Why travel to the Pokemon Cafe Tokyo



 
Eevee Pokemon
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.

Pokemon Socks
There is a huge selection of socks you can purchase

Pokemon food

Pokemon plush toys

Pokemon Store Tokyo
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

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 Pokemon Cafe
The entrance to the Cafe

Pokemon Cafe Table Setting
The Pokemon Cafe Table setting - note the table paper mats can be kept

Pokemon Cafe IPAD
You just order on the IPAD on the table

Pokemon Cafe Cappucchino
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.
Pikachu
Pikachu

Pokemon

Inside the Pokemon cafe
Inside the Pokemon cafe

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 Pokemon
Eevee

Eevee Pokemon

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.

Pokemon Bun
What we ordered and can recommend!

Pokemon Food

Pokemon Pancakes
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!
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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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
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Location: Tokyo, Japan

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