in Shinjuku, Tokyo
The Kuromi Cafe - Winter Party is a limited time cafe in Shinjuku, Tokyo! The cafe will be open until February 2024 and offers Kuromi-themed food, drinks, and goods. The cafe features a white and purple winter party, and a simple and clean cafe design. Kuromi is a popular sanrio character from the My Melody universe. Although Kuromi is the 'rival' in My Melody, she is actually very girl and loves good-looking guys. She also keeps a diary of all the times she felt My Melody has wronged her and spends her time trying to get revenge on My Melody!
My Experience
We visited during lunch on the weekend and the cafe was a lot less crowded than I thought it'd be. We made reservations in advance via the website. They recommend making reservations ahead of time as I think there is a time schedule of when you're allowed to enter. The cafe is tucked away in the B1 floor of Lumine EST in Shinjuku (the same floor as the JR ticket gate), near the tax free counter. It took us maybe 15 minutes walking around the station to find it!
The cafe design is really simple and has Kuromi themed designs and photos hanging from the wall. The design is meant to be stylish, creating a cute but sophisticated atmosphere. The goods and designs were also exclusively created for the cafe. We received two mini clear files with the Kuromi winter design! They have a small area for merchandise with the original designs near the front of the cafe. We received a QR code and ordered our food from there. We were told to complete our order within the first 10 minutes of entering the cafe as there was like a 80 minute or so time limit I think.
Kuromi ❤︎ Baku Hot Cocoa
This was a hot cocoa with cute latte artwork of Kuromi and her tapir friend, Baku. There were also pink and purple sugar rocks on the rim. I absolutely loved the design of the hot cocoa and the sugar coating! I think they used like a super thin marshmallow paste to stick the colorful sugar rocks on. The cocoa itself was really rich and tasty! It tasted like normal hot chocolate.
Love Story Soda
This was a light peach flavored soda with bright pink jelly on the top. The peach flavor tasted a lot like candy or like fruit punch. It was hard to pinpoint the taste but it was really delicious! The soda was quite refreshing and I felt it had the perfect amount of sweetness. The jelly on top didn't really have a strong flavor but the coloring was super adorable. I also loved the mini card on the straw.
Winter Party Stew
I was really impressed with all the adorable food designs at this cafe. Although the interior wasn't super elaborate or anything, their food design and presentation was so good! This stew came with a glass lid and ribbon. The waiter took off the glass lid which released a ton of steam. It looked so cool! The stew was very creamy like potage and was filled with simmered vegetables and pieces of chicken. There was even mashed potatoes under the rice. The rice was shaped like Kuromi and with edible wafer ears. I'm not 100% sure what they used to color the rice (Maybe squid ink or food coloring?) but it tasted like regular rice, just a tad more sticky. Overall I enjoyed the dish!
Kuromi's Older Sister Burger
The burger was so interesting to look at, but I think it still had a very cute design. It was quite colorful with the purple sauce and pink cabbage! The burger was actually a croquette made by deep frying ham, cheese, and an egg, and was covered in a purple tartar sauce. The sauce was actually quite good and flavorful! The dish also came with red cabbage and a really white, kind-of-chewy bun.
Kuromi's Black Mont Blanc
There were actually two types of mont blanc at the cafe, a purple rare cheese mont blanc that was served in December through mid-January, and the black pumpkin mont blanc served from mid-January to February. We were there when the black pumpkin mont blanc was being served. The design is so cute and is inspired by Kuromi's silhouette. Inside the mont blanc is mochi ice cream (vanilla ice cream wrapped in mochi)!
Kuromi's Maiden Muffin
This was a vanilla muffin with whipped cream and white chocolate. It was served with black whipped cream until mid-January and is now currently being served with purple whipped cream. The muffin actually tasted more like a vanilla cupcake or like a pound cake I felt! It was really rich and buterry and I loved the white chocolate sauce drizzled on top. It was tasty!
Kuromi's Naughty Cheesecake
This was a slice of rare cheesecake with blueberry flavored sauce, topped with the cute silhouettes of Kuromi and Baku. I think there was shortcake served until mid-January, with the cheesecake currently being offered until the end. I thought the cheesecake was quite good and the crust was really crumbly. The sauce was quite delicious and I loved the color! It didn't quite taste like blueberries but it was still really good.
Overall I really enjoyed the food dishes of this cafe. The designs were all incredibly cute, yet most of the desserts and drinks were very simple and elegant in its own way, compared to some of the other character cafes we've been to. The interior was also very minimalistic and simple, so I assume the target audience for the cafe is mainly women or preteen/teenage girls, not like young children. The food was also quite tasty like a normal restaurant, so I really enjoyed our experience! I highly recommend visiting if you're a Kuromi fan!
Official Site
Address
3-38-1 Shinjuku, Lumine EST B1, Box cafe&space Lumine EST Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0022
Dates
December 14, 2023 - February 12, 2024
Time
11:10 - 20:40
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