Pikachu Sweets by Pokemon Cafe
In this post, I’ll be sharing about my fun visit to the Pikachu Sweets by Pokemon Cafe in Japan and what you can expect when you are there. I’ll also toss in some helpful tips to make your visit that much more fun and meaningful!
Hello! Today I’ll be sharing information and a short recap of my Nov 2022 visit to the Pikachu Sweets by Pokemon Cafe in Japan. ^ ^ This was my first visit so I’m especially excited to share about my experience with everyone here.
So back in 2019, I managed to snag a reservation to the Pokemon Cafe (Tokyo) in Japan for the very first time. And…as the saying goes, there was no looking back from that. I now make it a point to visit the Pokemon Cafe whenever I’m in Japan. ^ ^
Honestly? The Pokemon Cafe is hands down one of the most enjoyable theme cafes I’ve been too. If you have been following my blog (thank you), you’ll know that I really have been to many theme cafes in Japan.
After my 2019 trip, I found out that Pokemon Cafe was opening a satellite dessert shop of sorts at Ikebukuro a few months later. I was all set to visit it in my next trip but alas the pandemic happened and the global lock-down commenced. ><
Fast-forward 2.5 years later, I finally had a chance to visit it! ^ ^
Happy to share that I’ve since visited both the Pokemon Cafe in Tokyo and Osaka, and now with the Pikachu Sweets shop, I’ve managed to catch ‘em all… well at least till Pokemon Cafe opens up a new branch.
The Pokemon Cafe in Japan is definitely a must visit for fans or anyone looking to experience a theme café in Japan. Do check out my guide on Pokemon Cafe on how to make reservations, tips and information. I’m pretty sure the guide would be useful to you.
If you are a Pokemon Fan and you happen to be visiting Japan during the fall/winter months, I do encourage you to check out the Mister Donut stores for their annual Pokemon collaboration. Other Pokemon fun stuff you can do is to visit the Pokemon Center and locating the Pokemon manhole covers across Japan!
Page Contents
What is this Pikachu Sweets (Pokemon Desserts)
by Pokemon Cafe?
As the name suggest, Pikachu Sweets is a specialty dessert (e.g. snacks and drinks) take-out kiosk by Pokemon Cafe. Although when I say kiosk, it’s really more like a store. Look at the size of the shop-space!
Here’s a shot from a different angle:
Pretty impressive for a kiosk/shop that primarily does take-away orders, isn’t it? I love the whole look and feel of the shop. It’s very welcoming and everything looks so bright and cute.
By the way, don’t be fooled by the amount of customers shown in the two photos above. This was actually my third attempt visiting the Pikachu Sweets store. The first time I was there (on a weekend), the queues were so long, I decided to return another day. >< The second time was slightly after lunch time on a weekday and most of the seasonal special snacks were already sold out. I wisely opted for a more off-peak timing (weekday) for my third visit and I got to soak up the whole experience without the massive crowds.
Tip #1: Do avoid visiting the shop during the weekends. If you must do so, try to get there early, preferably shortly after the shop opens for the day.
Inside the Pikachu Sweets Shop
Unlike the Pokemon Cafe, there are no table-seats for diners. However, there are designated standing areas with tables for you to enjoy your food and drinks.
How cute are these tables?! (Very!) And did you notice that the tables are actually shaped like a Poke Ball? I really like how much thought went into the design and functionality of the space and settings in the Pikachu Sweets shop.
Nevertheless, because Pikachu Sweets is still primarily a take-away kiosk, and standing space is limited, the store does encourage customers not to stay too long at these tables during peak periods.
Next, here’s a close up shot of the table centerpiece:
One thing that always impresses me whenever I step into any of the Pokemon official shops (e.g. Pokemon Cafe, Pokemon Centres ) is how they effortlessly infuse functionality and design together. For example, when I visited the Pokemon Cafe in Osaka, instead of just having plain old plastic screen-dividers between tables, they jazzed up the screens with cute pikachus so that the screens doesn’t look out of place in the cafe.
At the Pikachu Sweets Shop, there’s also lots of cute Pikachus adorning the walls. Did you notice that the pictures of the Pikachus on the wall are also the plushies adorning the centerpiece at the tables?
oh and remember to throw your trash properly! Separate your combustibles and non-combustibles.
How to order?
Ordering is easy! Just follow the paw prints to the order counter (s) and place your orders with the friendly staff. ^ ^
To handle the weekend or peak period crowds, there’s an additional small counter at the store that can take orders as well. From my observation, this side-counter typically is closed on weekdays unless there’s a massive queue.
Overseas credit cards are also accepted for payment as well, so no fret if you ran out of cash or coins. Do remember to always let the staff know in advance if you would like to add on a cup sleeve or a straw-charm to your purchase as well. (See exclusive goods & souvenirs section below)
My Snack and Drink!
So after giving it a lot of thought, I decided to order one of the seasonal snack (Vulpix!) – a strawberry crispy waffle; and one of the mainstay specialty drink: Pikachu Sweets’ Pikachu is full of energy! Spark soda~ with lactic acid bateria~
The waffle is surprisingly not bad. Wasn’t as sweet as I thought it would be and … look how cute the packaging is! And I’ll be first to admit it, I ordered the soda simply because of the cute pikachu cut-out!
Have you been to Pikachu Sweets? What did you order? Let me know in the comments.
Menu
There’s a giant LED Screen at the front of the shop where staff will update if a snack or drink is sold out, so I really recommend everyone to check out what’s still available.
Tip #2: Check out the big-screen menu before ordering to find out which items are sold out for the day.
Yes Tip #2 seems like a no-brainer but trust me, you don’t want to be that person to hold up the line by having to select your drink/snack at the counter
As you can see from my photo, there were quite a lot of “sold out” tags next to several food and drink items. And I was there in the early afternoon, about 3 hours after the shop opened for the day.
From my observations, Pikachu Sweets only stocks a certain amount of its seasonal desserts and the popular items (especially the seasonal ones) do sell out very quickly. Also some items comes with limited edition stickers on a first come first serve basis.
For more information and close-ups shots of the full menu offerings, please visit the official website. The website is also updated with the latest seasonal offerings so you can plan what to order in advance.
Exclusive Goods & Souvenirs
What’s a themed cafe or shop without exclusive goods and merchandises right?
Like with any themed ‘cafe’, there will always be exclusive goods available for you to buy. Pikachu Sweets is no exception. Compared to Pokemon Cafe though, the selection of goods and merchandise are much more limited.
As with the Pokemon Cafe, Pikachu Sweets displays most of its goods in the shop so you can see how they actually look like.
Interestingly, Pikachu Sweets by Pokemon Cafe categorizes the merchandises into “goods” and “souvenirs”
Souvenirs are the exclusive cup sleeves that you can only buy at the Pikachu Sweets shop. There’s also an Eevee cup sleeve not seen in the photo above for sale. These cup sleeves are not sold at the Pokemon Cafe.
By adding an extra 550 yen (tax included) or 770 yen (tax included) per drink, you can take home a brand new cup sleeve of your choice! Prices are as accurate as on February 2023. Eevee and the Pikachu tail design is an extra 550yen and the Pikachus with the hats are all an additional 770 yen each.
Note: The website also states that each customer can only buy a maximum of 2 cup sleeves per order.
Green is my favourite colour so I naturally chose the green cup sleeve. ^ ^
Goods are everything else that’s not categorized under Souvenirs. This includes the plushies, plushie keychain and straw with charms that are exclusive to Pikachu Sweets. The Pokemon pink eco-bag, as well as the Potdeath Teapot & Yabacha Teacup are not exclusive to Pikachu Sweets and can be found at the the Pokemon Cafe.
For more information on the goods and souvenirs found in Pikachu Sweets, please visit the official website.
Bonus: Why you should visit the Pikachu Sweets?
So that’s it! This concluded my very first visit to the Pikachu Sweets by Pokemon Cafe.
Will I visit the shop again? You bet! ^ ^
And now I’ll share why I’ll recommend you to put a visit to the Pikachu Sweets shop in your travel plans.
As I’ve shared earlier, Pokemon Cafe is immensely popular in Japan and often winds up fully booked every month. Therefore, Pikachu Sweets is a good alternative to those who are unable to get reservations and/or are in the neighbourhood of Ikebukuro.
Also when you swing by the shop, you’ll see this: ^ ^
There’s a huge Pokemon display where it’s great to take some photos of.
There’s also the Ikebukuro Pokemon Center, One piece Mugiwara shop and the Crayon-Shin Chan shop within walking distance to the Pikachu Sweets shop.
In addition, there’s also a Studio Ghibli shop, a Disney Store AND a Gashapon Department “store” in the same building! Not to mention how there’s also many other anime/manga shops in the same mall as well. How’s that for some major anime/manga shopping?
Note: Not every shop is tax-free so always check with the staff before buying your items!
Enjoy your visit to the Pikachu Sweets by Pokemon Cafe!
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Address: Pikachu Sweets by Pokemon Cafe
Website: https://www.pokemoncenter-online.com/cafe/pikachu_sweets/
Operating Hours: 10.00 am – 8.00 pm
Address:
170-8630, Sunshine City 3-1-2, Higashiikebukuro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 2F
〒170-8630 東京都豊島区東池袋3-1-2
サンシャインシティ 専門店街アルパ 2F
Phone number 03-6709-0707
E-mail: pikachu-sweets-cs@sld-inc.com
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