Why travel to the Pokemon Cafe Tokyo
Eevee Pokemon character you can see at the Pokemon Cafe |
If you love Pokémon (and even if you don’t), the Pokémon Café in the middle of Tokyo is a fun way to celebrate the colourful world of Pokémon. It is worth a visit. For my 11 year old daughter – visiting the Pokémon café (and the shop) was just wonderful.
Where
is it located?
It is located 5 minutes from the
JR Tokyo Station (Yaesu north Exit). The official website has the map
instructions on how to get there https://www.pokemoncenter-online.com/cafe/?id=access (open in
Chrome Browser to read in English).
Why
did we visit this café?
My daughter loves Pokémon, so
that is why we primarily went. We looked into visiting other themed restaurants
in Tokyo like the Monster Café, The animal cafes and the Robot Restaurant. We
didn’t go to any of those as from other people’s reviews the food wasn’t that
great (yet expensive) and you are forced into buying food and drink for all in your
party. One thing I really hate is when you are forced into buying expensive really
bad food. And I’m happiest drinking plain water – so I don’t want neon coloured
drinks which at some of the other restaurants was compulsory. The Pokémon café
does not have this rule of forcing you to buy anything. My daughter is a fussy
eater too, so we doubly didn’t want to buy food she wouldn’t even eat. With a
child as well, the Robot restaurant was also considered very loud. So rightly
or wrongly, we did the Pokémon café only.
Do
you need to book?
You really do need to book
exactly 30 days in advance to reserve a table booking. There is no ‘walk up
entry’ and timed places fill up extremely fast. You need to keep your eye on
this website 30 days prior to determine when you can book https://www.pokemoncenter-online.com/cafe/
Note the website is in Japanese,
but all it’s really asking you for is how many people and the date and time you
wish to go. Alternatively if you open your internet browser in Chrome, it will
translate the page into English for you.
Once you have booked, you will
then receive an email confirming your booking. Take this email with you to the
Café as proof that you have booked. No payment is required at the time of
booking. If you have trouble making a booking, try adjusting your numbers in
your booking (say for two people). You may need two tables if you have a big
group (and therefore two bookings. You will need to separate email accounts).
There
is a gigantic Pokémon shop right next door
There is a huge Pokémon shop
right next door to the Pokémon café. It was slightly more expensive then the
Pokémon shop you can find in the nearby Train station (Tokyo Station –
Character Street). There is however a much greater selection of unique items
only found here at the Shop. Be aware that they have a great selection of Pokémon
socks – but they only go up to Size 6.
There is a huge selection of socks you can purchase |
The Pokemon Store Tokyo (right next door to the cafe) |
I would suggest getting to the
building early and doing some shopping/window shopping before your allocated
timeslot for the café. There are quite a few things to do inside the shop –
there are even electronic games to play and you get a free paper hat for just
entering the shop.
Electronic Pokemon Games |
Electronic Pokemon Games |
The
Pokémon café
Once you get to your allocated
time to enter the Pokémon cafe– you have 90 minutes to enjoy the café – which
is plenty of time to enjoy, order and eat your meal. You are seated at a table
with an IPAD whose first screen indicates language.
The entrance to the Cafe |
The Pokemon Cafe Table setting - note the table paper mats can be kept |
You just order on the IPAD on the table |
Pokemon Cafe Cappucchino |
The tables have paper Pokémon
placemats – the general consensus is they make a nice free souvenir so don’t
put your food on them! Keep them as a souvenir.
You are free to walk around the
Café and take as many photos as you like (and admire other people’s food
options!). There are a number of Pokémon displays and these make colourful
photographs.
About half way through your
timeslot a Pokémon character comes out, whom I think varies every day as to
which character. For us it was Eevee. Eevee did a little dance and went around
the room saying hello to all the guests individually. The Pokémon character
comes out but the management team have a rather bizarre rule of no photos
directly with the character, but they do encourage photographs of the character
(?).
Eevee |
One hour is plenty of time to
order at the Café and enjoy the atmosphere. I totally recommend what we ordered
– the Teriyaki Bun, Minestrone Soup, Vegetable Chips, Potato chips and salad.
Interestingly the food was luke warm. I had heard this in other reviews. Regardless,
we ate all of it even though the bun was green. Even my daughter whom is fussy
ate it all. I did notice that on the tables around me there was a lot of
uneaten food- people had ordered other things. It seems a lot of people come
here just to take some photos and eat a few mouthfuls of food and then leave.
What we ordered and can recommend! |
Pokemon Pancakes |
Everyone who orders a drink gets
a free Pokémon drink coaster which is also a cool souvenir to keep from your
visit too.
Pokemon Drink Coaster - Free for each person who orders a drink! |
Anyways, to experience the
Pokémon café was a ‘something different’ experience for us and an enjoyable one
too – so I do recommend.
I hope you enjoyed reading about the
Pokémon café. If you would like to comment please do so in
Comments as I would love to hear about your experiences.
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36 Tips for travelling in Japan
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You can also subscribe directly to this blog. I publish weekly, on a Wednesday.
Subscribe to Theme Park Travel Guide by Email
Read more about
36 Tips for travelling in Japan
Tokyo Disneyland
Tokyo DisneySea
Universal Studios Japan
Until next week,
KJ
I am also on Instagram www.instagram.com/sotaram1
Twitter: www.twitter.com/sotaram1
KJ
I am also on Instagram www.instagram.com/sotaram1
Twitter: www.twitter.com/sotaram1
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