To celebrate the release of Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, “THE GUEST cafe & diner,” a restaurant inside the Shibuya Parco building, will mega-evolve into a Pokémon-themed cafe for a limited time starting this January. They will offer a wide variety of meals, desserts, and drinks to fully restore the HP of all Pokémon trainers and their loyal Pokémon friends.
If you missed the Pokémon cafe in Roppongi last summer, now’s your chance to catch it again. The Shibuya Pokémon cafe is scheduled to be open from January 9, 2015 until the end of February. So if you’re a fan of the series, or just like to eat food with cute faces staring back at you, mark your calendar now. The cafe won’t take reservations, and they’re expecting big crowds, but based on what’s on their menu it definitely looks worth checking out.
Just take a look at some of the fabulous food they’re offering.
▼ Smiling Pikachu Omu-rice – 1,580 yen (US$13.20)
First up is the ubiquitous Pikachu (you’ll see him quite a bit), with his saffron rice face and omelet ears. You get to choose between two sauces to go with your omelet-rice: either magma sauce (based on Primal Groudon) or aqua sauce (based on Primal Kyogre), both of which look to be ketchup. Best of all, you get a fresh Pokéball cup to take home with you when you’re done. Just don’t try throwing it at any Pokémon.
▼ Pikachu’s Favorite Hamburger Steak – 1,380 yen ($11.50)
We’re not sure how much choice Pikachu was given in deciding his favorite hamburger steak, but we can’t argue with what he picked. The hamburger meat is actually packed together with mashed potatoes and hidden underneath the Pikachu head, which is made of egg. Pikachu’s red cheeks are little peppers, and his ears are made of monaka, a crispy wafer. The orange cubes in the salad are Pokéblocks (basically candy for Pokémon), and the blue thing is allegedly a Rare Candy. The cafe can’t guarantee any leveling up as a result of eating it though.
▼ Primal Groudon’s Fireblast Mapo Tofu – 1,280 yen ($10.70)
The first non-Pikachu item looks pretty sizzling, with mapo tofu (fried pork and tofu with spices) surrounding the Pokéball in the pan. It comes with red rice and a fireblast-shaped salad, for maximum fire-breathing potential. Since it’s aimed at kids, it’s relatively mild, but if you’re a fire-type at heart, they provide some optional extra kick in a bottle for you to shake on.
▼ Pokemon Fried Potato Friends – 980 yen ($8.20)
All of the starter Pokémon from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire have come together to be fried in delicious potato wedge form. Now you don’t have to choose: you can eat Torchic, Mudkip and Treecko all at once. Just be sure your rival doesn’t grab one when you’re not looking, because you know they’ll pick the one that just happens to be super effective against yours.
▼ Pikachu’s Sweet Pancake – 1,580 yen ($13.20)
Moving on to desserts, we start off with a culmination of everything sweet: Pikachu’s sweet face, sweet pancakes, sweet potato ears, and sweet maple butter sauce to pour on top. It’s so sweet you might just start shooting electricity out of your own cheeks. Just like the Pikachu Omu-rice, this one comes with a Pokéball cup you can take home to impress all your friends with.
▼ “Pikachu, I Choose You!” Cream Puff – 1,280 yen ($10.70)
For the Pokémon trainer with a more sophisticated sweet tooth, this cream puff shows Pikachu coming out of his Pokéball as you toss him into battle. His face tops a pastry along with cream, fruits, and cotton candy, and it comes with a crepe on the side and a chocolate pen to write whatever you want.
▼ Primal Kyogre’s Hydropump Dessert Plate – 1,280 yen ($10.70)
Probably the least visually impressive of all the items, the dessert plate looks like it was hit by a devastating hydropump attack. The dessert itself is a mixture of gelatin and candy, and the Pokéball is made of white chocolate and berry mousse. Compared with Primal Groudon’s impressive mapo tofu, this seems to be a rare occurrence of a water-type clearly not having the advantage over a fire-type.
▼ Pikachu’s Electric Shock Parfait – 980 yen ($8.20)
If Pikachu’s sweet pancakes just aren’t quite sugary enough for your liking, then try this. It’s a giant wad of cotton candy stuck inside a mixture of mango mousse and pineapple gelatin. If the sugar rush doesn’t shock you into paralysis, nothing will.
▼ Volt Tackle Ginger Ale – 780 yen ($6.50)
Of course eating any one of the above will put quite a strain on even the toughest Pokémon master, so you might want something to help wash it all down. Volt Tackle Ginger Ale is supposed to taste just like taking one of Pikachu’s volt tackles right to the face. If that sounds like too much for you, they have a lower-voltage version available for little kids.
▼ Mix Au Lait and Saiko Soda – 680 yen ($5.70) and 580 yen ($4.85)
For anyone who’s only played the English versions of Pokémon, these two might not make much sense at first. But they’re actually the Japanese version of the items “lemonade” and “soda pop” that you can get from vending machines in the game. The Mix Au Lait is a fruity milk drink, and Saiko Soda is clear soda.
▼ Hot/Iced Pikachu Latte – 680 yen ($5.70) and 780 yen ($6.50)
Choose from a hot or iced Pikachu latte. The hot one comes with a Groudon or Kyogre cookie, and the cold one comes with the horror of having to rip off Pikachu’s ears and drink his face.
The cafe is also offering a ton of other incentives to come visit, like the free coaster you get with each drink order.
▼ I think five is a much more reasonable “gotta catch ’em all” than 719.
If you bring your 3DS and copy of Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire, aside from battling with other avid Pokémon trainers, you can also download a special “Pokemon Cafe Pikachu” as a present. It’s name is “P-Cafe,” it has the moves Play Nice, Charm, Nuzzle, and Sweet Kiss, and it’s holding the item Sweet Heart. It’s not going to be taking down the Elite Four anytime soon, but it’s a fun little souvenir of your trip.
With a photo-spot to take selfies with Pokémon, and a shop attached to the cafe selling official limited edition goods, there’s plenty of ways to get your full Pokémon fix. So be sure to hop on your trusty Taillow and Fly on down there this January.
Store Information
Open Dates: Jan. 9th, 2015 (Friday) to end of February 2015
Hours: Open at 11:00 a.m., last order at 10:00 p.m., last drinks at 10:30 p.m.
Location: Shibuya Parco Building, Part 1, 7th Floor
Address: Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku, Udagawa-cho 15-1
東京都渋谷区宇田川町15-1