This a great experience for anyone who is a player of Final Fantasy XIV or Final Fantasy in general. Yes you do need a reservation to get to the café. A couple of days prior to my trip I used google translate to make my reservations and paid with credit card. Upon arriving in Japan I picked up the tickets(also using Google translate on my confirmation email) at a Lawson using the Loppi machine. Having a friend who understands Japanese or a Rey basic understanding of Japanese helps. I was able to get through it ok. If you’re weary of making an online reservation, you can make your reservation using the Loppi machine when you arrive in Japan — just be sure to have the code for the time period which you are making the reservation from the Pasela website. Finally you can always try to do walk reservations which may be possible if on a weekday. The food was quite tasty as it was photo worthy. For every dish you order you get a coaster at random which is neat and also causes a collect all the coasters syndrome. There is cactpot lottery which allows you to win items as well as a honey toast which is very elaborate. Finally, you can also login to a PS4 or PC to play FFXIV. On my particular visit there was a staff member who knew English but as other reviewers had stated, there is an English menu available for use. Don’t forget to check out the small store downstairs for moogle plushes, throws, and hats.
Tim G.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Grove City, OH
Been a while since I’ve done a review, but if there was one part of my trip to Japan last year that was most memorable, it was dining in a real life representation of a hall of a place that I normally spend a ton of time in online. Yes, its the Eorzea Café based on an area in the online game Final Fantasy XIV. Beautifully created to match the style and atmosphere of the area Gridania. I must say, they did a wonderful job. From the table sets, to the wall decorations, to the servers, everything just felt like Final Fantasy XIV. The best part was that the food and drinks were actually pretty decent as well. Japan is well known for their creativity, and you’ll certainly find a lot of creative and delightful things to eat and drink here. With each order also comes a collectible drink coaster. I ordered a ton of stuff and got myself a lot of coasters, but you can also go around the café and trade your duplicates with other people. It was almost like playing a game. Imagine that. The atmosphere was perfect, and it wasn’t too loud or too quiet. It had the right amount of buzz going on. The service was excellent as it usually is in Japan. It can get expensive, especially if you intend to try to collect all the coasters, but that’s the price of admission, and it was such a great experience that I don’t mind paying the price. Overall it was a great time, and I’ll certainly come back again on my next visit. Pre-purchase your tickets from a Lawson machine to guarantee your entrance. Some days are substantially busy than others and getting in can be troublesome. The pre-purchase also includes a drink, so make sure to choose the most expensive one once you get in.
Tim C.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Rockville, MD
I have been a long time fan of the Final Fantasy series and as such have been an avid player of Final Fantasy XIV(FFXIV). When we booked our tickets to Japan, it didn’t even dawn on me to goto the FFXIV-themed café, until one of my in-game friends asked if I was going. Japan is known for its themed cafes and I immediately jumped at the suggestion and began doing my research. However, after doing some searching, I realized how little information there is for someone who doesn’t speak Japanese. Well after much searching and trial-and-error, I finally figured out how to get tickets, and figured I’d share with others. Note: Each day there are four entry times(11:30, 14:00, 16:30, 19:00). Upon entering you are allowed to stay up to two hours. 1. Raffle: Starting at 10am each day, the FFXIV café will open its doors to raffle off any remaining tickets for that days seating.(Personally, I didn’t want to go this route, because I didn’t want to waste my time waiting for tickets. We had a lot of other sight-seeing to do.) I don’t really have much other information available, you can read more about the auctions here. 2. Loppi Machine: This is the method I used to obtain the tickets, it was very confusing and took us a few tries to actually get the tickets. 3. Lawson’s online website(if you can read Japanese): From the FFXIV café website, that will take you to the Lawson ticketing page. This page is all in Japanese, its easy to figure out the dates and what seatings are available, however actually purchasing the tickets is a pain. I tried and failed to purchase tickets using this method. Unless you can read Japanese or have a friend that does, I wouldn’t recommend going this route. Pros: Overall, I enjoyed the Eorzea café, it gives players/fans a place to come together and share in the excitement of the game. They do have a menu in English(and other languages) for those who don’t speak Japanese. The menu items are very creative and are designed based on in-game features(bosses, monsters, jobs, professions, etc). Visually each item is very appealing, and held true to the picture on the menu(people with food allergies /intolerance beware: they don’t list what is actually in the food/drink, and if you don’t speak Japanese, you probably won’t be able to ask the staff). I was a bit skeptical on how the drinks and food would taste, but was surprised to find that they were quite delicious! I got the summoner drink and cactuar green tea desert and would recommend them both to others! The summoner drink was alcoholic, I have no idea what was actually in it, there was something carbonated though. When the drink is served its placed on a holographic coaster which causes the drink/glass to change colors(its supposed to reflect the summoner and their egi). The cactuar desert was green tea based– it came with green tea ice cream and green tea balls(I’m not sure how to describe these, but I love them. They’re common in Japan, its like a chewy sweet covered in green tea powder [mathcha].) I dragged Jeff along with me(he doesn’t play the game, but came to support me, hah) he got the Alchemist’s tea, nothing super special, but good. I only stayed for about 45 minutes(unfortunately we had to leave early, as Jeff came down with the flu and we had to get him back to the hotel), but the computers stayed open the whole time. I’m assuming most players who come to the café are local, and working on getting their«veteran» rewards for repeat visits. If you decide to login to the game make sure you change the client to the«english» language setting. Cons: The biggest con is overcoming the language barrier. If you don’t speak Japanese you have to do a little more work to get here. I suggest getting tickets via Lawson mentioned above, you can follow our guide on how to get them here. Actually getting to the café is not that difficult, the café is located fairly close to the metro system(you can find our guide on the metro system here). Once you arrive at the Pasela building, the Eorzea café is located on the 2nd floor(you’ll see signs). Upon reaching the 2nd floor, there is a front desk where you check-in. Thankfully most of the staff speaks a little english(I think they spoke as much English as I spoke Japanese). After showing your tickets you’ll be given a job coaster of your choice, a menu, and an order ticket(they should give you a menu and order ticket in English, if they don’t ask for one, because they have them). The folder which holds your order ticket will have a number on it, thats your table number once you enter the café, if you show the staff they should be able to direct you to your table. To place your order, you simply check what you want on your drink/food ticket and give it to a staff member. Other then that its smooth sailing, to pay you simply go back to the woman at the front desk to pay your tab(show her your table number).
Rochelle C.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Stamford, CT
BF’s only must do when we visited Japan was to make sure we get to eat here. We tried 3x and we got in twice! First time was because the line wasn’t long for the drawing so we automatically got in. Second time was sold out. Third time we were 7th to pick. Anyways, they give you a seating card which is also entered into a raffle that they do. We won both times! The prizes were pretty cool. The first time we won, we got this huge dessert platter. It was so big that we kept asking the table next to us if they want some! It was so awesome! The next time we won, it was a poster. BF was super psyched! Food wise, what we ordered tasted good and looked super cute! We tried both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and they were good mixes. Could use a tad bit more of alcohol though– Definitely an awesome experience over all!
Lynvi S.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Honolulu, HI
Surprisingly good food and drinks! Our Japanese-speaking friend helped us purchase tickets from the kiosk in Lawsons, which we would not have been able to do on our own because there was no English options available for the kiosk. The café interior is Nerd Level 10, but also Cute Level 10! I love the moogles! Drinks — Not gonna lie, I went for the ones that I thought would look the coolest, and they were actually pretty good! I’m definitely not a sweet cocktail person, but these were cute and fun. The Moogle Toast was cute as expected, and not bad. We finished everything we ordered without a problem.
Tammy C.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Houston, TX
It was difficult finding this place. I read reviews and people said that it was in the Pasela Resorts building. Unfortunately, there is more than one Pasela Resort building! The café is located in the Pasela Resort building that is almost on the edge of the Akihabara district. If you’re coming from the JR akihabara station, you should see a bridge/river on your left before encountering the Pasela Resort building. My companion and I did not have an appointment, so things got a little more confusing. Especially because we didn’t speak Japanese and the employees spoke little English. Eventually, we were able to find out that there was space for us, but there was a time limit(this is where having an appointment comes into play). We had to be out by 2:30, which gave us roughly an hour. We had more than enough time to eat and enjoy our time in the café. In fact, we weren’t sure if we were allowed to leave early… but the employees said it was ok. We left about 10 minutes before out time expired. Several other customers were receiving their bills when I left. I guess that appointments must be made far in advanced so people wanted to maximize their times. Also, if you book an appointment, you receive a free coaster. The interior was small, but beautiful. There were decorations on every wall. This included a map of Eorzea, moogles, portraits, and weapons. The food exceeded my expectations. I ordered the chocobo curry and my companion ordered a drink along with the cheesecake. The curry was delicious! My chocobo was created with yellow rice, bell peppers for a beak, and pieces of nori for it’s eyes. The cheesecake came with the cheesecloth that was used to shape the cake. I thought that was weird. However, it was dyed blue with a sweet concoction. There was also a snowman made out marshmallows! The cheesecake was also surprisingly delicious. Overall, this is a great place to dine for the experience, especially if you’re a die-hard fan.
Benny H.
Rating des Ortes: 4 San Jose, CA
Another game themed restaurant in Tokyo? Sign me up. This was is based on Final Fantasy. Biggest problem with this place is actually finding it. There are no signs on the outside and you have to go deep inside to find a sign that says it’s on the second floor. No bueno. Like the Capcom bar they have you come in two hours slots. Which I find very odd as it could really deter people from coming. I don’t understand this business model, but thankfully I don’t have to deal with it anymore. Service was great as was the food. I had a bread cake type of that is all the rage. It’s basically a small loaf of bread that has a taste of honey, and is baked and has all kinds of goodies on top. Sounds strange, but it’s amazingly good! There is also the typical watered down specialty drinks, but at this point in the trip, I expected it. They give you a free coaster for every item you order too! Overall, I liked this one the most out of the video game themed location due to the music, vibe, food and wait. Plus they have statues of Mogli’s all over the place. Thumbs up.
Ruri K.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Mililani, HI
After wandering outside going around and around the block looking for this café, we finally realized it was inside the pasela resorts café upstairs! So we went inside and we’re received with a warm welcome, the front desk lady sincerely apologized because the restaurant had already been reserved for the day. And she gave us instructions on how to come back tomorrow in order to reserve our spot. Unfortunately although I loved this café I have to give 4 stars because entering the café was a little bit confusing and the workers there at the front desk in the morning didn’t really help by explaining on how we would enter the café once we got our tickets. So after we chose our reservation time(11:30am) we received the tickets. Since we got the tickets at 11 we thought we would just wait around until 11:30… then people started lining up at the register at 11:15 am so we thought we should line up as well. Our tickets were regected at the counter, they told us to wait just a moment so we sat back down kind of confused until we saw some one else with tickets enter the line(which they then accepted the tickets from them). So we were like«what the heck?». After lining up again our tickets were taken by the front counter, all of us were standing in a line at the café doors and at 11:45pm they opened the doors and we entered. Once inside the rest of our experience was wonderful! The workers inside the café don’t speak a lot of English/they speak really fast japanese. But if you ask them questions on what to do they’ll be happy enough to try and elaborate. The food was wonderfully tasty and reasonably priced. We got some pretty neat coasters for every menu item we ordered so we ordered a lot! Please note that the alcoholic beverages were sweet(so I wouldn’t go there expecting hard liquor) it worked out fine for me because I love sweet things! Here’s some tips: First: don’t try to look for the eorzea café from street view. Look for pasela café(I’ll post pictures) Second: line up early(before they open at about 10: 30am) they’ll pass out tickets at 11 am to people who arrive based on the times available to enter. We chose 11:30am Third: They’ll give you a menu and a list to check off what items you want. order all the things you want at one time to make it easier for them and you. They’ll time the items so you get your drinks first, then food, then sweets. Plus there is a cut off time for ordering. Please note that this café does not sell final fantasy items like ARTNIA. It only sells food. This café was a blast and if I have more time in tokyo I would gladly line up early for another ticket.
Tammie E.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Seattle, WA
what an experience! i am, by no means, a super final fantasy fan. my husband, on the other hand, loves FF. :) even though i know very little of FF, the experience was still thoroughly enjoyable! you just can’t experience that level of detail and themed café anywhere near me, so it was definitely something not to miss. japan has tons of themed cafes, this is just the one we ended up visiting. the entry system is a bit weird as it’s a lottery system to snag an limited amount of seats for that day rather than just a reservation line. and it’s a random lottery too; so even if you get in early, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get a reservation. you have to pick a small numbered ticket and then you go in order of your ticket number(starting from ticket #1) to snag one of the limited seats available for the day. the closer you are to #1, the better your chances of getting a reservation, for instance, if you have #5, those who picked lottery tickets #1−4 go first in picking what reservation time they want for the day. and if they had large parties, that means you have less seats and reservation times available to pick from. odds are, if you pick anything above 50, you probably won’t get a reservation that day. you also only get 1 ticket per party, making it more fair. the process: you first have to arrive a bit before 10am, when they open the doors. at 10:30am, they let you in and limit the number of people let into the room to pick a ticket. at around 11am, you finally get to pick a lottery ticket from a bowl of tickets. then then with the smallest number go first in picking what reservation time they want to have. the staff was super friendly and helpful, even though we didn’t speak much japanese! the first day we didn’t get a low enough number, so we didn’t get called to make a reservation. but my husband insisted we try the next day; so we did. LUCKILY, we got #10 on the second day, so we were able to make a reservation for dinner that night. phew! if we didn’t get a low number, i’m not sure i would’ve wanted to wait in line for a third day just to get a lottery ticket! and fyi, the whole lottery process takes about 1.5 hours. dinner: when we came back for our reservation, the staff gave us an english menu(both menus include pictures), so we started eyeing all the different things we wanted to order! thankfully everything is relatively inexpensive because we literally ended up ordering over ¾ of the menu! being a themed café, everything is based on final fantasy XIV: they have themed food(appies, entrees, desserts), themed drinks(including potion bottles), decorations(maps, swords, moogles), and even computers to log-in and play on your FFXIV account! it’s quite unique. the servers also bring you a ‘playing card’, which was really just a paper coaster with different characters on each, but people were trading them during dinner like they were playing cards. we had a local come up to us(us not really able to speak japanese, and the local not speaking english) to trade cards. :) since we were the last reservation(7pm), we were able to stay longer than 2 hours if we wanted, and most everyone did. the service was good, the food was actually pretty good, the drinks were interesting, and the décor was very detailed. if you’re a fan of fantasy or a final fantasy fan, i would say you definitely should not miss this opportunity to visit!