Visiting The Pokemon Cafe in Japan

We’re finally starting to share some posts about our most recent trip to Japan in November 2018. First up, eating at the Pokemon Cafe in Tokyo!

We’ve been playing Pokemon since Red & Blue on the Gameboy, and it was one of the reasons we always wanted to visit Japan, so we were excited to book a visit to the permanent Pokemon Cafe at the new Pokemon Center DX in Tokyo.

You need to book a reservation online and make sure you turn up on time, ready for your slot. There’s plenty to see while you wait with a row of gachapon machines, photo opportunities and one of the biggest Pokemon shops in Japan.

Once seated you get to turn over your placemat and see which Pokemon you got. Nicolette got Pikachu – very lucky! The food ordering is all done through an iPad, which has a few languages to choose from. You just browse a picture menu, add your choices and then send it to the kitchen. Want to see what we picked?

Nicolette is vegetarian but there aren’t any true meat-free options. However, this Pikachu Plate has omurice (fried rice wrapped in omelette), tomato spaghetti, salad and potato shapes that she was able to eat. You can even pay extra to take the plate home! She also had a light-up Gengar grape smoothie.

I had the Eevee Burger, a limited edition item for the launch of the Let’s Go! games. It had teriyaki chicken and salad inside with tortilla chip ears, plus fries and a weirdly random cup of vegetable soup. I just had juice with it but you do get a free coaster to keep with all drinks.

For dessert, I couldn’t resist the Mimikyu Banana Crepes! The ears were chocolate cream crepes and the tail is a chocolate biscuit. The head had cream and fruit inside with dried raspberry cheeks and chocolate face.

Nicolette was more sensible and got the Pokemon Cafe Fruit Pancakes, which come with fruit, cream, syrup and a biscuit tail.

We were impressed with how good the food was as usually character cafe food looks a lot better than it tastes. I would definitely recommend getting a full meal rather than skipping straight to dessert. You can view the full menu online.

The highlight of our visit was an appearance by Eevee herself! I can’t deny we were a little disappointed not to see Chef Pikachu but this was almost as cute.

Eevee spent a lot of time in each area of the restaurant so everyone gets time to take photos and videos, though no selfies allowed. I did feel sorry for the people whose food had just arrived as it must have been pretty cold by the time they got back to their table.

There are lots of other great touches to the Pokemon Cafe. The decor is super cute of course and you can wander around and take photos. When you reserve your table, you can also order plush and other items which will be ready at your table so you can take photos with them. The servers are also super friendly about taking your photo or letting you film the interactive dishes and drinks.

As with most Japanese cafes, you bring the bill up to the cashier to pay where there’s a small shop if you want to add some exclusive Pokemon Cafe souvenirs like Server & Chef Pikachu plush, Pikachu plates and boxed cookies. It’s the cafe’s 1st anniversary next week so look out for adorable new products if you visit this year.

I got some file folders that I use to organise my recipes. The fake movie poster is so silly but I would absolutely go and see that if they made it. I also managed to pick the Pikachu coaster, which is a great souvenir.

And don’t forget to browse the main shop before you leave. There’s a plush of pretty much every Pokemon plus figures, games, clothing, Re-ment minatures, stationery, candy, souvenirs and so much more.

Location & Reservations

The Pokemon Cafe is inside the Pokemon Center DX near Tokyo Station. It’s easy enough to find with Google Maps – around a 5-10 minute walk from the Yaesu Exit. It’s a permanent cafe and open 7 days a week

Cafe reservations are required for everyone – you can book online here. It’s all in Japanese but a browser like Chrome will auto-translate. All you need is your name, your name in Japanese (just type it into Google Translate for a phonetic version that’s easier for your server to pronounce), phone number and email address. You’ll also need a credit card if you want to order shop goods in advance for collection.

Reservations are only available a few weeks in advance so set a reminder, especially if you want to visit on a weekend. Out of interest, I looked at the March bookings on the 2nd and the weekends were already completely booked up.

Have you visited the Pokemon Cafe? Would you like to go?