurant to greet everyone, so don't worry if Pikachu doesn't come near you at first. You will get a chance to meet them and take some cute pictures of them as they are walking around! Someone does come out and talk to you with Pikachu. I didn't understand what they were saying but I grasped that they were getting everyone to clap with them to encourage Pikachu to dance. There is a lot of clapping and chanting "Pika! Pika!" so be prepared to get cheesy and have a little child-like fun.
The food does come out pretty quick but that depends on what you order. My dish came out after a lot of the burger orders had been brought out from the kitchen, but it wasn't a particularly long wait. My latte had been brought out just before Chef Pikachu made an appearance, and my food came out about 5 minutes after Chef Pikachu went back to the kitchen.
As I was dining a member of staff was visiting everyone at the table with a tablet. If you have ordered a drink you are invited to play a game on the tablet. The game consisted of 8 pokémon cards with pikachu on, and you just simply have to choose a card. I chose the pikachu wearing a flower crown, and was given the prize of a bulbasaur coaster. This was something that I hadn't been expecting at all, and it added a little magic to my visit. I thought that it was a lovely little extra to add to the overall dining experience.
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| Chef Pikachu! |
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| My Bulbasaur coaster that I won! |
Merch
When you are completing your booking online, you do get the option of buying some merch that isn't available to buy in the Pokémon center and in the cafe. This included a chef pikachu keychain and some stickers, if I can remember correctly.
In the cafe there are some items you can purchase when paying for your meal. There are cookies, donuts, biscuits, travel cups and a few other items. Some of these can be a little pricey for what they are, but may be something that you would consider a little treat for yourself. A box of 4 donuts was about ¥3000, which is about £20 depending on the conversion rate.
I treated myself to a travel cup that had the cafe logo on it, and it cost me between £8-10.
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| Here are some of the goodies that you can buy before leaving the cafe. |
Some things you should bare in mind when dining
All of these points are important to remember when booking and dining. Some of these are points that I have already mentioned, but I feel that they are so important that I need to remind you of them!
- Although the cafe is taking same day bookings, it is best to reserve your place online before you travel so you don't miss out on dining at the cafe.
- You can reserve seats for up to 4 people only, and the person making the booking has to be dining at the cafe.
- You only have to pay online if you are ordering special merch with your booking.
- Each reservation is 90 minutes long.
- Your email is your confirmation of your reservation, make sure that you have received it!
- You need to be there 10 minutes before your booked time.
- Take-outs are not allowed.
- If you want to look around and take photos, it's best to take them towards the end of your dining time. Not many people stay around for the full 90 minutes, so that is the best time as you cannot order food in the last 30 minutes of your booked time. You can look around, admire the artwork hanging up and take as many pictures as you wish without disturbing the other diners.
Overall Verdict
I personally loved the cafe. It's the first themed cafe that I have ever visited in Japan, and it was special to me as I have always been a pokémon fan. It's cute, bright, the staff are so so friendly and welcoming and it really brings out your inner child. The food isn't the best tasting food that you will eat in Japan, especially for the prices, but the menu is adorable and fun. It's great dining alone here, but I can imagine that it must be amazing to dine here with friends!
It is expensive compared to some other places that you can eat in, but you are essentially paying for the experience, not the food. For most people this will be a once in a lifetime opportunity, so make the most of it have some money put aside for this so you can enjoy it to the max.
Bring your pokémon mascot, unleash your inner child and enjoy this special dining experience!
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