Robot Restaurant, Tokyo

At this point, you've spent the past few months reading about my amazing Tokyo travels on Tuesdays.  I've shared pastries, a slew of Michelin starred dining, plus all the Japanese classics of sushi, okonomiyaki, tepanyaki, and ramen.

But not all of my adventures were for the food.  Some were for ... the experience, and the experience alone.

Like, the Robot Restaurant.  We were tipped off to this place by Levi, who proclaimed that he was going, even if none of the rest of us joined him.  I don't think he expected anyone else to go, particularly not Emil.  But we all joined for the adventure.

This is a case where the photos will speak much better than my words ever will, so I'll leave the narrative simple, except of course, for the meal review.  You can also watch Anthony Bourdain's experience on Parts Unknown.

This experience was even more insane than it looks.  And I'd recommend it in a heartbeat.  Thank you Emil for the photos!

Entrance.

The amount of flashy lights was only the beginning.

Entryway.

 Levi and I were a bit skeptical as we stood inside the entrance.

Fembot.

 And were greeted by a fembot, natch.

Lounge.

Soon we were escorted to the lounge to enjoy a pre-show drink.  The very, very tacky lounge.

Menu.

I glanced through the menu, a bit distracted by what was around me.

ZIMA.

And then I found ... ZIMA!

When I was in college, ZIMA was my drink of choice.  But when is the last time you saw ZIMA in the US?  Answer: at the latest, 2008, when it was discontinued.  You can only find it in Japan now.  And find it I did.  Available almost everywhere, also in a pink variety!

Levi.

 Levi was soooo thrilled to be there!

Levi and the dino.

As we waited for drinks, Levi started playing with the cute littlo dinosaur on the table.

Julie and the dino.

Once I secured my ZIMA, do did I. It turned out to be sooo interactive!

Sleepy Dino.

It even fell asleep in my arms, and laid its head down ...

Going down ...

Finally, after amusing ourselves in the lounge for a while, it was time to head to the show itself.

Stage.

Before the show, the state had a bar on it.  It would return during intermission.

The Dining Portion.

As we entered, we were given the choice of two bento boxes.  I dug into mine.  Spoiler: we weren't there for the food.

Fish Bento Box.

I was brave, and went for the seafood option.

The top left section contained tamago and beans.  The tomago wasn't layered, it wasn't very sweetened, but it wasn't offensive.  Meh.  The 3 large beans next to it were sweet, and I actually liked them.  They reminded me of molasses baked beans, and I gladly ate all the beans from Emil's box too, as he clearly wasn't going near this food.  The green beans next to those however I really didn't care for, they had a really strange unfamiliar taste.

In the center was a tiny container of pickles, pretty standard.

Top right was my first seafood, raw salmon over a small salad with pickled onions.  I wasn't brave enough to try the fish, but the onions were fine.

Bottom right was my other seafood, a miso coated, cooked fish.  I'm not sure what type of fish it was, but it didn't have much flavor, and was very fully cooked.

The final section was rice balls.  They were not good at all, the rice dried out yet mushy, flavorless.

I had heard that you definitely don't go there for the food, so I was expecting it to be worse than this.  Sure, I didn't actually like anything in here besides the beans, but it wasn't THAT bad.

"Meet" Bento Box.

The other option was "meet".  The "meet" turned out to be two types of chicken.  Since I dislike chicken, I didn't try any of it.  The other dishes were all the same.

Intro.

Soon, it was time for the show.

Safety Briefing.

It started with a safety briefing.  Yes, literally.

Drummers.

 The first act: drummers.

Glowing drummers that is. 

Amused.

Jelte and I were amused.  But we really had no idea what we were in for.

Gong.

Of course there was a gong.

Dragon.

And a dragon.

Intermission.

Scene change! Since the venue was soooo small, they needed to change out everything between acts.

Pole Dancer.

Things started getting more interesting.

Bunny Drummers.

Now the drummers are ... bunnies.

Marching Band.

And a whole marching band of bunnies ...

Robot Wars.

And then a robot war began.

Panda.

 With a giant panda, riding a cow, of course.  What???

What???

I had no idea what to think at this point.

Spider.

Have I mentioned that I hate spiders?  Particularly giant spiders?

Hover Bot.

Evil Robot.

Mermaid Riding a Shark.

Shark Attack.

Seriously, what is going on???

Glow Sticks.

No longer scary, it was time for them to hand out glow sticks.

Glowy!

Glow sticks were fun.

Dancers.

High speed rolling robots.

Robots inside light up rolling wheel things.

Fembot.

Giant fembots.

Parade.

These were kinda freaky, like giant robot dolls on parade.

Robot DJ.

Time for a giant robot DJ ...

Confused.

Yes, I was a bit confused as to what was going on at this point ...

HUGE Robots.

Lasers.

And lasers.  Because, lasers.

Dancers and Terminators. 

More Dancers.  More Lasers.

Airplane.

Yeah, that is an airplane, all lit up, with girls dangling from it.

Girls & Airplane.

Riding the Wing.

Tank.

Out rolled a tank, to fight the airplane.

Tank Dancing.

Riding the Tank,

Crash!

And, the climax, the tank crashed into the bomber.

I have no more words.