Moekawa Cafe モエカワカフェ ♥ : Cute Girls and Snacks

 On a day of shopping in Harajuku all you wish for is more money and a place to rest your sore feet.
 Now my friend Annabelle and I were looking for such a place to rest and have some food and found Dream Station, which is located at the end of Takeshita Doori.
Inside are several places from the famous Crepe shops to Kebab stalls, and the newly opened MOEKAWA ♥ CAFE.

Moe + Kawai = Moekawa!

On that theme, the waitresses from Moekawa Cafe were dressed up in cute, maid-inspired outfits, even though they are not strictly speaking a maid cafe. The staff was very cute, apparently some of them are idols, and they were really friendly. They even let us take a picture with them.

Moekawa Cafe specialises in little snacks and drinks.

As said, they are not a Maid cafe, so they won't put a "moe moe kyun" spell on your food or dance and sing, but the food definitely shows the cute touch that you'd expect from the name: tiny eggs with mouth and faces on them, heart shaped carrots, potato stars and a ketchup heart are some of the decorations used. My egg yakisoba was layered in a cup to give it a cute yet colourful pattern. I also got an Acerola drink for free as special opening offer.

The staff is extremely friendly and open, they don't expect money for taking pictures and allowed me to share it online - that's a rare luxury in Japan! I was really happy about that and asked if I can take a video next time I visit them and I got a positive response. Lucky!

The Moekawa Cafe has already been to Paris before, and functions as a flexible entertainment cafe, meaning they are at Dream Station for a limited time.

☆REVIEW of MOEKAWA CAFE　モエカワカフェ　原宿☆

☆☆PLUS☆

☆The staff is cute, friendly and moe = Moekawa!

☆You're allowed to take pictures

☆The food is decorated with love and moekawa power.

☆The prices are reasonable (my yakisoba was 400yen) and the portions are perfect.

★★MINUS★★

★No moemoe performance shows, but apparently they might be using the JOL stage for　performances, according to their web page.

★The location is inside Dream Station, so there are no specially designed places for Moekawa guests, as it is all within the food court of Dream Station

★Not really suitable for a fashion meet because of the surroundings, but definitely nice for a break from shopping

☆☆☆☆OVERALL☆☆☆☆

I LOVED Moekawa Cafe, especially because of the staff. They were so kind, cute, friendly and moe, how can you not like them?! No matter how difficult a customer I was, they really took in my requests (especially when I went there filming another day) and remained sweet and charming. Perfect service! I find Moekawa Cafe is the nice alternative to Maid cafes. You still have the cute girls and decorated foods, but you don't have table charges, photo charges and high prices. It's like a maid cafe accessable for girls, in a nice and girly atmosphere, with the staff being like the nice "oneesama" (older sister) type that really cares.

☆ATTENTION!☆ The Moekawa cafe is running from October 2013 till the 31st of January 2014! If you want to get a chance to go to see them you have to hurry!

 Perfect time out for your Harajuku Shopping trip!

 I will definitely, definitely go there again if I get the chance. I hope they continue doing the cafe in other places in Tokyo, or extend their time in Harajuku.

If you are curious, the link to their webpage is HERE ★

There's a cute little short clip on youtube, watch it HERE

Thanks for checking out my blog!

MOEKAWA Moemoe!☆

Love

x

Cat

Cute Latte Art at Cafe ChocoTea

I had the rare occasion to marvel at the art in my coffee cup!

What is "Latte Art"?
You might already have had a cup of latte with latte art on it without realising it.
Latte Art is usually a pattern made on espresso with milk. It's apparently quite difficult to make, since the conditions of the espresso and the milk have to be 'just right'.
I've seen it before, in the shape of little swivels and hearts, in Europe.

Now Cafe ChocoTea in Saitama is taking it to a whole new level. After pouring the shapes and swivels on the latte, the owner then draws complete, cute and detailed pictures on top of the latte!

 

As you can see he puts a lot of effort into detailed little pictures. The picture he is drawing above, was for another customer, and it was Halloween themed. It does take a couple of minutes to get done, but that's reasonable seeing the colour and detail. Cafe ChocoTea can comfortably accommodate about 8-10 people, so there should not be too much of a waiting time. When I finally got my Latte, it was the cutest thing I've ever had the pleasure to drink!

It's someone wearing a bunny hat, with a ghost in his hands!

 It is served with two delicious cookies and a spook for those who wish to mix it before drinking, I thought it was a total waste. Actually, I first ate both biscuits while marveling at the art in my coffee cup.

The colours and thickness of the art is quite delicate!

The reason why I didn't find it at first, is that it is tucked away in the corner of a bakery. The reason why it caught my eye was, while on the bakery side there were normal customers  -  the coffee shop always seemed to be full with cute girls, wearing sweet pastel-shade clothes in the style of Liz Lisa.

  

Having had a peek inside, the interior was very welcoming as well. The large windows let in lots of light and every little corner was decorated nicely without giving off that 'cluttered' feel that some little cafes have.

On the map, customers could mark where they have come from.

They do lunch deals, which were already sold out when I came

Figures, books and manga for customers to look at

According to the owner, he's been to Ireland, learned Latte Art and continued to perfect it once he got back to Japan. The cafe has already been on national Japanese TV and they also own a youtube channel, an Ameblo and a Facebook Page. The Facebook Page has lots of pictures and links, if you want to see more. There you can also see the Latte Art Bears, that are made out of milk foam, and look like they are taking a bath in your coffee.

I even got a free postcard <3

 CAFE CHOCOTEA REVIEW

PLUS

- Most adorable Latte Art I've ever seen

- Nice interior

- Bright and friendly

MINUS

- not for large groups as it only fits about 10 people

- location is quite far out, and it's quite a walk from the nearest station

 SUMMARY

If you manage to find youself in the Saitama Area, looking for somewhere to impress your friends or go on a cute date, you are at the right place! I could see girls going there together, a couple and a Liz Lisa girl, who just seemed to fit right in with the atmosphere. You pay from 400-600yen for your Latte art, depending how difficult it is to make and they have cake sets and lunch menus. If you want to make sure you get the whole experience, you might want to reserve a table in advance (the table next to the counter is 'reservation-only'.

Only thing I was sad about, is that I could not keep my latte art picture and had to drink it.

In the end only the ears remained. I drank my art away. Yum!

Love

x

Cat

Patisserie Swallowtail Annex

Four Harajuku Fashion loving girls went to Cafe / Patisserie Swallowtail on Sunday.
I had the pleasure to see Gizzy (a German fashion photographer) and Cake (A Chilean Blogger) again and also got to meet Harriet (a British Lolita) for the first time.

Now, some of you might instantly get an alarm sound saying "Swallowtail? Wait a moment ... isn't this a Butler cafe?" Yes indeed, Swallowtail is famous for its Butler cafe, but that one is based in Ikeburo. They also have several, less famous sub-braces that serve tea and cakes like the one in Marui Annex that we went to.
While the decoration is very classical, they broke it up with large pictures of anime characters and a HD screen, showing scenes from the "Tales of Symphonia" game series. They currently doing "Tales of Symphonia" special collaboration sweets in store.
To our surprise, pictures were forbidden, even if they were just of ourselves. The only thing we were allowed to photograph were the cakes :)

We were served by a maid in an old Victorian style frill dress that was ankle length. But since this wasn't a maid cafe, we didn't get the "welcome mistress" treatment.
My cake was called Catherine, so it literally had my name on it (Cat/Cathy = Catherine) and therefore HAD to belong to me :)

QUICK "PATISSERIE SWALLOWTAIL ANNEX" REVIEW

PLUS
- The interior looked like a cute delicatessen shop. The large counter at the entrance contained dozens of delicious looking cakes and sweets, which pretty much drew us in.
- If you have a soft spot for cute looking cakes, you are at the right place. Their cakes are quite reasonable and cute, and their menu changes with the seasons. If you follow the link, you can drool over them yourself (see if you can spot Cake Catherine!)
http://www.patisserie-swallowtail.jp/annex/sweets/index.php
- They have a good selection of teas, including Rose tea (Thanks to Harriet). Not as large as some places but still adequate for the Patisserie.
- Reasonable price of their drink set: If you pay an extra of 315yen you can select any drink from the menu, no matter how fancy, and add it to your cake.
- The Victorian Maid uniform of the staff was very cute to look at.

MINUS
- Taking no pictures is a minus for me. The location was not as fancy as the Butler cafe so it didn't really make sense that we were not allowed to take pictures of us sipping tea
- I am an Anime fan, but large pictures within a classical tea room - it just didn't work. With a different colour shade maybe, but it looked somewhat out of place. Either it's a posh place where you can't take pictures or it's a fun place with colourful posters and happy music - they tried to do both and it looked a bit unhappy. Maybe the pictures are more classical once the collaboration special is over though.
- There is no show or guest service.

SUMMARY

All in all it's a cute little cafe in a busy department store in the center of Tokyo.  They are right on the same floor with famous Lolita brand shops (currently opposite Putomayo) in Marui Annex.
So if you are out shopping brand, you can take a rest there in style.
Perfect as a little break on a Lolita shopping day!

If I made you curious, you can look more pictures and information on their official web page:
http://www.patisserie-swallowtail.jp/annex/

We had a good time there and then moved on to more frilly adventures, but you will hear more about that sooooon!

Love and Sparkles
x
Cat

Alice in Wonderland themed restaurant Ikebukuro!

☆It was Halloween across the world, and also in Japan☆

The streets of Ikebukuro were filled with girls cosplaying in revealing outfits and it was also a friend's of mine's birthday. (I know, right? A Halloween Birthday! How awesome is that?!)
So for this special double occasion, we decided to go to a themed restaurant called "Alice in an old Castle" 「古城の国のアリス」 in Ikebukuro.

It's an Alice in Wonderland themed restaurant run by the company Diamond Dining who also does several other themed restaurants, bars and cafes. (This one had the theme 'old castle', even though I'd like to question whether the name could have done without the 'old' really.)

Now let's have a look inside!

 

The walls show several Alice themed pictures and large chandeliers are hanging from the ceiling to give the restaurant that 'old castle' look. On the end of the side hall is a large aquarium with mirrors to give the moving fish a surreal touch. In the main room there is also a chandelier on the floor, which is so large that people can sit inside it if they reserved the space in advance (see the picture below on the left).

They put a lot of effort into the design of the place, so even the lights on the side are golden hands holding the candles, and the coasters were designed with a trump card pattern. Also, relevant to my interests, the staff was cosplaying as Alice in Wonderland characters.

After some time waiting, we got our long awaited Halloween 5 course meal. On Halloween they only allow you to pick from their set meals, instead of getting things from the menu. The Halloween set was a 5 plate course meal for 3.000yen per person.

Starters: Ghost ships with devil and bat chrisps

Next one up: White Rabbit salad

Third dish:bewitched potato stars

Fourth dish: Pumpkin pasta, served in a pumpkin

Dessert: ghost sponge cakes

Overall "Alice in an old castle" Review

PLUS
- Great atmosphere and lots of attention to detail all around the restaurant floor.
- Very cute decorated food and it also tasted really nice.
- Great for lovers of Alice in Wonderland

MINUS
- If you are looking for a show or entertainment, there is none though. Some themed restaurants usually supply some kind of entertainment but there were none this time.
- The portion to price value was a bit questionable. The portions you can see on the picture were for a group of 5 people but could easily have been for a group of three or even two. We were all still a bit hungry afterwards. You might actually get more for your money if you go there with a smaller group.

OVERALL COMMENT
I really enjoyed my time there, and even though I still had some appetite after the meal, it was a nice experience. I might pick another of their restaurants again, at a time when they are less busy, maybe they will be more engaging. I also think restaurants like these are perfect for Lolita Fashion lovers!

 

On the topic of hungry, here a pic of me mimicking the character "Peko-chan"

I am always a little bit hungry for more sweets I guess. Omnomnom.

Have fun tumbling through Wonderland!

If you are curious now, the link the restaurant is here:

古城の国のアリス池袋

http://www.alice-restaurant.com/kojo/top.html

Love and Peace from Japan

x

Kitty Cat