8 of the Best (and Craziest) Tokyo Themed Cafes

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Tokyo is known for its themed cafes and restaurants. With so much cool stuff to do all over the city, it’s hard to know where to start.

But if you’re looking for all the best – by which I mean craziest – food-related things to do, I’ve got you covered.

I ran all over that city in search of the most insane experiences I could find! These are a few of the best themed cafes and food adventures I discovered on my trip to Tokyo…

Best Tokyo Themed Cafes

Tokyo Robot Restaurant

An absolute must-do in Tokyo is the nightly Robot Restaurant show in Shinjuku. “Restaurant” is a loose term – it’s more of a bar, with a few snacks – but the real focus here is on the show. Which is utterly, brilliantly bonkers and the epitome of everything I love about Tokyo.

TOP TIP:  Unfortunately, the Robot Restaurant has now closed. I’m on the hunt for a good replacement for this list!

Maid Cafe Tokyo

Born in Akihabara, Tokyo’s geeky tech district, the maid cafe concept is one part ever-so-slightly creepy, ten parts OTT cute.

Essentially, these are themed cafes in Tokyo where all the waitresses are young, pretty girls dressed as maids. Not kinky French maid costumes but cutesy anime ones with big pouffy skirts and frilly aprons.

The Maidreamin chain is more touristy and mainstream – less lonely dudes getting some kind of weird kick and more groups of Western tourists trying to get an insight into this bizarre culture. You can pay to visit the cafe and buy overpriced food – all of which has a cute face on it and often comes served with a song. Yes, a song.

The maids surround you and make you recite something in Japanese, then they sing a catchy, J-pop style song (think Baby Shark vibes) and do dance moves. It’s all incredibly bizarre and definitely something you should try if you’re looking for the weirdest things to do in Tokyo.

RELATED POST: 17 Places to Get Off the Beaten Path in Japan

Harajuku Crepes

Harajuku’s Takeshita Street is the embodiment of everything weird and wonderful about Tokyo’s modern culture. This is where you’ll find many of the best themed cafes, cosplay shops, crazy fashions, and about a million teenagers vying for the latest kawaii accessories. It’s also where you’ll find the Harajuku crepe craze.

Along the street are about a dozen stands, usually with massive queues, selling crepes. Not just any old crepes but Harajuku style crepes, which means piled high with a mountain of toppings. Ice cream, fruits, chocolate, sweets, whipped cream, caramel, all of your heart’s desires, an entire creme brulee… whatever you fancy. Basically, they’re mega crepes.

Totti Candy Factory

Staying on Takeshita Street, you can visit Totti Candy Factory to buy a rainbow-striped candyfloss about the size of a toddler. The rainbow candyfloss craze went viral a few years ago, and it’s sold from a small sweetshop

While you’re in Harajuku, can visit a massive, bright pink sweet shop that looks like Willy Wonka exploded inside a rainbow. You can buy bubble waffles and bubble tea and slushee ice cream floats and rainbow-striped ice cream. If your eight-year-old self ever dreamed it, in Harajuku you can probably eat it!

RECOMMENDED TOUR: Crazy Cute & Kawaii Harajuku Food Tour with Arigato Travel

Owl Cafe Tokyo

Tokyo’s animal cafes are pretty famous – and bonkers. It began with the cat cafe, and the rest of the world liked that idea, so it spread. So Tokyo said “nah, we can go weirder” and it opened a load more animal cafes. There are rabbit cafes, shiba inu dog cafes, even a hedgehog cafe. But one of the most bizarre animal cafes in Tokyo is the Owl Cafe.

There are actually several owl cafes in Tokyo, and I’m not sure which is the original, or which is the best. I went to the Owl Cafe in Asakusa, which has now closed – but the Owl Cafe Akiba Fukurou comes very highly recommended (read a review by travel expert Michael Turtle here).

I was wary of owl cafes from an ethical perspective, but this one has a very thorough approach to animal welfare. All of the owls come from rescues or breeders, and the cafe is reservation-only, with limited seating, to avoid the owls being overwhelmed.

Animate Cafe

Animate Cafe is an ever-changing anime-themed cafe that celebrates a different manga, anime, or film every few weeks.

There’s merchandise, themed dishes, and character cocktails. They once ran a Cowboy Bebop themed one, which sold Jet’s famous stir fry – I’m gutted I missed that one! This is the perfect cafe for anime fans! Pop in to discover what’s on while you’re in town.

Arigato Food Tours Tokyo

It might not be themed, but the amount of food you’ll eat on this Tokyo Walking Food Tour is seriously crazy. You had better bring your appetite because you’re gonna need it!

The tour is run by Japan’s number one food tour company, Arigato Food Tours, and it was easily one of the best things I did in the city. It was a three-hour walking tour of Yurakucho, Ginza, and Shimbashi – three areas famous for their food scenes (especially Ginza). But rather than covering all the usual tourist haunts, this was a true foodie adventure. Our expert guide took us to hidden gems and local spots that most tourists would never find on their own. I loved it.

From a bar tucked beneath an elevated train track, to the neon lights of the yokocho alleys, to $400 melons in the fancy food shops in upmarket Ginza… we covered a lot of ground. At every stop, we tried something new, like sticky, broth-less Ise Udon – a dish from the Mie Prefecture – and jelly-like tokoroten noodles (which apparently have no calories, winning!). And it all culminated in a mega feast at a packed local eatery in Shimbashi. I’d never have been able to navigate the Japanese menus or known what to order in any of the stops – so the tour was brilliant. Definitely one of the best foodie adventures you can have in Tokyo.

Kawaii Monster Cafe

Harajuku’s Kawaii Monster Cafe was probably the very weirdest of Tokyo’s themed cafes. I saw someone describe it somewhere as “like Alice in Wonderland on acid” and instantly decided I had to try it. And I can tell you that description is pretty accurate!

UPDATE: sadly, the Kawaii Monster Cafe has now closed. But you’ll find plenty of other crazy cafes around Harajuku.

AKB48 Cafe

J-pop rules the charts in Japan. It’s high-pitched, catchy, sang by pretty young girls, and it’s everywhere. In Tokyo, one of the biggest bands is the crazy AKB48 group (AKB stands for Akihabara, where the group’s theatre is found). From what I can gather, they’re kind of like a mini, living version of the X-Factor. There are 48 girls in the band, and every year new ones are voted in (as others are voted out).

UPDATE: This cafe appears to have closed since my visit. If you know of a good alternative, let me know in the comments so I can check it out!

Famous Themed Cafes in Tokyo that are Now Closed

• Robot Restaurant
• Kawaii Monster Cafe

RELATED POST: 5 of the Best Themed Cafes in the Hongdae district in Seoul

Have you been to any crazy, themed cafes in Tokyo that deserve a mention? Scroll down to leave us a comment!