Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Some restaurants you go for the food. Not these though. You patron these because they’re interesting, unique or downright odd.

With the Tokyo Game Show kicking off next month, now might be as good a time as any to look at some, certainly not all, of Tokyo’s most peculiar restaurants and bars. Some of these Kotaku has featured before. Some of them you might even know or perhaps you have visited. Maybe not.

In a city as big as Tokyo, there are certainly more, but here are places famous for the experience they offer. And remember, these are retaurants and bars that people in Japan find rather unusual, too. They differ greatly from your typical eating out experience in Tokyo.

The LockUp

If your idea of a fun evening is being in a cell handcuffed, well, this longtime favourite, prison themed eatery is for you.

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Location: Several in Tokyo, including Shibuya and Shinjuku (more here)

Capcom Bar

Game maker Capcom’s official watering hole serves up food and drinks inspired by its iconic video games, such as Resident Evil, Ace Attorney and Monster Hunter.

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Location: Pasela in Shinjuku (map here)

Luxis

Luxis is a luxurious “aqua bar and restaurant.” It has an enormous fish tank, and you can apparently see sharks and sea turtles. Total Bond villain hideout.

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Location: Shibuya (map here)

Maidreamin’s Digitized Cafe and Dining Bar

Make no mistake, this is a maid cafe. But, it’s a maid cafe that’s part Mario and all digital wonderland. Maids jump and punch the boxes that hang from the ceiling, and there are 2D pixelated mini-maids on the walls.

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Location: Shibuya (map here)

Ninja Akasaka

Silent. Deadly. Serving you food. Ninja Akasaka is the ninja restaurant. Just don’t throw your food, even if it looks like a shuriken.

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Location: Akasaka (map here)

Little TGV

Here’s an eatery and bar for train nerds. Besides carriage seats and other rail items, there are model trains, too.

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Location: Akihabara (map here)

Artnia

Besides Artnia’s gift shop, there’s a cafe that serves Square Enix themed coffee, pancakes, soup, snacks, cocktails and drinks with “potion” names like Elixir, Shiva, Blue Materia, etc.

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Location: Shinjuku (map here)

Zauo

At this restaurant chain, you are seated on a phony boat and you can catch fish in a stocked tank below. Yes, you can catch your dinner! After doing it, your fish is, of course, prepared for you to eat.

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Location: Several in Tokyo, including Shinjuku (map here)

Vampire Cafe

This restaurant bleeds red! It also serves coffin cake. No wonder Konami has used this establishment to promote Castlevania games.

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Location: La Paix Building in Ginza (map here)

Thunderbirds Cafe

Classic 1960s British television lives on…in Tokyo! This official Thunderbirds cafe is packed with memorabilia, and episodes are continuously shown on loop.

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Location: Pasela Resorts Ochanomizu in Jinbocho (map here)

Sengoku Buyuuden

“Sengoku” refers to the Waring States Period in Japan, which was marked with centuries of strife and war. Sengoku Buyuuden (or “Sengoku Heroic Exploits”) that’s that era in an evening out, minus the war bit. Note that the restaurant, which serves Japanese food, does have English speaking staff.

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Location: Shinjuku T-Wing Building (map here)

Robot Restaurant

This is more a cabaret than a restaurant, per se. But there are robots, marching bands, and sheer spectacle.

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Location: Shinjuku (map here)

Luida’s Bar: Dragon Quest

Known as “Patty” in the West, Luida is a reoccurring character in Dragon Quest. And in Tokyo, she has her own DQ bar, with drinks and Slime-shaped meat buns. You like meat buns, don’t cha?

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Location: Roppongi (map here)

Alcatraz E.R.

This isn’t just a prison themed restaurant. No, it’s a prison hospital themed restaurant. Ah, ok. Got it!

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Location: Shibuya (map here)

Planetarium Bar

Self explanatory, but really, there’s nothing quite like getting tanked and looking at the stars, no?

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Location: Minato (map here)

Kamen Rider The Diner

Have you ever eaten parfait shaped like a Japanese superhero? Well, you can at Kamen Rider The Dinner. The restaurant is decorated as the secret lair of the evil Shocker group. There are also Kamen Rider costumes and bikes on display.

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Location: Pasela Resorts Ikebukuro (map here)

Alice in Wonderland

Scenes from the book are recreated in this Alice themed restaurant. Even the food screams Alice. Well, not literally!

Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food
Tokyo’s Most Unusual Restaurants Offer More Than Food

Location: Shinjuku Halc (map here)

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