Attack on Titan (AOT) x Aniplus Cafe
Have you been to an Attack on Titan (AOT) cafe? In this post, I’ll share about my experience and thoughts on my visit to an Aot Cafe (outside of Japan) and how it compares to Animate Cafe.
UPDATE 2023: Good news! Aniplus Cafe is running the AOT Collaboration Cafe again from 14 April 2023! And Yes I have a reservation! ^ ^
*The 2022 Attack on Titan x Aniplus Cafe ran from April 1 to May 2022
Today I’ll be introducing an anime themed cafe that I’ve been to… nope it’s not in Japan BUT in Singapore!! ^ ^
Happy to share that my first anime themed cafe in 2022 went to the Attack on Titan collaboration with Aniplus Cafe.
Gosh! It’s really been such a long time since I’ve been to an anime themed cafe (2 years +!) due to the global pandemic. With travel to Japan seemingly starting again, hopefully, this would mean that I’ll be able to resume my anime cafe escapades soon!
And because back in 2018, I was fortunate enough to go for an Attack on Titan x Animate Cafe in Japan, I now have the firsthand experience of seeing how different countries manages a themed cafe of the same anime! (And yes, I will do a small comparison in this post).
Read on to find out more.
I hope you are as excited to read about my visit to an AOT cafe as I am excited to share about it. ^ ^
Page Contents
Attack on Titan Aniplus Cafe
To commemorate the final anime season (Part II) of Attack on Titan, Aniplus ran an AOT cafe from 1 April to May 2022! By the time you read this post, the campaign has ended.
[Update June 2022]: The new Aniplus Cafe collaboration theme is Heaven’s Blessing! Yes, I’ve made a reservation! And Yes I’ll be posting about it!
Having not gone for a proper anime-themed cafe for the past 2 years, I immediately leaped at the chance to go for one. So when I first found out on social media that this cafe collaboration was happening, I quickly messaged my friends, made my reservations and snagged a slot on the second day of the collaboration.
And because I was going with a group (instead of solo) this time round… yup! That means I get to order more items from the menu! ^^
To find out more about Aniplus Cafe, please check out their official website here; and their official facebook page here
At the AOT Cafe
As my reservation was at 7.30pm, I arrived earlier at the cafe so that I could take some photos. I have to say, the neon orange signboard does help the cafe to stand out among all the other restaurants in the area, so it’s pretty easy to find.
Please excuse the dim lighting of the photos. I can never get the right settings for night-time photos on my phones. The photos do get better later on, I promise!
When you arrive at the cafe, the first sight that greets you is undoubtedly these large-sized decals of some of our favourite survey corps members. So far, everything looks rather promising.
You have to admit, it’s quite a sight to behold while waiting to enter the cafe, right? I mean against the full length glass windows, the decals do pose a rather impressive sight – you really do not want to mess with these seasoned fighters!
I was early so naturally there wasn’t a queue. (The retractable barrier with the red tape is the designated queuing area.) Admittedly, I was a little surprised because Aniplus Cafe’s collaboration with Genshin Impact a few months earlier had so many people coming early that the queue was long!
Tip: I do suggest that you queue in the waiting area if you are early. The staff wouldn’t let anyone in until the allocated time (which was fair) and the sequence of admission is based on who’s first in the queue area.
However, I wasn’t informed by the staff to do so. As I was busy snapping photos from afar, I didn’t wait at the queue area. So in the end, despite being the first to arrive in my timeslot, I ended up being one of the last groups to enter. ><
Inside the cafe:
Aniplus Cafe has a rather minimalistic theme to it. The actual dining space isn’t very big as half of the cafe is occupied by a merchandise corner and a bar (order) counter. Interestingly, the merchandise area doesn’t just sell the collaboration themed items but a range of other anime goods as well.
To be honest, I was expecting a little more decorations or character standees for Aniplus AOT Cafe but we figured it might be due to licensing fees? After all, the license fees for AOT probably isn’t that cheap. (Genshin Impact though had lots of standees around the cafe, which were even given out to some lucky fans at the end of the collaboration! That was a pretty neat campaign. )
Hopefully, we’ll see more Attack on Titan decor for the next AOT cafe collaboration with Aniplus Cafe.
AOT CAFE Collaboration Menu
For those who are interested, here’s the menu for the AOT cafe collaboration. Wanna venture a guess what we ordered?
As there were four of us (yay!), it meant that more food, drinks and desserts can be ordered! ^^
Food, Drinks and Desserts
As with any anime themed cafe, the food is really the star attraction, so without further ado… here’s what we ordered at the AOT cafe!
Having seen the menu beforehand, we had more or less decided on what to order. However, when we saw what the food actually looked like, we had to quickly change our plans… because one item in particular was definitely not what we had expected.
OMG! Just look at the size of the burger! This looks nothing like the burger on the menu. To be fair, they did say the menu is for illustrative purposes only.
What really caught us by surprise was the size of the “Colossal Burger”. I had thought it would be a “tall burger”, but Aniplus Café really ran with the idea of Colossal. (Kudos!)
To give a better perspective on how large the burger was, I’ve placed a Levi Nendoroid next to it. Nendorids are about 10 cm in height. ^ ^ That’s how huge the burger was! We ended up splitting it four-ways and it was still a substantial portion. ^ ^
Happy to note that the burger was really not bad at its price-point. At SGD 19.90 (approximately USD 14.30), the buns were fluffy and soft, the cheese was a generous large slice and the patty was juicy and moist. Definitely one of the stand-out dishes in the menu.
We also ordered “Potatoes and Meat”. This dish was obviously a homage to Sasha, due to her great love for potatoes. (I totally understand, I love potatoes too.)
However, this was yet another item on the menu that looked nothing like what was depicted and totally took us by surprise when it was served. I mean…
WHERE ARE THE POTATOES?????
Don’t you agree with me that the actual dish served looked nothing like the dish in the menu? >< Unless they were going with an homage to Sasha always hiding potatoes on herself, then I would say they definitely met the objective with this dish lol.
Well… the chicken was pretty tasty and the menu did say the images are for illustration purposes. However, for a dish that says potatoes and meat, we were really expecting there to be more potatoes and not this purple puree (I think it was yam?) concoction that we got.
Having been to so many anime cafes, this was one of the rare times that I got a themed dish that looked nothing like what was depicted on the menu.
And because we decided to just share all the mains (because of the Colossal Burger), we decided to order another main food item to share: “Welcome to Paradis Island”
The omurice was decent. Not a particular standout dish but still alright. It does taste better than it looks.
Special shoutout to my friends who probably just agreed on ordering this dish so just that I could take my photos ^ ^. We were all rather stuffed, seeing how we had also ordered two desserts to share and a drink each.
Drinks
There were only 4 types of drinks to choose from, and we ended up ordering 3 of those. (Sorry Hange!)
You can’t really go wrong with iced lemon tea, so Levi’s drink was pretty good. Erwin and Levi approves!
Mikasa’s drink was pretty and I liked the added touch of the red ribbon on the straw. It’s obviously a reference to the red scarf she wears constantly throughout the anime/manga.
Jean’s drink was a melon soda with a scoop of ice-cream and topped off with a cherry. Definitely a pretty and nostalgic drink! I’m not sure why this was the drink for Jean though. Any thoughts? Let me know in the comments!
Desserts
And finally, it’s time for the desserts!
The desserts were, in my opinion, so much better than the mains in the menu. For one thing, they all looked pretty close to the menu and all tasted pretty good.
The dessert on the left with the Levi topper was “Through the Broken Wall”. It’s basically a thick French toast with vanilla ice-cream and oreo cookies. This was honestly quite nice. We weren’t expecting much, due to the hit-and-misses in the mains (food) but this was definitely a hit. It’s a dessert you should share with someone though.
I really liked the creative concept behind this dessert. The thick toast represents the wall so when we break the toast, it’s like “breaking the walls”. How neat is that?
The other dessert that we got was “Revenge for Liberio”. That’s the apple crumble with the Jean topper. They served it warm, which was a plus. I ordered this because I love apple crumble and thankfully, Aniplus cafe did not disappoint.
Here’s the other desserts on the menu, for those who are interested. Aniplus cafe were really creative with the desserts, so that was a plus.
AOT Cafe Menu Collaboration Novelty Gift
For those familiar with the anime cafes in Japan and/or you have been reading my escapades (thank you!), you would be aware that usually every order of an item on the menu gets you a novelty gift.
These novelty gifts are usually character coasters or special cards. Aniplus Cafe is no exception to this rule. However, herein lies one of the biggest difference between Aniplus Cafe and many of the other anime cafes in Japan.
For the AOT cafe 2022 collaboration, the novelty gifts were a postcard + 1 set of stickers (random).
At Aniplus Cafe, you get 1 set of menu gifts with a minimum spend. This means that no matter how many items you ordered on the menu in a single receipt, you only get 1 gift. For many of the anime cafes in Japan, you generally get 1 gift per character-themed item ordered from the menu. Update 2023: Aniplus Cafe has now changed their policy to one of accumulation (e.g. for every XX spend in a single receipt, you’ll get a set of menu gifts)
I personally prefer the one gift per menu item concept. Not only does it provides an incentive to order more items (not sure if this is a good thing for your wallets lol), the thrill of discovering which “character” gift you get per order can be rather addicting and fun.
Side-note: Aniplus Cafe’s Genshin Impact, Tears of Themis and Heaven’s Blessing had the more familiar character coasters + post cards combination for its menu novelty gifts. The difference in gifts seems to lend more weight to the whole licensing fees theory, doesn’t it?
Merchandise
Everyone knows one of the best perks of visiting an anime themed cafe are the exclusive gifts you can get your hands on… here’s the exclusive AOT merchandise you can get at Aniplus Cafe.
To be perfectly honest, I was a little disappointed by the amount of exclusive merchandise on sale. I was expecting much more items on sale but I believe I have been spoiled by my anime cafe visits in Japan so I’m likely a tad biased.
What I did like about the Aniplus cafe x Attack on Titan collaboration is that you get a “merchandise gift” if you spent a minimum amount on AOT merchandise. I mean… freebies, what’s there not to like? ^ ^
Did you get any of the merchandise gifts? Which character did you get? Let me know in the comments!
Animate Cafe VS Aniplus Cafe
As promised at the start of the article, I’ll be doing a small comparison between Animate Cafe and Aniplus Cafe. ^ ^
Just some things to note before we get into it. This is not a comparison post to see which cafe is better. After all, the cafes are in different countries, have different rules and one is more generally more established than the other.
This comparison is as accurate as on 30 June 2022. All references to Animate Cafes will be on the the cafe in Japan, unless stated otherwise
Similarities:
- Both cafes adopts a reservation system and fans are encouraged to make a reservation. For Animate Cafes, walk-ins for certain collaborations are allowed but generally they have a ballot/reservation system.
- Themed Menu: You can’t really have an anime themed collaboration without a themed menu, can we?
- Novelty Items: Both cafes have novelty items (e.g. postcards/coasters etc) that you can get when you order food/drinks from the themed menu.
- Collaboration Goods: Both cafes have exclusive themed collaboration goods. Animate Cafe usually have a wider selection of themed goods.
Differences
- Ordering of food:
For Aniplus cafe, you pay for your food at the counter as you are ordering it. At Animate cafe, you generally pay for your food/drinks at the end of your dining slot. Also, the Animate cafe staff will generally take your orders at your table (Note: for Animate Cafe Shop and Animate Gratte, you pay as you order your food at the counter/kiosks) - Collection of Food: Aniplus Cafe adopts a self-collection system for mains, with a collection time buzzer. Drinks and desserts are typically served to you. For Animate Cafes, staff will generally serve all drinks and food to your table. (Note: for Animate Cafe Shop and Animate Gratte, it’s self-collection as well)
- Return visits: Animate Cafe has introduced a Stamp Card system to reward repeated visits. ^ ^
- Menu Novelty Items:
Although both cafes have novelty items, Animate cafe generally gives out 1 free novelty item per item ordered from the menu.Aniplus cafe gives out its novelty items based on minimum spend and it’s one set per receipt.Update 2023: Aniplus Cafe now allows for accumulative spend for its menu gifts, i.e. every xx spend = 1 set of menu gift items. - Merchandise gifts:
Aniplus Cafe will give out freebies/gifts for minimum spend on their collaboration goods. Depending on the cafe, Animate cafe sometimes also gives out additional menu novelty items or freebies when you reached a minimum spend as well. This is not always the case though, so do always check out the collaboration website! - Reservation system As mention both cafes do have a reservation system in place. Aniplus Cafe now has a pretty straightforward reservation system which is easy to navigate. Animate Cafe is a little trickier as their reservations often includes an additional “balloting” process. However, I’ve noticed that in recent years, Animate Cafes have been allowing walk-ins on certain days of the collaboration campaign period (usually weekdays) for more themed collaborations, so it is definitely easier to visit an Animate Cafe now. They have also made it easier for us to cancel existing reservation slots and to find/book slots that have been freed up due to cancellation.
You can read about my Attack on Titan x Animate Cafe experience here: Attack on Titan Animate Cafe.
For more information about Animate Cafes in general, please check out my guide here: Animate Cafes (How to and Tips)
Some Final Thoughts
And that’s it! Thank you for reading!
Having been to quite a few anime cafes in Japan, I have to say
This was actually my third visit to Aniplus Cafe. I had been to their Mihoyo Fest Collaboration: Tears of Themis; as well as, Genshin Impact earlier in late 2021. However, as these two titles are games rather than anime, I don’t see them as part of my anime cafe escapades.
Of the three, I was more impressed with Genshin Impact, despite the terrible booking ordeal. They did a fantastic job with the Genshin Collaboration (despite a botched reservation system and pre-ordered food was actually sold out which I will talk more about in that post). The Genshin Impact collaboration was also actually much more similar to the anime cafes in Japan.
To be perfectly honest, I was a little disappointed with the Aniplus Cafe x AOT collaboration. Don’t get me wrong, this was a perfectly decent themed collaboration but having had the chance to go for their excellent Genshin Impact collaboration in 2021, the Attack on Titan does somewhat pale in comparison.
I would have love to see more standees/banners etc as there wasn’t really much atmosphere to the cafe. The table also wasn’t huge enough for all our orders (lol what’s new) but to be fair, this was not on Aniplus. We were just too greedy and ordered too many things. ^ ^
However, the order in which our orders came in (our desserts came before our mains) + missing out my drink that I ordered (all my friends who ordered AFTER me had theirs) and me having to check twice with them for the missing drink and the subsequent confusion that yes the staff did indeed missed out on my order + the food not looking like the menu = a very rushed and confusing experience for us. It also didn’t help that last order was at 8.30pm and due to the queue, we could only order our food close to 8.30pm and the cafe closes at 9.30pm. And I even brought my Erwin and Levi nendoroids to the cafe for photos!
[Update June 2022: Happy to note that for the Heaven’s Blessing collaboration, they pushed back the last order to around be around 9pm.]
Basically I think the cafe was also little under-staffed and some were a tad inexperienced. And it was honestly not that crowded. Nevertheless, I must say that every time I was at Aniplus Cafe, the staff are generally pretty sweet, friendly and polite so that’s a plus.
The reservation process for AOT cafe was also breeze compared to the Genshin Impact and Tears of Themis (Posts coming soon!) collaboration cafe they had back in 2021. I’m glad that reflections were made, lessons learnt and the Aniplus team had improved and streamlined the whole process. So kudos to the team!
Just some pointers for improvement:
- Aniplus Cafe really need to up the atmosphere and decor for their anime collaborations. Part of the fun of visiting themed cafes is soaking in the atmosphere and decorations goes a long way in that.
- Extending the last order timing. [Update 30 June 2022: they extended it!]
- Themed Food + quantity: While there is a disclaimer that the menu illustrations are just for reference, the difference to the actual food items is quite vast. (I do hope they improve on this) Also, out of 4 times I’ve been to the cafe, two visits saw food items being sold out (and one of those times was something I had pre-ordered at the time of the reservation!). I have never encountered this in all the anime cafes that I have been to over the years in Japan.
In conclusion, the AOT cafe by Aniplus Cafe is still a good effort by a relatively young team. And honestly? Having an anime cafe is really better than not having one. And I am happy that after 2 years plus of not going for an anime cafe in Japan, there’s finally one anime themed cafe that is readily accessible to me and my friends without needing to fly to Japan.
So have you been to the Aniplus Cafe in Singapore? Let me know how you found the experience in the comments!
2023 AOT X Aniplus Cafe Collaboration
Good news! Aniplus Cafe is running another AOT collaboration cafe from 14 April 2023! So far there hasn’t been an end-date announced, but I do recommend you get your reservations or visit the cafe early.
And yes, I got my reservations! ^ ^ As usual, I will post my experience and review after my visit which you can read all about it here: Attack on Titan x Aniplus Cafe
If you found this post useful or interesting, I’ll appreciate it if you could share it with your family and friends too. ^ ^
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Check out my other Posts
Geeky Good Guides
I’ve also done up a few guides on purchasing anime goods/figurines and the list will continue to expand. Do check them out as they might be useful for your own fan- collection journeys!
- Geeky Goods Spotlight: Forwarder, Buying Service & Proxy Bidding (Anime Goods)
- Nendoroids – A Guide on Buying Nendoroids
- A Kuji Guide: All You need to know and more!
- Figuarts Mini VS Nendoroid: A Comparison Guide
