Finally, a restaurant that uses the aesthetic of a used video game store.
Over the years, our veteran reporter Mr. Sato has visited countless eateries and experienced a vast array of services and foods. It was getting to the point that he thought he’d seen it all…until he met Kogane No Potatorado.
Kogane No Potatorado is an offshoot of the increasingly popular Okinawan steak chain Yappari Steak which specializes in fried potatoes and recently opened in Shibuya, Tokyo. Being the professional he is, Mr. Sato decided to research the place online before going down. However, the website design caught him off guard.
▼ The first thing you see when you go to the Kogane No Potatorado website
He wasn’t sure if he accidentally went to a browser game website from 2005. He watched an Aztec pteranodon float on the screen for a moment before realizing he had to scroll down. There he found the explanation that the Kogane No Potatorado is a sacred place for potatoes created by the Potato God who has delivered unto us the good news of potato deliciousness.
▼ The story was supplemented with several videos such as this
It was nice that the restaurant had its own creation myth, but Mr. Sato still hadn’t found any mention of serving food and it was getting late, so he decided to just go down and see it for himself.
And see it he did! The storefront was certainly hard to miss, but it was also really hard to tell it was a restaurant. To Mr. Sato it looked more like a store that sold secondhand NES games.
The sign on the window explained that they sold various potato-based food items, but it was drowned out quite a bit by the psychedelic cats, Aztec potato gods, and garbage cans with faces.
Mr. Sato spotted a rack of flyers and picked one up. It was advertising the Top 3 Most Popular Items with a caption that read: “You can’t go wrong if you order these!”
The items were: Agepo (“fried potato”) with sour cream for 500 yen (US$3.84); Deka (“large”) Agepo, large chili cheese fried potato sticks for 1,000 yen; and Pote Cup, which contains mashed potato, corn soup, fried potato sticks, cheese and vegetables for 700 yen. An important detail to note is that those things that look like French fries aren’t exactly that. Rather, they’re fried sticks of mashed potato.
Our reporter was feeling overwhelmed by the whole experience so far and started getting confused by the menu. He didn’t notice item names and thought the caption was the name of each item, which is forgivable since the item names were written in caption bubbles and the captions were not.
▼ Mr. Sato: “People who think they will be forgiven even if they lick their fingers! Yes!”
▼ Mr. Sato: “Satisfies Potatorus too! Silence the hungry people!”
▼ Mr. Sato: “Search for hidden treasures dormant in the jungle!”
Our reporter was at a loss. He felt too embarrassed to walk up to the counter and say; “I’ll have a ‘Satisfies Potatorus too! Silence the hungry people!’ please.” Most of the items were also too complex to order with a simple description. Kogane No Potatorado had a service to order by app, but Mr. Sato didn’t have time to fumble around with his phone making an account.
After an unnerving period of weighing his options, he finally went to the counter and ordered “Mysterious Thief Jaguarman’s Purple Temptation” which he could have also gotten just by asking for “Pote Cup 3” but what was done was done.
Kogane No Potatorado doesn’t have a dining area and there aren’t any benches outside either. So after paying 650 yen, Mr. Sato had to walk the mean streets of Shibuya with his cup of Mysterious Thief Jaguarman’s Purple Temptation.
Luckily, he found a place to sit down before his incredibly conspicuous snack attracted too much attention. It was a cup of colorful mashed potatoes covered with chocolate-covered cornflakes and M&Ms.
The food itself was surprisingly good–the creamy mashed potato and crispy cornflakes were a nice combination which made for a solid midday snack.
Despite the good food, Mr. Sato had some reservations about Kogane No Potatorado. While he understood what they were going for in a truly unique dining experience, he worried that they might be going overboard with it. This was especially dangerous as it was located in a rather out-of-the-way part of Shibuya. Had it been in a place like Golden Gai then there’d be enough foot traffic to lure in curious customers.
He’d also appreciate it if they added a more simplified ordering system for old guys like him, but otherwise he hopes they do well. So, if you happen to come across Kogane No Potatorado, be sure to stop by and grab a tasty potato snack. And if it turns out to be an actual secondhand game store, let us know if they’re selling a copy of Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll.
Restaurant Information
Kogane No Potatorado Land Where the Potato God First Descended Shibuya Branch / 黄金のポテトラド ポテ神降臨はじまりの地 シブヤ店
Address: Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku, Maruyamacho 1-19, Take Bldg. 1F
東京都渋谷区円山町1-19 竹ビル1F
Open: 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Website
Photos ©SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]