Detective Conan Cafe 2019
*I’ll be sharing important information and tips on the Detective Conan Cafe in Japan! Do look out for the next one in 2020 April! Detective Conan Cafe 2019 in Tokyo has ended on 2 June.
So, after missing out on the Detective Conan Cafe in Tokyo in 2018 (it’s an annual pop-up cafe in Japan), I was able to visit not one, but two Detective Conan Cafes in 2019! The first was in Ikebukuro, Tokyo in May 2019 and the other was in Taipei, Taiwan in August 2019. (I will be doing a post on my Detective Conan fan experiences in Taipei soon, so watch out for the update.)
I’ve also visited the Detective Conan x AniOn Station in Akihabara in May 2019. (Click to find out more!)
My very first visit to a Detective Conan Cafe was waaay back in 2017 and I really had a lot of fun. The food was delicious too. I’m still raving about the Black Sesame Smoothie I had two years ago! I had hoped to visit it again in 2018 but the cafe had ended by the time I was in Japan. Still managed to get some Zero the Enforcer (Movie #22) stuff though so it was still alright.
Anyway, the 2019 cafe was now at a different location (from 2017) with some new rules. I went to the Ikebukuro branch in Tokyo since it was the nearest to my hotel. 😊
Page Contents
WHAT IS THE DETECTIVE CONAN CAFE?
The Detective Conan Cafe in Japan is an annual temporary pop-up cafe. It is usually held between the months of April to June across major cities in Japan. It is usually held in conjunction with the movie of that year. So the main theme and goods of the cafe in a particular year generally reflects that of the movie released in the same year.
Take the 2019 movie “The Fist of Blue Sapphire” 紺青の拳 for example. As it is the first Detective Conan movie set overseas (SINGAPORE!), there were several Singapore-related food & drinks in the themed menu. Makoto Kyogoku was also featured heavily in the cafe exclusive goods as he was the other main lead in movie #23.
For more information, you can visit the official website: https://conan-cafe.jp (It’s updated every year).
Note: With Akai Shuichi (赤井 秀一) announced as the lead for movie #24, not surprisingly, there was also an Akai themed cafe planned for 2020: https://akai.conan-cafe.jp/ Unfortunately, due to the global pandemic situation in 2020, movie #24 has been delayed to 2021. The Akai themed cafe will also be closed till further notice.
2019 DETECTIVE CONAN CAFE (TOKYO)
Probably as a testament to how popular the cafes are, they had more than one Detective Conan Cafe in Tokyo itself for the 2019 run! (Note: Please refer to the official website for the 2020 cafe locations as it might differ from the 2019 locations.)
- Shibuya: SHIBUYA BOX CAFE & SPACE (Shibuya LOFT)
- Ikebukuro: THE GUEST cafe & diner (Ikebukuro PARCO)
Advanced Reservations were available for the cafe in Shibuya. Each seating is 80 minutes. The reservation fee is 500 yen excluding tax. You will receive a reservation present when you do so.
For the 2019 run, these stickers (randomly given) were the reservation present. Each person in your reservation party will receive one sticker.
Unlike Shibuya, the cafe in Ikebukuro has no advance reservation system. Re: WALK-INS! (yay!) However, there was still a physical queue ticket system which is used for peak periods. (Refer to the next section DETECTIVE CONAN CAFE – THE GUEST CAFE AND DINER for more details.)
*KID the phantom thief themed cafe
IMPORTANT TIPS
IMPORTANT TIP #1: If you are a fan of Detective Conan, you might like to plan your fangirl trip to Japan sometime in the months of April to June. This is when you can probably find the most Detective Conan related events and activities to participate in. Why? Because April is usually when the movies are released, so there is generally a lot of lead-up and related events in Japan happening in those months.
IMPORTANT TIP #2: If you plan to visit a cafe in a location that allows for advance reservations, please just pay the reservation fee and do an advance booking online. Based on my own experiences and observations, it is almost impossible to score a walk-in at those cafes.
The Detective Conan Cafes are REALLY POPULAR in Japan.
DETECTIVE CONAN CAFE – THE GUEST CAFE and DINER
I opted for the cafe in Ikebukuro Parco since it was the one nearer to my hotel and because it accepted walk-ins. As my 2019 trip was extremely last-minute, by the time I had looked at the cafes in Shibuya and Osaka for reservations, all the slots were full on my travel dates.
I went during late evening (after 7.30pm) on a weekday and was pretty fortunate to find a seat immediately. It probably helped that I was a solo diner too because all the table seats were full. (I had one of the counter seats).
The lunch-mats are given randomly to all diners. (I think there were 3 different designs in all.) They were placed face-down on the table so that you’ll receive a little surprise when you are seated. ^ ^
Next, remember how I said earlier in the post that the Detective Conan Cafe (Ikebukuro) implemented a physical queue ticket system for peak times?
Well, I popped by on another weekday afternoon for another visit to see if they had replenished the sold-out goods. And OMG! The queue for the cafe was really long.
Click on the photos for a larger view.
THERE IS ONLY ONE TRUTH! FOOD & DRINKS
For Drinks (yes, this was under the drinks menu), I went with Amuro Tooru’s themed drink: 安室透の買い出しクリームソーダ, loosely translated as Amuro Tooru’s shopping cream soda?
This drink set came with a free Amuro keychain. (which was totally the reason why I ordered it.) And my random coaster that came with the drink was Amuro too! How about that? My random coaster from the 2017 Detective Conan Cafe was Amuro too!
For Desserts, I just had to order the 犯人デザートセット～フォンダンショコラ&スムージー～, loosely translated as “Criminal Dessert Set: Fondant Chocolate and Smoothie”.
It had me at black sesame smoothie. And yes, it still tasted great! 😊 I really enjoyed this dessert. It was delicious and so much fun to play with. They even served it on a big silver raised platter! Alas, the golf-club looking stirrer had to be returned to the cafe.
And erm… I kinda tried to sneak in photos of the other food/drinks items ordered by others in the cafe. Here’s my attempt LOL:
The huge looking “Kid’s Hat” look-alike dish was actually Kaito Kid’s themed food: 怪盗キッドのイリュージョンパスタ or “Kaito Kid’s Illusion Pasta” The actual dish was honestly rather pretty, from what I saw. They had this trick where after the staff poured the “sauce” onto the pasta, there will be “smoke” coming out from the pot below the plate. After you had your share of taking videos/photos, the staff will remove the pot and leave the plate with the pasta for you.
Another popular dish ordered by many fans was the 黒ずくめのAPTX4869カレー（アポトキシンカレー）～シェリービネガードレッシングサラダ添え～ (Blackened APTX4869 curry (apotoxin curry) with sherry vinegar dressing salad).
*Official photo of 黒ずくめのAPTX4869カレー（アポトキシンカレー）～シェリービネガードレッシングサラダ添え～
Have you been to the Detective Conan Cafe? If you can share with me what your favorite dish/drink was in the comments section, it will be much obliged. ^ ^
CAFE MENU & CAFE RULES
You can also refer to the full 2019 menu here: https://conan-cafe.jp/cafe_menu/ (Do note that this page will likely be updated to the 2020 cafe menu in 2020.)
Some of the cafes even had take-out options!
Often-times, when a character’s birthday falls within the cafe operational months, they will introduce a special time-limited collaboration menu item. During my visit in end May, it was Kid’s birthday so they had a “Kaito Kid Illusion Dessert Bowl”.
Next, please see the rules of the Detective Conan Cafe:
2019 DETECTIVE CONAN CAFE DECOR
Here are just some random photos of the cafe:
DETECTIVE CONAN CAFE GOODS
One improvement I liked about the 2019 run VS the 2017 one I went to was that you do not need to dine at the cafe to buy the exclusive goods.
The merchandise area was now located at a separate pop-up space near the cafe dining area.
Unfortunately, so many of the exclusive cafe goods were already sold out by the time I was there!!! Nooooooo!
Thankfully, I managed to buy a somewhat similar badge design at the Detective Conan Scientific Investigation Exhibition (Post coming soon!) months later so its still good. ^ ^
I also wanted the below passport-styled notebooks but they were all sold out as well. Look how cute these are! How can anyone resist buying them? (Probably explains why it was all sold out, LOL). Anyone wants to give me theirs?
Here’s a couple of close-up shots of goods sold:
For the full list of exclusive goods, visit https://conan-cafe.jp/goods/ (Do note that this page will likely be updated to the 2020 goods in April 2020.)
SPECIAL STAMP CAMPAIGN
There was a special stamp campaign where if you collected the stamps for the Detective Conan x Namja Town; Detective Conan Cafe 2019; Detective Conan x Ani On Station, you can exchange for some special goods. I only visited two of the three so I didn’t manage to get the special goods.
So if you are planning to visit the 2020 Detective Conan Cafe in Tokyo, be sure to check out if there’s any special partner collaboration campaigns you can go for too! Sometimes it might be additional coasters, files, stickers and cards. Always check the official website for information!
MY LOOT
So technically, I didn’t buy any 2019 Detective Conan Cafe exclusive goods. *Gasps* Unless you count the coaster and lunch-mat I had from dining at the cafe. Most of the items I wanted to buy were either sold out or sizes not available (e.g. T-shirts).
However, I received a surprise present from someone who knows I’m a fan of Detective Conan! She bought these for me when she was at Shibuya’s Detective Conan Cafe. Thank you! ^ ^
And that concludes my 2019 visit to the Detective Conan Cafe! I hope I will be able to go for the 2020 one!
In the words of Edogawa Conan: 真実はいつも一つ!
*Image of Conan from https://www.conan-portal.com/#charaContent
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If you are a fan of Detective Conan, you may be interested in these other fan escapades of mine:
- Detective Conan x AniOn Station 2018/2019 (Read about it here)
- Detective Conan Cafe 2017 (*Updating!)
- Detective Conan Cafe… in Taipei! (Coming soon!)
- Detective Conan Scientific Investigation Exhibition
- My Detective Conan Fangirl Geekout: Meeting Aoyama Gosho Sensei! (Coming Soon!)
Check out some of my other escapades in other fandoms too!
- Mister Donut: Pokemon
- Attack on Titan x Aniplus Cafe
- Mob Psycho 100 Anime Review & Thoughts
- Pikachu Sweets by Pokemon Cafe
- Genshin Impact x Aniplus Cafe
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