Trip Report – Pokemon Cafe Osaka – A Negative Opinion

So, to start, I _fully_ expect to ruffle some feathers with this report, and I’ll probably end up with a lot of mean messages in my inbox. Because the fact of the matter is, I thought the [Pokemon Cafe](https://www.pokemoncenter-online.com/cafe/en/) was boring, overpriced, and pretty lame overall. But I wanted to write this as a dose of reality, because I feel like it gets hyped up a lot.

### My Background and a Caveat

I enjoy Pokemon. Like every other kid, I watched the TV show and I played the games. Even up into my twenties, I vaguely liked Pokemon in the way that most people vaguely like cute, bright, cuddly creatures. I own some merch, mostly plushies and keychains that I’ve picked up on previous trips to Japan. But I’m not in love with Pokemon. And I’m definitely not obsessed with it. I’m also not in love with theme cafes, since I’ve been to a few and I generally find them pretty tacky and with the bare-minimum effort put in to make money.

So there’s the caveat. If you think Pokemon is the best thing ever, or you find you loved every second of being in other theme cafes (or both), you’ll likely appreciate the Pokemon Cafe no matter what is in it or what I say about it. I’m writing this more for the people who are on the fence. Who are wondering if they should bother with the hassle of a reservation, or take a few hours out of their trip to go there, or pay a not-insignificant amount of money for an experience. Or for those who _didn’t_ get a reservation and are wondering if they are missing out on something amazing. My take? Don’t worry, you’re not.

### A Request

I didn’t write this report to argue about the merits of the Pokemon Cafe or theme cafes in general. If you like them and want to spend time/money on them, that’s cool. I like a lot of things that other people would find weird and crazy, and that’s fine, too. So don’t feel like you have to defend the cafe in the comments—or the fact that you like it (although feel free to chime in with your own experiences!). And no, you’re not going to convince me that I should have enjoyed it, or that I did something wrong and therefore didn’t enjoy it, or whatever. I’m simply writing down how I felt about it when I was there because I don’t see this particular opinion a lot.

### Reservation Experience

You might be asking: Himekat, _why_ did you go to the Pokemon Cafe if it sounds like you don’t love Pokemon or theme cafes? Good question. Short answer? My husband wanted to go to the Pokemon Cafe. The things we do for love, right?

He was, in fact, the one to secure a reservation. This was back in February (since our trip was in March). While both Pokemon Cafes seem to be exceptionally popular, the Osaka one is _slightly less_ popular. We managed to get a reservation hours after they opened up, and there were still several time slots open for that day when we booked ours. Reservations can be made [here](https://www.pokemoncenter-online.com/cafe/en/reservation.php), 31 days in advance of when you want them.

You don’t have to pay anything to make a reservation, and nothing binds you to going, which might be why there were a couple of empty tables during our time slot.

Note, also, that if you want the [super special rubber coasters](https://www.pokemoncenter-online.com/cafe/en/goods/) that they offer you while making your reservation, you _must_ buy them right then. They were not available for purchase at the cafe, and the coasters you receive there are normal (thin plastic).

### Cafe Experience

We arrived a little early to the cafe, which is on the 9th floor of the Osaka Shinsaibashi Daimaru. Luckily, there’s an actual Pokemon Center (store) and a Shonen Jump store on the same floor, so there’s a lot to do to keep yourself busy for a while.

The Pokemon Cafe also has a board outside of it that tells you if there are open reservations for the day. You can see that [for our day](https://imgur.com/7PPJoIS), there were still some slots available. I took this picture around 11:45am, and by the time we were out of our reservation (1:30-ish?), the triangles had been replaced with Xs, so they do have same-day availability at least sometimes.

Our seating was technically for 12:15, but we went up to the hostess at about 12:05, and she checked our name on her tablet. We didn’t actually have to show her anything, although we did have our reservation email handy on our phone. She immediately showed us to a table.

[This is what about half the cafe looks like](https://imgur.com/vGEMQS3) (I managed to snag a picture before people arrived), so it’s not huge. I’d guess it can seat about 50-60 people in total, mostly at tables that are grouped for 2, 4, or 6 people.

All ordering is done [on a tablet](https://imgur.com/fv5K883), and there are some instructions and plastic guidelines for being in the cafe at your table when you arrive. The only decoration at the table is [a placemat](https://imgur.com/SBPd09T) of a random Pokemon (you can see my husband’s is different). You are allowed to take it home with you, as we were told by the hostess, but ours were a mess at the end of the meal. If you want to do that, I suggest immediately removing it from the table. We used the tablet to order two drinks, two entrées, and a dessert.

My drink was the [Mix Au Lait Chocolate](https://imgur.com/ZvMceVw). Our waitress, who spoke perfect English, walked me through mixing it up myself. This drink is clearly designed for kids, given the absolute ebullient excitement she put into her tone as she walked me through the process (I admire her dedication to keeping her energy up even for a less-than-enthusiastic adult). Ultimately, though, this drink basically sucked. It was milk that had been shaken with the slightest amount of syrup and whole chunks of chocolate/cookie crumb, so it was a bit like a lightly-sweetened milk with chunky bits in it. I’ve had better cans of coffee and cocoa from Family Mart, so the fact that I paid 1100 yen for it was pretty… painful.

My husband had a melon float, which was melon soda with cream and ice cream. It was much prettier overall, and tasted much better than my drink, but it was still criminally expensive at (I believe) 950 yen.

For lunch entrées, [I picked the Eevee plate](https://imgur.com/QOZWldc), and my husband picked the Pikachu plate, which you can sort of see in the background of that photo. (Sorry, a lot of my photos unfortunately have my husband in them, so I don’t want to post them here.) Each plate was 1848 yen.

To put it nicely, the food was mediocre and left a lot to be desired. To put it more bluntly, it was pretty damn bad, especially given the price point and what you can get in Japan for the same amount of money. If you look at my plate, the Eevee itself is actually a dense, bland bread bun with crumbly cheese surrounding it. The quiche to the right was edible but soggy and tasteless. The clam chowder was thin and watery (disappointing, especially, as I come from the land of clam chowder). The tiny bit of potato salad at the back was on par with most potato salad I’ve had in Japan, but since you can get that in every 800 yen breakfast set and in every convenience store, it wasn’t much of an addition to this plate. Overall, I’d say this was able to be likened to a meal in Economy class on an airplane. My husband’s food was of similar quality and style, except Pikachu-themed.

And frankly, as far as branding goes, this seemed like lazy work to me. A few heart cutouts? A tiny bit of styling on the bun to make it into Eevee? Putting it all on an Eevee plate? Even the cafe itself is mostly just images of Pokemon that you can see in any Pokemon Center (which are free to enter). White walls, and a gray floor, and a few statues/plushies also felt a bit lazy. To be quite blunt, I think you’d have to be a child to be impressed by the quality of the food, drinks, or decor.

And the Pokemon Cafe is _absolutely_ for children. I’d say at least half of the tables had children with them, the staff all act in an upbeat way meant to get children excited, and the show in the middle of the meal could not have been more clearly designed for children.

So, to touch on the show. About 3/4 of the way through the time slot, the waitresses make a big deal of Pikachu showing up. They ask everyone to remain in their seats, and a character actor comes out from the back. The waitresses ask Pikachu a lot of questions, explain a lot of things about him to the diners, and then lead the restaurant in a bit of a clapping round while Pikachu dances. This is all conducted in Japanese, and there’s even a big TV behind Pikachu that shows children doing the dance and singing the song. When that’s done, Pikachu walks back and forth a little so that diners can get clearer pictures of him, and then he leaves. I don’t have any pictures, since we were pretty far away from the action, and my pictures would mostly be of other people taking pictures.

Once the show is over, the waitresses ask you to place any last orders, and then they start dessert. We had ordered [the soufflé pancake](https://imgur.com/noPFjFO) (for 1848 yen), so that came out quickly, as the time slot was nearly over. Calling it a “soufflé pancake” is extremely generous. It was more like a tiny round of spongey cake that you could pour syrup over. I’d liken it to a baum or other baked good you could get at Family Mart for 200 yen, but it was probably the best thing I had at the cafe, mostly because it was covered in syrup and fruit.

At one point during the meal, the waitress also came by to give us our plastic coasters (since you get a coaster if you buy a drink). She had us play a quick game on her tablet where we selected an image of Pikachu we liked, and that determined what coasters we got. There was a woman at a table nearby who had bought six drinks—my husband said she was a coaster hunter. She got to play the game six times and get six coasters.

After we’d finished, we got up to pay our bill and leave. The [exclusive merch](https://www.pokemoncenter-online.com/cafe/en/goods/) for the Pokemon Cafe is along the way to the register, so you can pick up anything you want and pay for it with your meal. I’d say the only things worth really taking a look at were the chef and waitress Pikachu plushies. A lot of it was the cheap plastic plates they use in the cafe, or the cutlery.

We picked up one of the Pikachu plushies, since we have a few limited edition ones from around Japan.

### Why I Didn’t Like It

All told, we paid about 7600 yen ($58 USD) for food that was probably worth a fraction of that, as I’d have rather stopped at the konbini for a sandwich and a bottle of tea (and it would have been a better meal). It wasn’t even that cute, as it ultimately seemed like a sloppy attempt to shoehorn a character into some edible items. So definitely don’t go to the cafe for food, but I think we all knew that about theme cafes.

The cafe itself is on the bland side for decoration, too. I was expecting some original sketches or statues, maybe interesting video playing, vintage merch on display, etc. There was none of that. Almost everything there with the exception of the cafe-limited plates, cutlery, Pikachu plushes, and a few chef-Pikachu and waitress-Pikachu designs on the wall were things you could see elsewhere.

It’s pretty clear the place is made for children. The show they do is honestly cringe-worthy to watch as an adult, and the staff are definitely geared toward treating people with the fake upbeat tone that you use to talk to a kid.

### Who **Should** Go to the Pokemon Cafe?

I don’t think it’s _all_ bad. It would definitely be fun for children. The staff put the effort in, and I imagine the little show was enthralling to kids, and the decor was bright enough where it mattered that it would likely get (and keep) a kid’s attention. They also wouldn’t care about the food quality, so they don’t have that dinging their opinion of the cafe.

And as I said above, someone who loves Pokemon or theme cafes (or both) would want to add this experience to their collection. If you are _obsessed_ with Pokemon and need to do everything related to it and see every sight associated with it, then you won’t want to skip this. And for that kind of person, it’s probably just barely passable to be a fun experience with some fun photos.

But if you are not sure whether the cafe is worth it, I would honestly advise you to take your 7600 yen, buying something cute from the vast array of options in any Pokemon Center, and use the leftover cash to buy a decent lunch from a real restaurant.