I went to Zoom Court for onion abuse Café yesterday. A dear friend of mine who has never watched Zexal went on my behalf with their own friend, who has also never watched Zexal. Cthulu bless them. This was all three of us’ first time at an anime collab restaurant. We all went in pretty unaware of the expectations. My review is as follows:
Via FaceTime, hence, the poor image quality, I found that the Zexal cafe was rather packed. Our reservation was around 3am my time, so I woke up 15 minutes beforehand. There was a line out the door, despite there being a reservation system in place. Inside, the small cafe space was packed with people. At some points, the venue seemed too small for this scale of enthusiasm. I’m not very surprised—when we booked our reservations on the first day, things had already been booked out to the fourth weekend of April.
According to my friend, Zexal is a clearly loved show as the collab cafe was, in their words "in central Tokyo" and bustling. Best of the best in locales! The cafe space was filled with an eclectic mix of fans. Some dressed casually while some went all out. I vaguely saw someone in a full egl coord but cannot confirm as it was so blurry. I basically saw a bright pink blob with lighter pink blobs that I thought were frills. The internet there evidently was not good, but rarely are international FaceTime calls ever good.
The decor of the cafe was rather underwhelming. The only themed decor were the framed photographs of merchandise and the new art. The white walls felt reminiscent of a hospital ward, perhaps as a subtle reminder that I had invested way too much into this show for far too long. The tables were also very small. Despite reservations fitting up to 4 people, I didn’t see a party of more than 3. My friend and their friend looked pretty cramped on their circular table! The music, as typical of anime collab cafes, played a mix of the Zexal EDs and OPs. Lucky for me, Dualism of Mirrors and Wonder Wings were playing for the duration of the call. They are my top 2 favorite ops. I did not get to hear Boku Quest though, as that is my favorite ED. I would say that the music did a lot of the heavy lifting.
No video photography or photos were allowed, but it seemed for the first 10 minutes, calls were okay. I took screenshots at that time. A menu was quickly handed to my friend and their friend. This is where the real killer starts: We were informed by our server that each reservation was only allowed ONCE at the merch table. Get whatever you need, and that’s it. Given this strict policy combined with the fact that a lot of the merch was blindbox items, this made things a risky gamble. In the ensuing reblog, I will show more pictures of food, merch and further discuss the merchandise.
Before the food arrived, it was our time to go and get merch. Calls and video were not allowed but my friend went out of their way to show me the merchandise until we were caught twice by a rather strict staff member. This was where the call ended. The stickers had been completely sold out by the time we arrived. According to my friend, "everything but the acrylics" were blindboxes. So, basically you had to pray to the Numeron Code that you ended up grabbing your favorite character. Good luck to me because god knows Christopher and Kaito hate me for all the shit I’ve gleefully put them through.
After the goods were purchased, we were given randomly selected character pictures (bromides) for every 5000¥ spent. You’ll see what we got in the ensuing reblog.
My friend ordered the Poseidon Pasta (about $9.66), the special Kattobingu drink ($6.21) with the random drink tag (once again, pray to the Numeron Dragon you get the character you like) and their friend ordered the Vector Yokare to Omotte plate ($15.17), full size, like the brave soldier they were. The food arrived within 10 minutes of ordering, which was pretty impressive for a cafe this packed.
Now comes the moment of truth. The food. What else do you go to anime CAFES for, obviously??? What else are FOOD reviews about??? The moment my friend sent over a picture of their pasta, I felt a sinking feeling in my nest of intestines. I could do better. And that wasn’t a good thing. I’m not a good cook. At all. Everything I make tastes extremely bland. When I go out to a restaurant, I want something that looks better than something I can whip up at home in an hour on a good day. Would it kill anyone to add more shrimp?? This isn’t a seafood dish fit for a king! This is like a dish from after the Poseidon Lands got invaded by King Vector and everyone had to ration. Dear reader, my friend gave their pasta a 2.5/10 stars. In their own words, "they are not bad."
So, nothing close to le cordon bleu, but somehow edible.
Their companion, however, was far more positive. In their own words, "普通に美味しかった！星10点中7点だよ！悪くない、コンビニ飯ぐらい悪くないよ！"
In English, roughly translated: It was pretty good! I’d give it a 7 out of 10! Not bad—it’s about as good as convenience store food!
In response, my friend said "Wtf."
I have to say, the Vector dish did look more enticing than the Nasch dish. It looked jam-packed with things to try, from the rice, the buns and the curry. I personally am not a fan of Japanese curry (I lean towards Thai curries with coconut milk), but I would be willing to try this one! The egg yolk looked positively inviting.
Regarding the pricing of the food versus the quality, I would take my friend’s friend’s advice and just go to a local conbini and buy food there (half jokingly). Go home, take out all my Zexal merch and eat in peace without a time limit and I can take as many dumb photos and videos as I want.
Our reserved time quickly passed. We were out within an hour or so.
I wish I could go into further details about the taste, texture and quality of the food but unfortunately I only had a cup of water to sip, half a world away. It tasted like 3am water.
Thanks for reading the first part of this food review. Stay tuned for the second part!
If you love anime, manga, or beautifully themed cafés, you need to add this York gem to your bucket list!
We stumbled across Anime Gallery York & Totoro Café on Feasegate, and it was an absolute delight. Downstairs, you'll find shelves packed with manga, collectibles, figures, plushies, and anime merchandise from floor to ceiling. Whether you're a long-time fan or just curious, there's plenty to browse.
