THE VERDICT
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Setting & Atmosphere
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Food
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Service
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Value For Money
OVERALL SUMMARY
Not just Insta-worthy – it’s tasty as well!
With its dripping liquid walls and psychedelic colour scheme, The KAWAII MONSTER CAFE plays perfect homage to the flamboyant, the sweetest of sugary treats and the oh-so fun nature that is the Harajuku district and the signature world that is the creative mind of Sebastian Masuda. Don’t expect a simple dine-out experience here! As the “Monster Girls” navigate you to your table, let’s see what this Alice in Wonderland has to offer.
Setting and Atmosphere
ver the top and sinfully fun. The interior of the KAWAII MONSTER CAFE feels like a shrine to Harajuku’s crazy and excessive nature in fashion and style, but what if I told you it was actually the stomach of the restaurant’s mascot, “Mr. Ten thousand chopsticks” or simply “Choppy” for short? Bet you would have never guessed, right?
Before entering the discotheque labyrinth that is this monster’s “belly,” you have a selection of 4 rooms or “zones” to choose from: MUSHROOM DISCO, MILK STAND, Bar
Experiment, and Mel-Tea ROOM. Since I arrived pretty late that night the MUSHROOM DISCO zone was only available but turned out to be a blessing in disguise since it was right in the middle near the restaurant’s most entertaining features: the “SWEETS GO ROUND” carousel and the area where the DJ was playing.
Each zone’s aesthetic matched well to its theme with plenty of photo opportunities for patrons to freely enjoy taking photos but the details don’t just stop there. The restrooms were also worth a photo visit too! Check out the photos:
The “SWEETS GO ROUND” carousel
Table Setting
The “MUSHROOM DISCO” zone
The “MILK STAND” zone
The “Mel-Tea ROOM” zone
The “Bar Experiment” zone
The Restroom
Food
dmittedly, I must confess that when I saw the food menu my first thought was, “Is this really gonna taste good or be some kind of mediocre mush?” because the food seriously looked like it came from a Play-Doh set rather than something you should eat and put in your mouth. But oh, how wrong I was!
The first dish was the “Painter” version of their Colorful Rainbow Pasta dish and the dish does live up to its name. The rainbow spaghetti arrived on a painter palette shaped dish with the “paint” being an assortment of different sauces to cover your spaghetti in.
What amazed me the most was that each sauce had its own unique flavour from basil pesto to a garlic kind, offering many different taste variations to choose from. The garlic sauce was bomb and was my favourite!
The final dish I ordered was called the “TOKYO fusion style MEAT MEAT MEAT,” and it was literally a meat bag – a variety of different meats of your choice tossed in a sauce and mixed in a big ass bag for your inner carnivore. The meat was well-cooked to juicy perfection in the Cajun sauce but it also came with an assortment of side sauces to level up your taste buds. Life is too short to have just one sauce – variety is the spice of life!
Colorful Rainbow Pasta (Painter) | 1,300 JPY
TOKYO fusion style MEAT MEAT MEAT with Cajun Sauce | 4,400~ JPY
Service
lthough the main icon girls “BABY”, “DOLLY”, “CANDY”, “NASTY” and “CRAZY” weren’t there when I went, the usual staff were also very nice and always smiling.
Super cheery and English friendly, the staff or “Monster Girls” really do enjoy helping you out with taking photos etc. It can’t be easy to try and take orders over loud music but they were super prompt and efficient.
Value for Money
eing a themed restaurant, you kind of have to compare this dining experience like going to an amusement park as most theme restaurants do require some kind of entry fee.
At KAWAII MONSTER CAFE it’s called a “Zone Charge” which is 500 yen per person (as of 2016). However, you do get a small free gift after your meal as a souvenir which I
think is a nice gesture (mine was a pair of chopsticks with my country’s flag printed).
Though it might not be a place you would go every weekend night, the price of the main dishes were reasonable for their volume and quality and would be a good choice for a fun night out or the occasional extravagant dinner experience.
