I love pop-up cafe. When the fabulous Perk Cafe from the TV series “Friends” popped up back in 2014, I made sure to visit. We waited in a long line, and we got a nice cup of coffee for free. They had all the fun memorabilia and some of the actual studio sets used in the show. It was quite fun. So, when we heard that there is a pop-up Cheburashka-themed cafe in Tokyo, and that we will be arriving right before they closed up, we were very happy!

The cafe was located inside Parco department store in Tokyo. We heard that the cafe usually gets a line, so we decided to go there when they first open in the morning. It was the day after we arrived Japan, but we had a good night sleep on the first night, so we got up early and ready for the cafe! They had many chairs lined up to the entrance, but luckily, there was no one waiting.

The inside was nice and bright, and very spacious. Simple design with white walls and wooden floor, and wooden furniture in light color. It was cozy with relaxing atmosphere. There were already few customers seated, I am glad to see we were not the only die-hard customers to get there early.

 

They had a tree in a middle with colorful and small Cheburashka stuffed animals on it. It also had a big Cheburashka in a chef attire. Super cute! I liked how open and spacious it was, without so many tables and chairs crammed in there, it was nice and quiet. We could walk around and really appreciate the decorations and the homey environment.

And yes, they had all sorts of cute Cheburashka items for sale. They had mugs, notebooks, bags, and even Russian nesting dolls! If you are not very familiar with Cheburashka, he is a character in children’s book from a 1966 story by Eduard Upensky. There is also a stop motion animated film of Cheburashka made in 1969. He is so adorable! It seems like people of Japan can’t get enough of his cuteness, and that they had to open this cafe to honor its 50 year anniversary of publication.

It is said that the Cheburashka is an “animal unknown to science” but who cares, he is just so darn lovable! And the great thing about this cafe was that they had the stuffed animal at almost each table. So, you get to have your brunch with him! We got a sleepy looking Cheburashka in his cute blue pajamas. No, he was not for you to take it home with, but just to have brunch with, and then have to leave him behind when you leave…

 

And of course, they had to have Cheburashka in an Orange crate! The story goes that he accidentally fall asleep in orange crates after eating oranges. Once the crate was delivered to a grocery store and a store owner finds him, that is when his adventure begins…

This little guy looked like he wanted some desserts that are placed right next to him… Not all the Cheburashka they had at the cafe were fluffy stuffed animals. They had a small-sized Cheburashka with his friend, Gena the Crocodile in front of Gena’s house. This was inside a glass house since it seemed more fragile.

 

Off to the side, they had a little kids’ section right next to the cafe, so that parents could also visit the cafe with their little ones. You can have a nice, relaxing brunch with the kids, and at the same time watch them play or read…not many restaurant or cafe can offer such experience. And since it is separated from the main dining area, if the kids get a little too loud, it still wouldn’t be too much of inconvenience to other customers. I thought it was so considerate and awesome!

After exploring the cafe to the fullest, it was time to sit down and order. The place mats were really cute. They had two kinds, blue one with Gena, and pink one with Cheburashka. Even though we didn’t get an actual Cheburashka stuffed animal for free, but we got some cute Cheburashka pins for free!

Now, let’s get to the food! They had four savory brunch items, and two sweet items. Since there were four of us at this brunch, we each order different savory items so that we can see and taste them all. The first two are Cheese Keema Curry (1,380 yen) and Cheburashka and Russian Rice (1,280 yen).

Cheese Keema Curry comes with spicy Keema curry over rice pilaf, topped with cheese sauce. It is surrounded by fresh salad and fruits. I really liked this one, starting with little Cheburashka cookie on top. The curry was very flavorful, cheesy and creamy. It was not so spicy, but had some kick to it. The greens were SUPER fresh, crispy and really refreshing. The cold green was perfect pair to hot curry with a kick. The fruits added extra flavor of sweetness and firm texture. It was really well done.

Cheburashka and Russian Rice was very colorful and indeed, very interesting. It is a Russian rice platter with chilled borsht and beef stroganoff. We heard that we are supposed to have little bit of rice, borsht, and stroganoff on a spoon and eat them altogether. We first tasted them separately so that we can appreciate each flavor, then tried to mix them all as well. They were quite tasty. Borsht had nice earthy sweetness to it, with boiled egg on top. Stroganoff had deep, comforting flavor with a good amount of tender beef in it. The rice pilaf was a perfect divider and a glue that brought two flavors together. I think this was the most important and unique dish.

The next two are Borsht with Chander the Lion (1,480 yen), and Cheburashka Hamburg Steak (1,480 yen). Look how adorable they are! I think these two gets the cutest brunch items award…

Borsht with Chander the Lion comes with Borsht style stew with port and mirepiox. I really liked the look of this dish the best. The lion’s face is just too darn cute! And I think Cheburashka agrees… This one was really great dish as well. Lots of tender and juicy pork in the stew, packed with flavor. The rice in the middle went great with the stew, and the salad on his head was really nice too. Refreshing and crisp, and with slices of beets in the salad, it enhanced the flavor of the beets in the stew.

The nose and eyes are made with cookies, and the creamy thing on the top of the rice pilaf that is contouring his nose was actually mashed potato! That was really cool and we enjoyed that a lot. The potato had good seasonings without being overpowering. It added extra soft and creamy texture.

Cheburashka Hamburg Steak comes with all-beef hamburg steak with rice pilaf. It also comes with a side of demi-glace sauce. The light-colored part of the  face of Cheburashka is made by cookie, but the brown part including his ears are the hamburg steaks. The hamburg steak was pretty good, I liked the onion bits in the hamburg steak. It was not as juicy as I thought it would be, but that is where the demi-glace sauce comes in. The sweet and almost tangy sauce went perfect with the hamburg steak.

After the main, we were all getting full. But then, their desserts…oh my goodness they were so freakin’ adorable! Just like the main dishes, each desserts also had characters on it.

After looking at these beautiful and lovely creations, how could we resist? The answer is, we couldn’t! We decided to order a couple of them and share. It is always great to have someone to share the food and desserts with…

But first, we put in orders for drinks. They had few kinds of coffee, tea, and juice. We went with Iced Coffee (400 yen) and Hot Coffee (400 yen). The iced coffee was a big size, and it came with a side of sugar syrup. The amount of sugar was quite a lot… It was a nice cold coffee, not watered-down, but not too strong.

Hot coffee came with milk and brown sugar. The mug had Cheburashka on it, very cute. I think they were also selling the mugs at the gift section. When we took a closer look at the sugar, we realized that the brown sugar cubes are not “cubes” but heart-shaped! So cute!

I ordered something that sounded fun. Lemonade with Gelee (850 yen). It is a lemonade soda with lemon and peach gelee. It looked cool with pretty colors, kind of beach-y look to it. Since it is a soda, it was bubbly and refreshing. Nice lemon flavor without being too overpowering.

The fun part was the jelly on top of the drink. Colorful and shiny with blue, red and yellow. Gelee is basically a jelly, hardened with gelatin. It also had bubbly-ness to it, it was really fun to eat! I was not expecting the gelee to be popping in my mouth, so it was a fun surprise.

My niece ordered more of a dessert drink, Gena’s Melon Cream Soda (900 yen). It has melon soda, topped with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. The face of Gena is made with cookie, and it was such a fun and adorable looking dessert drink! Of course, the cutest dessert drink for the cutest niece in the whole wide world…!

The ice cream was of a nice size, creamy and velvety. It was sweetness overload from top to bottom, but sometimes, you just have to have some sugar rush.

For real desserts, we ordered two cakes to share among the four of us. All of their cakes and tarts looked so good, it was very hard to decide. But, we decided to go with a cake with the character that we haven’t had just yet: Lariska the rat. His cake was NY Cheesecake (630 yen/slice). We then chose Cheburashka’s Orange Tart (750 yen/slice). Look how adorable these are! The stuffed animal Cheburashka is ready to eat them!

It was funny to order NY Cheesecake in Tokyo, especially since we live in NYC… LOL. But, we know that Japanese do really awesome desserts, so we didn’t care. And yes, we were right, the cheesecake was great. It was dense, creamy, sweet without being overly sweet. It was a really good piece of cheesecake! and Lariska was cute too, who is made of cookie, of course.

Orange Tart was beautifully crafted with lots of orange on the top. This Cheburashka had more of a surprised expression. No matter what expression he has, he is so cute! It was classic getting orange dessert with Cheburashka on it, since that is the beginning of his journey. The orange tart was elegant, light yet rich and velvety, with great orange flavor.

Any kind of themed or pop-up cafe focus so much on the atmosphere and decoration, sometimes the food suffer. But, here at Cheburashka Cafe, they have done everything perfectly! From the decoration with fun element, consideration for parents, quality of food and drinks… We were all happy with the entire experience. I was not sure what to expect when it came to food, but it was a happy surprise. I enjoyed everything that we ordered. It is always fun to try out these limited-time-only spots every once in a while. I hope people will continue to come with these fun and delicious spots everywhere!

Cheburashka Cafe – 1-5-1 Kichijoji Honcho, Musashino, Tokyo Japan