Week Two: Ryan and Hager

This week's cafe was character themed. Specifically, pompompurin, an incredibly cute Sanrio character. As the name suggests, he is a pudding themed dog.

The cafe is located in the middle of the infamous Takeshita street in Harajuku. Navigating through the crowds of people on the street was a bit of an ordeal, but when we reached the cafe we were greeted with one of the cutest cafe exteriors around. 

Before even stepping inside it felt like we'd been transported into an incredibly cute fantasy world. We had to wait for a few minutes because there was a large group of us, but we were seated pretty quickly.

Near the front there was a small display full of pompompurin merchandise available for purchase. Unfortunately, it was pretty expensive, so no one walked away with any cute accessories in our group.

There was a big, extremely cute pompompurin statue in the centre of the cafe. It was approximately five feet tall.

Some character cafes charge you just for your seat- thankfully this was not one of those cafes. We're all a group of poor students so it was a huge relief for everyone.

We sat down and were given water before placing our orders. It took a little while for our food to come in, so in the meanwhile we looked around and admired the decor. Once again, everything was incredibly cute.

The food was on the expensive side. The cheapest menu option was pudding which was 500 yen. Most people opted for parfaits and pancakes, which were in the 700-800 yen range.

Once the food arrived, only one word came to mind: kawaii! The presentation was amazing, and in fact, made it difficult to take the first bite.

As for taste it was... average. The pudding tasted like any other pudding. The pancakes tasted like regular pancakes, etc. The real magic is only in appearance, because where else can you really go out to eat pompompurin themed food.

All and all, it was a fun experience, but if someone doesn't enjoy pompompurin, or incredibly cute characters, then I wouldn't recommend this cafe. The food isn't really anything special, and it was pricey for the portions. It's the type of cafe you go to once in your life, enjoy the experience for a few hours, then promptly mourn how much you spent on tiny pancakes.

In conclusion, unless you're a diehard all-things-cute or pompompurin fan, just admiring the pictures people take of the cafe is probably enough.