RAPPORTO/ Gundam Cafe (Akihabara)

Here's the report of the Gundam Cafe in Akihabara.
It's a serious duty to write about this place that I managed to visit twice during my trips to Japan :D

I hope that you'll find this article exhaustive! If you have other questions about it, feel free to drop me a line here, I'll reply promptly ^_^

So, some "familiarization" with the location first:

The place is quite obvious to find, it's located on your right once you get out of Akihabara JR station, "Electric City" exit.
For my utter disgust, right next to it was opened a cafe about that anthropological horror known as "AKB48". Go past the huge line of idol otaku, and you'll see the line of mecha otaku--That's the entrance of the Gundam Cafe XD
The spot is divided into two sections: the cafe and the shop.
There are two separate entrances, even if they are in the same space: that's because not everyone is interested in eating something at the table, so to be in line just to enter the shop would be ridiculous: the shop is tiny, but filled with stuff; despite this, there's no line to get there.
From the shop side you can also buy the infamous gunpla-yaki, as you can tell, Gundam-shaped taiyaki :3 --But I'll talk about these later.

--As everyone was taking pictures with the Gundam thingie that welcomes the customers at the entrance of the cafe, I got distracted by these cuties ;___; I didn't buy any, though, 'cause I'm wary of these gashapon machines XD With my luck, I would have gotten the one I liked the least (the panda-shaped Zock-- I don't like pandas >_>;)... BUT I TOTALLY LONGED FOR A KITTY!ZAKU ;3; !!!

So, this is the counter. Pretty nice, uh?

Here you can spot some "Jaburo coffee" sponsoring, as an illustration by Yoshikazu Kazuhiko cheering up on post-Fukushima Japan/Tohoku.

Here's a bigger version :3

It was March when I visited, so Gundam AGE still got its special spot ;3
There were also posters abou Gundam Seed's remastering and Gundam UC, but I didn't take pictures of those XD *fails*

--If you turn your head on the left and lift it up, you can spot this "White Devil" welcoming you.
The eyes lighten up randomly, so this is a lucky shot from my friend ;D

The cafe is divided into smoking and no-smoking area.
This is a picture from inside the smoking area, the one facing the outside.

And this is the no-smoking area, the most inner.
You can spot Gundam UC trailers on the monitor :D

Of course the place is plastered with gunplas.
I don't care about them, but I guess that the most of the readers of this post probably do, so here are the shots that I got from my friends ;3

Interesting, uh..?

Now, onto the shop!

This idiotic pictures that tells how much my tripmates loved me, was taken from the cafe side.
The most of the merchandising includes sweets, limited edition gunplas (when I was there I spotted those of a classic RX Gundam and Char's Zaku) and stationery.
These items tend to change periodically.
Personally, I bought a Char's "custom" notebook released by the MLZnote brand XD --Of course I'm not using it at all XDDD

--I think that the funniest items, at the time, were these "Beam Saber" umbrellas.
They weren't fun because of the ridiculous price (1800 yen for an umbrella �_o?), but because it was actually POURING outside XD
Nice timing!

Now, onto the menu!

I found it quite expensive, but it's very fun to wonder at the menu, 'cause the foods are named after characters, mobil suits, attacks or locations of the Gundam franchise.
The cafe also offers limited edition courses periodically. When I was there there was an extra spicy (THREE TIMES SPICIER!) Red Comet pasta dedicated to Char, some ugly rice thing dedicated to the RX Unicorn Gundam of Gundam UC and a colourful, vegetarian pizza dedicated to Celestial Being from Gundam00...But those limited for dinner time, if I remember correctly.

I encourage you to try at least these items, if you don't wanna spend too much but enjoy a proper Gundam experience:

First of all, the Haro Latte.

It's just boiled milk with a chocolate decoration of Haro's face, but with just 380 yen you can get some Gundam flavour and enjoy your seat in the cafe.

Secondly, the Gunpla-yaki.
You can buy these only in the "shop" area of the cafe.
Right next to the entrance, there's a window from which you can buy the goodies, or if you feel shy, a vending-machine where you can get your freshy baked gunpla-yaki after the proper insertion of cash.
Please note that you can't enter the shop or the cafe while eating the gunpla-yaki: that's just a tiny snack that you're supposed to eat while walking outside.
When I was there, there were three flavours available: sweet bean paste from Hokkaido (180 yen), cream (200 yen) and bacon+mayonese (220 yen)... Since I'm a cheapskate, I got a bit of the bacon-mayo thingie from one of my friends, just to try it out XD It was quite nice ^_^ I love salty stuff >o< !!

Then, as my friends were busy raiding Mandarake, I went there again for lunch, willing to show my devotion to Char.
I went there after 3pm to make sure that I wouldn't get tangled into a huge line for lunch time, but the line was indeed there anyway XD
I managed to enter the cafe around 4pm, while getting soaked under the rain T_T;
The place was packed, and I was given a miserable spot on a tiny table in front of the counter XD
Since the awkward location right in front of the entrance, I was happily greeted by the cold, but somehow I managed to bear it, because inside it was warm enough.
Since I was soaked, one of the waitress (no Feddie uniforms ;_;) offered me a towel to dry myself up, but, BE AMAZED, I was actually perfectly dry because of my miraculous water-proof Quecha jacket XD
After the previous year's blizzard on May, you won't find me unprepared ever again, Akiba XDD !!

So, yeah, once I decided on my menu, I went to the counter, placed my order, paid, and got back to my place waiting for the food, that arrived within a reasonable time of around ten minutes:

My pick was the so called Char Alzable's Pilot Lunch-- It's composed of a tomato-sauced hamburgher, plus a slice of garlic bread and a little potato salad. Price, 890 yen.
I got the water for free from the water dispenser on my left an the cutlery from the counter-- Since I was into such a pitiful location I had to get those things by myself XD

Now, onto the food review!
The hamburger was quite nice, the cooking was just on the spot. The mysterious "tomato sauce" of the menu, was actually a tomato sauce enriched with spices and black olives.
I was quite nice, despite the weird combo, expecially while munching at the garlic bread. Good!!
The potato salad was quite tiny, but fresh and light enough to not fight with the heavy-flavoured meat.

--Next time I'll try to have dinner there, and get the Red Comet pasta (as long as it won't be "three times spicier" like this time XD) and Garma's Glory hamburger :DDD
...I'll just have to brace myself for the line T_T; !

/PRACTICAL INFORMATIONS

Entrance fee: None
Reservation: Not required
Operating Hours: Monday to Friday: 1000-2300, Saturday: 0830-2300, Sunday: 0830-2330
Website: http://g-cafe.jp

And that's all, I hope that you found this article exhaustive! If you have other questions about it, feel free to drop me a line here, I'll reply promptly ^_^

Daeva.

PS: For the making of this post I'd like to thank my friends Kenzo Kabuto and Kargrash who shared a good ammount of their pics with me (expecially those of Gunplas, that I happily ignored XD) ♥