I am familiar with Pokémon anime on the TV from childhood & Pokemon Go, and Tony grew up playing Pokémon games. After hearing this brand new Pokémon cafe opening in Tokyo in March, we made a calendar event to book an online reservation.

Making a reservation

Reservation is required, and can be easily booked online in English up to one month before. Each time slot is 90 minutes. While making a reservation, the seating area is picked. I’d recommend the center long table (area D) if maximizing view of live Pokémon is desired. The long table is shared, but it has Pokémon figures to accompany diners/trainers. On the other hand, live Pokémon goes to all tables, and people are free to walk around the cafe except when live Pokémon is out, so the seat area does not matter very much. We picked area A near the window, and had the view of Pokémon bench.

Food

The two of us got two entrees and one dessert. We had Snorlax doria and Pikachu curry, with Eevee parfait as our dessert. All were pretty tasty as cafe food, and I enjoyed the parfait particularly. They have a regular menu and seasonal menu, there was a Tangela dish I was hoping to get but was not on the menu anymore. Everything is ordered from a tablet on the table.

Doria is a western Japanese rice dish topped with cheese layer. My Snorlax Doria came with a soup and a salad, the portion was perfect with half of the Eevee parfait. Chef Pikachu was around when the parfait came, the parfait had so many surprises! After having a super sweet parfait at Gundam Cafe in Akihabara, the chocolate flavor Eevee parfait was a good balance of chocolatey sweet and fruity sour.

Live Pokémon

This is the highlight for sure. I believe every time slot gets to meet live Pokémon. We met Chef Pikachu (blue), and I’ve also seen pictures of Eevee, and Chef Pikachu (red). It would be interesting to see Psyduck or Snorlax… while Snorlax is asleep of course. The table next to us left before Chef Pikachu came out, and the staff probably informed them of the show and they came back just in time. Chef Pikachu went about the cafe greeting everyone, and did cute Pikachu pose (Pipika…CHU!).

Transportations

It is easy to find the cafe from Tokyo station, following signs of exit B0-B3 for Takashimaya department store East building, onto the 5th floor. Tokyo station could be quite disorienting, we got lost for a bit and thankfully made our reservation. I’d recommend leaving a few minutes for getting lost from all the entrances and exits to many kinds of trains!

Shopping

There are Pokémon products only sold at the cafe. They can be purchased while making an online reservation, or from the tablet while dining in. If buying ahead, they wrapped the souvenirs nicely in a bag and placed it on customer’s table.

A general Pokémon shopping area is right by the cafe, the items almost the same as the mega center in Ikebukuro Sunshine City. Having been to the mega center few days before, I actually liked this one better with a wall of evolution of Pokémon games and slightly more calm.

Wrap up

We had so much fun at this cafe, despite being old adults. There is so much energy from the staff (including live Pokémon), that brightened this space filled with Pokémon. For anyone having played or watched Pokémon series, this cafe will rekindle the love for Pokémon. In fact, we bought Pokémon Let’s Go the next day at Yodobashi (tax-free & Visa 5%).

Last but not least, here is our full Tokyo/Kamakura/Yokohama itinerary in December 2018.