If you’re a long-time Nintendo Life reader, or a religious Kirby fan, you then would possibly keep in mind that point Nintendo opened a small chain of Kirby-themed pop-up eating places throughout Japan – christened Kirby Café, appropriately sufficient – in 2016.

Beginning with its first non permanent location in Osaka, that was rapidly adopted by two extra in Tokyo and Nagoya. While all three areas solely operated for a few months every, Kirby Café Tokyo popped up as soon as once more in 2018 and proved so standard with followers of the “powerful, pink puff” that it was in the end reopened as a everlasting institution in 2019. Despite serving patrons for occurring 4 years now (solely two of which have been throughout the fabled Before Times), Kirby Café Tokyo stays some of the unique themed eating places in all Japan – maybe solely rivaled by Kirby Café Hakata.

And it’s little surprise, too. Not solely is it positioned within the Tokyo Solamachi buying advanced on the base of Tokyo Skytree, the metropolis’ most treacherous vacationer lure, however the menu is simply so gosh darn cute.

Online gaming

In truth, it wasn’t lengthy after I learn our latest protection of the Kirby Café particular summer season menu that I started making an attempt to order a desk for 2 — Tokyo deal with has its privileges, in any case — however it seems that tables are solely obtainable via on-line reservation. Online reservations for the next month, in the meantime, can solely be made starting at 6:00 pm on the tenth of each month, and are about as stress-free to safe as a Nintendo Classic Mini preorder.

When eighteen-hundred hours precisely finally arrived on tenth July, I obtained comparatively fortunate and managed to order two seats for 1:55 pm on seventh August after refreshing the web reservations web page dozens of instances over the course of a half hour or so. Coincidentally, two of my coworkers additionally had hopes of devouring a car-mouth Kirby cake collectively this summer season, however it reportedly took them nicely over an hour to do the identical.

After almost a month of getting hype, my associate and I lastly arrived at Tokyo Skytree Station on an uncomfortably humid and overcast Sunday afternoon. Evidently, Tokyo Skytree is the world’s tallest tower and the third tallest construction on the planet, and it was constructed partly to revitalize Sumida. As such, it’s surrounded by quite a few lesser sights, from lots of of retail shops and eating places to a planetarium and an aquarium, so it took us some wandering round Tokyo Skytree Town earlier than we discovered the East Yard on the 4th ground of Tokyo Solomachi the place Kirby Café Tokyo is positioned.

With the solar beating down on us via a break within the clouds, we waded via a big crowd gathered round a avenue magician, often stopping to snap pictures of the 634-meter-tall broadcasting tower looming instantly over us earlier than bumping into an illuminated statute of Kirby and Waddle Dee beckoning us to cease by the Kirby Café.

Entering the magic Kirb-dom

Like many eating places in Japan, stools have been lined up exterior for ready clients. Unlike most eating places in Japan, nonetheless, an enthusiastic server quickly herded these of us ready exterior right into a small group, verified our on-line reservations, and proceeded to orient us to the café, explaining the foundations for ordering, COVID-19 protocols, and customarily managing our expectations for the provision of the car-mouth Kirby cake.

Once that spiel was out of the best way, she started letting events into the café one by one, providing us the choice of taking pictures on the entrance in entrance of a comically outsized Kirby Café plate whereas holding a comically over-sized Kirby Café fork and spoon. Feel welcome to submit your finest guesses within the feedback beneath, however I’m not going to spoil what the server mentioned in lieu of “Cheese!” because it was a genuinely pleasant shock.

Thanks to the Neverending Pandemic, the café appeared to solely be working at half capability with the very best social distancing precautions I’ve seen any restaurant soak up Japan. Besides an entrance straight out of a theme park, the remainder of the café was tastefully low-key, save for an enormous Whispy Woods rising from a spherical desk smack-dab in the midst of the eating space. If you look exhausting sufficient, nonetheless, you’ll find the occasional figurine right here and there, equivalent to a tiny Kirby inhaling tiny apples and a tiny Waddle Dee waving from an ornamental wreathe.

The chill vibes have been accented by vaguely acquainted Kirby tunes, specifically organized and recorded for Kirby Café by the musicians at HAL Laboratory to guarantee most leisure. In truth, you would possibly need to choose up each volumes of the Sound of Kirby Café ought to you’ve the possibility, since they’re solely bought on CD at Kirby Café and Kirby Café The Store (no worldwide transport for on-line orders, predictably).

Stars, ‘Dees, and Kirbuttocks

We occurred to be proven to 2 seats instantly behind Whispy Woods, and whereas I imagined the seats instantly in entrance of the enduring first-level boss would have offered higher pictures of his summer season finest, almost each desk within the café boasted one thing distinctive and particular to level at and exclaim, “Kawaii!”

I imagined the omurice can be the very best dish on the menu at a café like this, however since I had hassle deciding on only one factor, I ended up ordering the Waddle Dee avocado soy burger with spaghetti and meat sauce because it got here with a bit little bit of all the pieces. My associate, however, seized a uncommon alternative to get pleasure from a seafood dish in my presence and ordered the lomi-lomi salmon and avocado over rice, served inside a Waddle Dee. While I had the choice of paying an additional price to take my plate residence with me as a memento, my associate obtained to take her lidded plastic bowl residence free of charge.

For a drink, I ordered an iced café au lait, which got here with my selection between three impossibly lovable marshmallows: Kirby driving a Warp Star, Waddle Dee snoozing on a cloud, and for some motive, Kirby’s – ahem – buttocks. Naturally, I used to be tempted to order the buttocks, however my higher half satisfied me to order the Warp Star for the good thing about this very article. Unfortunately, she opted for a easy, no-frills iced espresso, however each of our drinks got here with a selection between a number of paper coasters, which we have been additionally allowed to take residence free of charge as souvenirs. Should you ever have the possibility to go to any of those cafés whereas in Japan, I might suggest telling the server while you would favor to get pleasure from your drink, in any other case no matter you order will likely be dropped at your desk as quickly because it’s prepared.

What a Mouthful

Of course, we had no selection however to order the mouth-car Kirby cake from the particular summer season menu.

Before getting into the café, we have been warned that the cake was restricted to 1 per desk and will take upwards of 45 minutes to arrange as a result of its recognition. So, we have been stunned when it arrived along with our meal shortly after our drinks. Again, I personally would have most popular the cake to have been served after the meal together with our drinks, however the service was in any other case pleasant and attentive.

And though the meal was actually no higher than any faculty lunch I ate throughout my stint as an English instructor in Japan, the cake was astonishingly first rate. To make sure, it was the proper dessert for the summer season warmth, served good and chilled whereas neither being too tart nor candy. The bulk of the confection was made out of a strawberry-flavored blancmange set atop a skinny slice of sponge cake that sported chocolate and cheese wheels, a pretzel stick bumper, and apple toes. Before digging in, I felt unusually compelled to apologize to the sport merchandise so lovingly dropped at life earlier than us.

The café generously provided us an hour and a half to take photos, get pleasure from our meals, and store for souvenirs however requested that we order all the pieces we wished to eat or drink up entrance and never add on to our order later. Let the diner beware: the parts are far smaller than the images or costs would in any other case lead you to imagine.

Exit via the present store

When you’re good and able to go away, each you and your pockets must survive a dangerous journey via the memento store.

You could possibly be forgiven for mistaking this space of the café for Kirby Café The Store, however it’s really a glorified impulse buying isle. The actual retailer is positioned on the opposite finish of the constructing, down the corridor and instantly throughout from the Pokémon Center.

Don’t neglect to examine in on the kiosk along with your Nintendo Account earlier than paying your examine to seize a free Kirby Café sticker, and convey at the least a month’s pay with you to Kirby Café The Store because it’s brimming with unique merch, be it an enormous Chef Kirby plushie, a pouch customary after a Kirby burger, or a reproduction fridge magnet of the very Kirby pizza you ordered. And when you’re right here, you might as nicely purchase a ticket and ascend 450 meters to the higher statement deck of Tokyo Skytree for a panoramic view of Godzilla’s outdated stomping grounds like we did.

“Delicious instances, valuable recollections” certainly.

We’d prefer to thank Sakura Shibue, Jessica Lin, and Phoebe Ho for generously contributing further pictures to this text. If you are in Japan and need to go to this Kirby Café, you can also make a reservation by way of the official Kirby Café Tokyo web site.