Tokyo has a surprising number of Alice in Wonderland cafes to pick from, with restaurant company Diamond Dining running eight in the capital, plus another two over in Osaka. Surprising at least until you remember Japan’s passion for all things Disney, cutesy and whimsical.
Each of the Alice cafes has its own style but I decided that the Alice in Magic Land underneath Shinjuku’s Halc department store was my favourite – its fake tree swung it – and booked a table for my birthday.
There’s only one way to enter any self-respecting fairytale restaurant, and that’s through a giant fairytale book. In truth, finding the magic book in the dark depths of Halc is a storybook challenge in itself – arrive early. A waist-coated top-hatted waitress, straight from Wonderland via Harajuku, came to greet us and showed us to an almost private room. Giant playing cards, picture book menus and over the top glow-in-dark drinks added to the magical feel and my not-so-inner-child was perfectly indulged.
Down the rabbit hole
Sometimes the food at themed restaurants can be a bit of a let down (I’m looking at you The Lock-Up and your cold sad pasta) but the Queen of Hearts is clearly keeping the kitchen staff in line. Half of us had been karaoke-ing into the small hours the night before, so the carb-fest carbonara was a popular choice. Served with cute Ace of Spades cracker, the pasta was creamy with plenty of bacon and the Alice-waitress (Alicetress?) pulled out a pepper mill stolen from Ainsley Harriot. The salad came with a “magic song” sideshow performed by our poker-faced Alice – not sure we were supposed to giggle…
The only disappointing food was the White Rabbit sushi that was a bit thin on fish, thick on rice and low on flavour. But it did have lettuce bunny ears so, it was hard to hate if you have a tendency to favour zoomorphic foodstuffs. I’d stick with the pizzas and pastas next time.
Carby goodness with a side of cardy carby goodness & the White Rabbit “sushi.”
The desserts alone are worth a trip for though. Not only was the Cheshire Cat parfait one of the best sweet treats I’ve eaten in Japan/eaten full stop, a lovely mishmash of pastry, sponge, cream and sauce, but it looked like this:
Cat never tasted so good
The cocktails were the weird and wonderful colours to be expected at a Madhatter’s tea party, albeit with a bit more fizz. My advice is drink quickly before the ice melts and you notice they are about as alcoholic as a can of Bass shandy. But style over substance is OK with me if the style is this pretty:
Del Boy would be proud
We were seated in the sectioned-off space as there were eight of us, but the booths outside recreated the vivid green maze and two-seater tables were along the back. The walls were covered in Alice murals of the style adorning canvas bags toted by those of us who like to believe it’s not childish as long as it looks a bit artsy. The highlight however is a huge cascade of hearts above a heart-shaped table, guaranteed to charm all little girls, aged nine or 29….In fact, now I think about it, there wasn’t even a real child in the place.
Alice in Magic Land
Halc Department Store B3F
1-5-1 Nishishinjuku
03-3340-2466
www.diamond-dining.com
Green Tea Diaries 