[You are receiving a transmission from Planet C! Do not contact your Internet Service Provider! We have entrusted our ambassador, Courtney-seijin, with providing you with semi-regular updates on idols, magical girls, and sad old men consumed by a desire for vengeance. Please stand by.]
Friends, being away from home can be a fraught experience, your ambassador from Planet C knows this well, having long since been away from the silver cities and rolling clouds of her home! Fulfilling basic needs such as eating can become complex challenges when you are not fluent in a country’s language and learnt most of your vocabulary from a handful of classes many years ago and intercepted transmissions of cartoons, and even more so when you have dietary restrictions to consider. The people of Planet C do not eat animals or produce derived from them, so it was with some trepidation that I made my way to Ikebukuro and the station’s west exit to visit Pasela Resorts’ oft spoken about Kamen Rider and Super Sentai themed restaurant.
Before even reaching the elevator of the building, it was heartening to see a board featuring the many illustrations and notes left by previous customers. Your ambassador has a feeling that she holds close to her heart that some of the best work regarding these characters is made by fans.
Up the elevator to the fourth floor and the hallway leading into the dining area is decorated with posters signed by the actors of respective shows who have visited the restaurant. I walked in off the street without a reservation, but it might be worth noting that during busier times when many families are attending, a reservation might be necessary, something you can do via the website. I was very much of the impression that reservations were preferred by the staff. It is also worth noting that a table charge is included in the overall bill at the end of the experience, something you might not be familiar with but is common practice here in most restaurants.
Once this hurdle is passed, you are handed a little timer, the likes of which you’ll know from any shopping centre food court, and a laminated card with a QR code tied to your table, which you use to order from your phone, or tablet, or whatever device you are using. Those of you—those of us who are not fluent, you are in luck as depending on the browser, the menu instantly becomes a lot more readable, something that comes as a relief when trying to order with dietary restrictions in mind. It is also interesting to note that the English header for Super Sentai indicated on the menu is labelled as POWER RANGERS. Or maybe not. Maybe it’s only interesting to me.
Before being seated, much like the old AKB48 Café & Shop in Akihabara, or riding the Odakyu Romancecar during event promotions, you are given a coaster as a souvenir, as well as a cookie and a little ceramic dish, each one associated with a different Rider. Because the restaurant space accommodates both the Kamen Rider Diner and the Super Sentai Diner, and there is no division down the middle, you can order items from either menu and the only time your experience will differ is on what side of the room you sit, and what type of coaster you receive.
In regards to those dietary restrictions: if, like me, you are looking not to eat meat or diary, you may wish to reconsider what you are coming to the diner for. I ended up ordering the Fourze fries, not because I have any especial connexion with Kamen Rider Fourze, but because they were edible. For drinks, I ordered the Kamen Rider Black coffee and the Kamen Rider Black RX tea, which I will fully admit were the reason I came to the diner in the first place.
The fries came with a little dish of ketchup; I don’t usually like ketchup but I found the them somewhat bland and, on this occasion, they benefited from a dip, certainly. The tea and coffee can be served hot or iced, so I picked hot coffee and iced tea, both drinks coming with tiny biscuits decorated with the recognisable symbols of Kotaro Minami’s respective armours. I did not eat the biscuits because there was no information as to whether they contained butter or whether the symbol was fashioned in chocolate, but I appreciated the effort. I am fairly sure that the biscuits were made with margarine rather than butter, as my impression of the restaurant was that you were paying for the branding rather than the quality of the food, but also… it is quite an impressive thing to serve black coffee in a black cup, call it a Kamen Rider Black tie-in, and charge 770 yen for it.
On the other side of the restaurant, a woman my age had set up her BunOrange plushy and was taking photos of it with the character’s themed drink, which I found adorable, but I should also note that older fans are the exception rather the rule. As with the shows, this is an experience that is aimed at and caters to children, so you may wish to keep this in mind also when visiting.
There are numerous displays of toys around the restaurant, and the signatures of various cast members also, as well as some prominent statues of Ichigo and Niigo, and certainly it feels like more consideration went into representing Kamen Rider’s history here than in the often frantic and busy Kamen Rider Store in the often frantic and busy Tokyo station, but also it is wise to temper expectations. Depending on the era of Kamen Rider you enjoyed and what show is airing when you visit, you may not see much in the way representing characters you hold dear.
In terms of the special goods only available for purchase at the restaurant, I was surprised by how minimal the offerings were. A handful of t-shirts and aprons branded with the diner’s logo, some ceramic coasters featuring silhouettes of the Heisei and Reiwa era Riders for 880 yen each, and whilst your correspondent will confess to purchasing a Hibiki coaster to commemorate the occasion, I was surprised at how little other merchandise was available. A fallacy I held before arriving in Japan this year was that Chemy Cards would be freely available everywhere, in convenience stories, certainly in a Kamen Rider themed restaurant, but the truth of the matter is that they are only to be found in toy shops for the most part, which is something that speaks volumes to the failure to build a card game out of them that might live on after the show, and the continued attempts to funnel fans interested in such things towards the Battle Spirits game, which features Kamen Rider booster packs.
Friends, what can I tell you about the Kamen Rider Diner experience? That is was underwhelming? That it was expensive for what it was? Both of these statements are true, but, again, as with the shows, it is worth noting neither I nor you are the target audience here, and as such, expectations should be kept in check when visiting.
If you have spare time and spare income when in Japan, then by all means, visit, but if you are pressed for both of these, then you may find time and money better spent in other locales.
Will you be visiting the Kamen Rider Diner in Japan? Would you be willing to send the ambassador of Planet C your Kamen Rider Black coaster should you get one? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!
