#luida's bar

[nyannyannihon]

[yggdrasildame]

This was one of the drinks on the limited menu. It was filled with chopped jello and slime-shaped gummies :D The crown was made of half an orange topped with a scoop of sorbet and a crunchy cookie-ish thing. So good and so cute!

[moguel]

So this is really neat/funny. While browsing around for DQ Heroes stuff, I found out that Luida’s Bar, the Dragon Quest-themed restaurant in Tokyo made some drinks/desserts based on characters to promote Dragon Quest Heroes II last year.

The Angelo one is a cocktail (can be alcoholic or non-alcoholic) with Calpis/Calpico and strawberry soda with an apple garnish and a Timbrel of Tension/Mysterious Tambourine made out of chocolate. Japanese fans refer to Angelo jokingly/derisively as “Tambourine” since he gets relegated to using it later in the game.

The Maya one is a parfait with chocolate, milk tea pudding, and black sesame marshmallows for her... assets, and is topped with little silver sugar confectionery candies.

The Meena one is a fruit parfait made with mango and grapefruit gelato and topped with chocolate. Her crystal ball is made out of jelly (I think it’s boba/tapioca pearl but not 100% sure).

[nyannyannihon]

[nyannyannihon]

[nyannyannihon]

[yggdrasildame]

Luida’s Bar || March 2017

After going through my pictures, I thought it’d be nice to share my experience at Luida’s Bar in Roppongi (Minato-ku, Tokyo). I tried to give you all some useful links if you plan to visit in the future. Finding some of this information was a bit of a pain, so hopefully I can make it easier for someone else.

Luida’s Bar is connected to an upscale karaoke place called Pasela. It’s pretty conspicuous from the street if you’ve seen the pictures. Underneath the sign you can see where it says “Level 7.” Wired writer Chris Kohler posted his experience with the “leveling up” process:

She also told us that the bar was going to “level up” in a week, adding new food items. Bigger applause. We all got complimentary mini-pizzas, one of the new items. 

This seems to be their way of introducing new menu items and probably making decor changes to reflect the current game promotion. I’ve seen DQX posters in some pictures as well as Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 and Dragon Quest Heroes. While I was there, the whole place was decorated with Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 3 Professional posters, and there was even an item on the limited menu promoting the game.

Personal Experience

We entered from the back door after encountering a sign at the front door that seemed to be distinguishing the bar from the karaoke room which I’m sure many people have confused to be one and the same. It has instructions on how to go to Pasela’s and how to enter Luida’s. (Forgive the rain in the shot.)

Upon entering Luida’s we dropped our clear umbrella into the stand with 10 other identical umbrellas and waited for our waitress. We were also greeted to the best toilet sign I’ve ever seen, though I never went in (which I deeply regret in retrospect.)

The experience is made so much better by the familiar sounds of tavern music, town jingles and orchestrated themes in the background. I walked in to hear the Deja Tribe theme (Roamers) from DQVII, which made me relax immediately. They tell you from the beginning that pictures are welcome, but “no videos, please.” I assume the reason is largely because of the official game music. You know SE and their music policies. 

Even with the language barrier, the waitresses were friendly and made every attempt to make us comfortable. After being given a basic rundown of how things worked, we ordered our drinks and food. The courses were brought out slowly which made everything nicer because I was able to take things in, sip my drink and relax without feeling rushed. 

The limited menu rotates pretty regularly, so I recommend trying something on it, as you may never get the chance again. I tried the “Purupuru ♪ King Slime Soda Jelly” as you may have seen from my previous post. The actual menu is available in English, and I’ve seen multiple versions of it, so I think it rotates out as well. It’s divided into limited items, drinks, food, deserts, and goods. 

Here is a link to the food menu and the drink menu, which should hopefully be kept up-to-date.

Here are a couple shots of our menu:

We received a numbered place card that we used on our order forms. 

You use a little form card to order where you put the desired quantity next to the item you want, much like a sushi form, and write your place card number at the top right of the form so they know where to bring it out. There are spare order forms in the back of the menu along with “goods” forms specifically for the merchandise. You take the order form a couple steps downstairs to the bartender near the front door down when you’re ready to order.

We tried the slime pork bun, the mini medal pizza bites, the shade sushi plate, an alcoholic drink called Dragon Tribe, and the limited menu slime drink. 

The food wasn’t absolutely spectacular, but it was pretty good. I’d say the drinks were better. But you have to love the intricate detail they put into each item. The shade sushi plate was put down in front of me, and then the waitress put a white card behind my plate and shined a flashlight on the shade figure to make a shadow on the card. 

At some point during the evening, a waitress came out with a super fancy slice of cake donned with a crackling sparkler. Another waitress came out with a microphone announcing a girl’s birthday, and the whole bar applauded. They gave her a king slime crown and took pictures. I made a mental note to come back on my birthday, even though mine had literally just passed a couple days earlier </3

Altogether, I’m a fairly frugal person and I didn’t mind spending the money on the whole thing. I probably would have gone back if we’d had time. It was a great experience, and one definitely worth having if you’re nerdy enough about DQ to keep up with this blog ;)

Reservations, Point Cards and Prices

You definitely want to make a reservation at least a few days in advance. I’m pretty sure you can’t even go past the front door area without one. I made mine two days early through the official site for free using Chrome’s translator, but you can also make one through Voyager for around $20 with a more English-friendly guide. Honestly, I recommend just doing it through the official site because it’s not that tough to find your way around with the translator and you’ll save money. You can also book the Playroom or the Royal Room with all-you can drink alcohol for ¥5200 per person through Pasela’s website here. If you speak Japanese or know someone who does, consider making a phone reservation because the options may change or you may be able to get more accurate information on specials, pricing and availability. You can either book the standing bar at Luida’s Bar proper for 90 minutes, or you can book the karaoke room for 2.5 hours at an extra ¥800 (or $7.50) per person at Pasela. The actual bar at Luida’s is very small, so beware during peak hours--it can get crowded! The next time around, I’ll probably just go for the karaoke room reservation. I’m not sure how ordering works in the room, so maybe someone can share their experience. Considering that I’ve seen several other bloggers spend ¥10,000 (roughly $90) on the standing bar for two people and I spent around ¥7,000 (roughly $63) for two people (and a figurine), I think a little over $100 for ten meal items, unlimited drinks and an extra hour is pretty reasonable.

With each item on the menu, you earn “level” stamps on a point card at the end of your meal. There are 25 levels per card. By filling out a point card, you earn a mini medal medallion. 

If you collect enough medallions, you can obtain the King of Medal medallion which is about the size of your palm and very shiny. 

I think the website states that you must earn 25 medals to earn the big medallion, but I’m not positive. They call it the “Road to the King of Medal.” I almost filled up a point card (got to level 21/25) in one $60 visit to give you an idea of what that means. I’m sure it depends on the actual points given per item, but I think a good estimate might be around $80 for filling out a card.

Note: The bar has an official blog if you’re interested in keeping up with new menu items and special events and whatnot.

[yggdrasildame]

May or may not be at Luida's Bar... *slurp*