Visiting the Pokémon Cafe is on the hit checklist for a lot of dad and mom and Pikachu followers alike, however reserving a spot to get in may be harder than reserving an ANA First Class flight.
Right here’s how my household was capable of get in and what we considered the expertise.
The Most Widespread Themed Cafe
Japan is host to quite a lot of themed cafes for standard franchises, however in all probability essentially the most well-known of those is the Pokémon Cafe, impressed by the well-known Pokémon online game.
The café is a singular place the place Pokémon followers can get pleasure from a enjoyable and interactive eating expertise that options dishes and drinks impressed by the varied Pokémon characters.
Location
The Pokémon Cafe has two everlasting places in Japan: one in Tokyo and one in Osaka.
On our journey to Japan this previous March, we visited the Osaka location.
The Tokyo location was the primary to open in 2018, within the Nihonbashi district. It’s positioned beside the Pokémon Middle of the Takashimaya division retailer, the most important official Pokémon retailer in Japan (which is price a go to by itself) and is open from 10:30am to 10pm.
The café in Osaka opened a yr later in 2019, within the Shinsaibashi district. It’s positioned contained in the Daimaru division retailer and is open from 10am to 9:30pm.
Reserving a Reservation
Like all the pieces standard in Japan, a complicated reservation is required to go to both café location (at the least in response to their web site). On-line reservations grow to be obtainable on the cafés’ official web site 31 days previous to your deliberate go to, at 6pm Japan time.
By means of the net reservation pages, you’ll be able to e book for as much as a most of 8 friends per reservation, pending availability.
To make a reservation, choose the variety of friends and the date of your go to. After this, the time slots for that day will pop up. Likelihood is that you just’ll see on a regular basis slots greyed out, which means that they’re absolutely booked and never obtainable for reserving.
Time slots with blue textual content point out availability for reserving.
With regards to reserving the Pokémon Cafe, don’t make your plans anticipating to e book a most well-liked time slot. Relatively, e book no matter time slot you may get after which work the remainder of your schedule round it.
Take observe that the café in Osaka can be divided into three seating areas (A, B, C). Whereas seating space A is closest to the brief present that the café places on, as soon as once more, your greatest wager is to simply choose no matter seating is on the market on the time of reserving.
In case you are fortunate sufficient to snag a reservation, needless to say reservations are for 90 minutes of eating time, no matter your arrival time, so don’t be late.
My Expertise with Reserving
First, the dangerous information – Getting a reservation on the Pokémon Cafe is like profitable the lottery.
Nevertheless, as a result of the Tokyo location is extra standard, your probabilities could also be barely higher when attempting to e book the Osaka location.
That being mentioned, I attempted to get a reservation three mornings in a row, solely to fail.
I set an alarm for 4:50am to be able to e book at 5am EST, when reservations opened. At 5am, the reservation web page turned gradual and sometimes timed-out earlier than I may even see the obtainable time slots.
The primary morning I caught a glimpse of an obtainable time slot in blue, however by the point I clicked it, it was unavailable. A complete day of reservations was booked up inside seconds.
Reddit boards and a few blogs instructed ready 15 to twenty minutes after the reservations opened and have been absolutely booked to attempt once more, as any incomplete bookings get re-released at the moment. Sadly, this additionally didn’t work for me.
I used to be a little bit discouraged by this expertise, however I additionally knew this might be the probably consequence.
How We Snagged a Desk
Now for the excellent news – My dedication acquired the higher of me and I continued to scan by means of a number of boards, and got here throughout one success story that gave me hope.
One household was capable of get into the Osaka location with no reservation by merely exhibiting up on the café when it opened.
Based mostly on this, after we arrived in Osaka, I requested my children whether or not they have been keen to provide it a shot. It will be 20 minutes on public transit to get there with a giant likelihood of being turned away and all this ending in disappointment.
The youngsters have been onboard, so we determined to attempt our luck.
My children should not normally morning folks, however on that morning, all of them awoke promptly. The Pokémon Cafe in Osaka opens at 10am day by day, and we ended up arriving later than I had deliberate, at 10:04am.
There have been two strains at reverse sides of the café entrance. One was for these with booked reservations and the opposite was the café’s cancellation line, for folks keen to attend for cancellations or no reveals.
Once we arrived, we joined this line, with one couple already lined up earlier than us.
On the café entrance, there was a board that displayed the seat availability for the day. A pink X meant they have been absolutely booked, whereas an orange triangle meant restricted availability.
The hostess suggested us that “restricted availability” normally meant that there have been two to 4 seats obtainable. Based mostly on this board, you’ll be able to decide to take one of many later obtainable time slots, or you’ll be able to proceed to attend in line for a final minute cancellation or no present.
On our explicit day, there have been 4 time slots with restricted availability. I checked on-line whereas ready in line and noticed nothing obtainable, so don’t anticipate the web site to provide you correct info on same-day availability.
5 minutes into the café opening, they seated the couple in entrance of us. Once we informed the hostess that we have been a household of 5, she shook her head and suggested us that at the moment, there was nothing obtainable to accommodate us now or later.
Given this, I used to be ready to just accept defeat.
Nevertheless, after one other 10 minutes, we have been suggested {that a} desk for 4 and a desk for 2 had grow to be obtainable and that they might accommodate us if we have been keen to separate up.
We agreed to be break up up, in order that they directed us to the reservation line and our Pokémon Cafe expertise started!
In complete, 12 folks from the cancellation line, together with my household, have been seated that morning, in a restaurant that may accommodate 50 to 60 folks.
The Expertise
When getting into the café in Osaka, I observed that the venue wasn’t as huge because the one in Tokyo however that it was brightly lit, with tables of two and 4 spaced comfortably. The partitions have been adorned with photos of Pokémon, and there have been Pokémon plushies and statues all through the house.
The tables have been preset with napkins, themed cutlery, placemats, and a pill the place you’ll be able to view the menu and submit your order. The menu affords a choice of dishes priced for ¥1,540–2,750 and drinks for ¥935–1540.
In addition they have featured dishes and meal units that change now and again.
Whenever you order a drink, you get a free plastic Pokémon coaster as a take-home memento; nevertheless, it’s fairly poor high quality, so I wouldn’t order a drink simply to get one.
The presentation of the dishes was positively the spotlight of the expertise for me. They have been creatively organized within the shapes of assorted Pokémon characters with ornamental components that have been additionally Pokémon-themed.
We had a Snorlax rooster and rice dish, a Pikachu curry plate, a Pikachu soufflé pancake, and a children Pikachu hamburger meal.
Although the meals presentation was pretty, the style of the dishes and drinks was mediocre, however I can’t say I used to be anticipating something extra.
Within the final 20–half-hour of the reservation session, there was a brief efficiency led by a workers member alongside a big Pikachu.
The efficiency was fully in Japanese, so we didn’t perceive any of what they have been saying; nevertheless, seeing a cute, taller-than-them Pikachu was sufficient to keep up my children’ full consideration.
Conclusion
The Pokémon Cafe is a well-liked however hard-to-book expertise in Japan that’s on the to-see checklist for a lot of guests.
In the event you’re feeling down since you’ve tried and did not get a reservation on-line, not all hope is misplaced. Although not brazenly marketed, you’ll be able to go to the café to attempt your luck at getting a desk in particular person.
Based mostly on my expertise, go as early as potential if attempting this strategy and go for the Osaka location over the Tokyo one if it’s an choice.
The expertise is a enjoyable and memorable one for anybody who loves the Pokémon franchise. As a dad or mum who’s detached in the direction of it, I discovered it to be a little bit underwhelming and overpriced, however my children actually loved it, and ultimately, that’s what actually issues.
