With the Final Fantasy XIV expansion Heavensward coming out in less than a week, the game has been in my mind for the past few days.  It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of the game. Anything Final Fantasy XIV-related, I will eat  it up. Literally.

So when it was announced that they were going to have a FFXIV-themed restaurant open in Akihabara, Japan, I was absolutely thrilled. I have the fortune to be living in Japan so it wasn’t a pipe dream to visit. Back in March, a friend was visiting me and she also wanted to go because she loves the Final Fantasy series. It ended up being one of our first places that we visited in Tokyo.

Before entering the restaurant, we had to check-in at the counter. It’s highly recommended that you make a reservation through their website. You of course can go there without making a reservation but then you will have to enter a lottery where it will be decided if you get a spot and for what time. So to avoid missing out, it’s recommended to weave through the Japanese and make yourself a reservation. You are given a period of two hours to enjoy your meal (or three if you decide to join in the last block in the evening), which was plenty of time for us.

After confirming our reservations, we were given the options of what language menu we wanted (we opted for both English and Japanese). After that, you were presented with the choice of a free job coaster. Free coasters would become a theme for the remainder of the time there.

After a little bit of waiting, my friend and I and the rest of the patrons were escorted into the restaurant. For the FFXIV fan, it is a pretty damn good representation of the Adventurer’s Guild in Gridania, music and all.

It was awesome to see all sorts of props and weapons scattered around the restaurant, the server dressed like the in-game retainer and even computers and gaming consoles that gave you the opportunity to play the game in the restaurant! I guess my only minor complaint would be the music. I know they are trying to immerse you by playing the same exact theme that you would be hearing inside the game’s version of the cafe but it can get old really fast if you don’t appreciate it. Maybe rotating the game’s soundtrack would work or even just having the Gridania day and night theme play would be an improvement.  It’s a minor nitpick though.

Before ordering we were given a very wordy explanation of how the restaurant works from the servers, all in Japanese. Basically, pictures were okay, but no videos! To order food, you just had to fill out an order slip and hand it to your waiter/waitress. Every time you ordered an item, you were given a random coaster that featured the game’s primals. This was great as I racked in a lot of awesome coasters and almost none of them were duplicates!

We were given a nice little mini-poster that featured the current in-game season. Since spring was just around the corner at the time, Little Ladies’ Day was the current theme. To celebrate the holiday, there were holiday-themed dishes and drinks. I thought this was a neat little touch and I’m sure they rotate the holidays as time goes on.

Anyways, let’s get into the actual food and drinks!

In terms of drinks, they were all very fruity and delicious. Some of them contained alcohol in them while some do not. If you’re trying to get yourself drunk, then I would advise going elsewhere as I barely got a buzz from the drinks that I received. A lot of them have some sort of gimmick to them. For example, the Ultima Weapon cocktail would change colors after you mixed it or the Summoner’s Ifrit-Egi would change colors when you put it on top of a ring coaster. I wasn’t a fan of the Ifrit-Egi as it felt a bit cheap but the Ultima Weapon cocktail was a treat.

I also had a Potion which, while non-alcoholic, was a neat aesthetic. It looked just like one from the games!

For food, my appetizer was a salad with the theme of the bard’s arrows. Nothing too fancy but the visual was nice.

My main meal was Titan’s Weight of the Land burger. I was actually a huge fan of this. It’s a pineapple bacon cheeseburger with Titan cut from seaweed in the front of it.  It definitely filled me up.

My friend’s main meal was Gilgamesh’s pork cutlet, which I thought looked really neat, seeing all the swords (which he all uses) on each cutlet. Can’t say anything about the taste though since I didn’t eat it.

For desert, I had an Ahriman Mont Blanc ice cream with some chocolate. It wasn’t very big but the design was great, it just looked like an Ahriman! I shouldn’t be eating a ton of desert anyways.

My friend on the other hand had an adorable Moogle honey toast. It looked too cute to eat.

Overall, I enjoyed just about everything. The thing that you should keep in mind when visiting this restaurant is that you are here for the presentation over four-star dining. That isn’t to say that the food and drinks weren’t great because I was really satisfied with what I ordered, just don’t expect Michelin-quality food.

Once our time was up, we checked out and were given a stamp card. You are given the option to choose from three, each representing a Grand Company from the game. With every item that you ordered, you get a stamp. After a certain amount of stamps you are awarded with bonus items, with the final one being a job stone of your choosing. It’s definitely a nice way to get me to go back.

I loved Cafe Eorzea and if you’re ever in Tokyo, I can’t recommend it highly enough. I really want to go back when I’m back over there. My friend, who doesn’t play FFXIV but is a Final Fantasy fan, really enjoyed it as well so even if you don’t play the game, you should definitely go. I was really surprised at how everything was fairly cheap and reasonably priced for a themed-restaurant. We ate and drank a ton but it didn’t break our wallet. After I visited last spring, new food and drink items have been added. For every 10,000th visitor, the cafe will “level up” and get new features such as a Gold Saucer theme and karaoke! Guess we better start visiting it more to make it happen!