Kirby Café is a

restaurant chain A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate many retail markets, dining markets, and service categories in many pa ...

in Japan, themed around

Kirby Kirby may refer to: Buildings * Kirby Building, a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas, United States * Kirby Lofts, a building in Houston, Texas, United States * Kirby Hall, an Elizabethan country house near Corby, Northamptonshire, England * Kirby Ho ...

, the

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

video game character and franchise. The chain currently comprises two permanent locations—one within the special ward of Sumida City in the Solamachi entertainment complex, the other within Hakata-ku in the Canal City Hakata entertainment complex—and a number of temporary locations which have run continuously since August 2016.

History

In Nintendo's May 2016 corporate restructuring plans, the company announced that it would expand into new businesses including restaurants. On July 7, 2016, Kirby Café's Twitter account posted its first tweet, which teased the upcoming opening of the café. A month later, Kirby Café was formally unveiled in Osaka and opened in August as the first in a Japan-only chain. A second location in opened in Tokyo soon after, followed by a merchandise-only location in Nagoya. This version of the café was a temporary

pop-up restaurant A pop-up restaurant is a temporary restaurant. These restaurants often operate from a private home, former factory, existing restaurants or similar space, and during festivals. Various other names have been used to describe the concept of settin ...

which ran until October 2016. After a hiatus in 2017, Kirby Café was eventually re-opened to the public in September 2018, again in a temporary capacity. Due to continued demand, the temporary run was extended several times, and eventually resulted in several permanent locations being built. The first permanent Kirby Café was the location in

Sumida, Tokyo is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in the Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. The English translation of its Japanese self-designation is Sumida City. As of 1 April 2025, the ward has an estimated population of 287,766 and a population dens ...

's Solamachi shopping complex, whose gift shop—previously located on a separate floor—was closed and moved to the café proper in March 2021. The second permanent location is in

Hakata-ku, Fukuoka is a wards of Japan, ward of the city of Fukuoka in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Many of Fukuoka Prefecture and Fukuoka City's principal government, commercial, retail and entertainment establishments are located in the district. Hakata-ku is als ...

, within the Canal City Hakata building. A third permanent location, located in the

Daimaru is a Japanese department store chain, principally located in the Kansai region of Japan. The chain is operated by Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores, a subsidiary of J. Front Retailing. At one time Daimaru was an independent company, , hea ...

department store in

Shinsaibashi is a district in the Chūō-ku ward of Osaka, Japan and the city's main shopping area. At its center is , a covered shopping street, that is north of Dōtonbori and Sōemonchō, and parallel and east of Mido-suji street. Associated with Shi ...

, Osaka, is due to open in 2024. Kirby Café locations require an advance reservation to visit, and reservations are often sold out for months in advance.

Goods

Kirby Café is themed to

, a

video game character and franchise. The restaurant serves meals such as burgers and pizza, as well as pastries and drinks, with a distinctive ''Kirby'' theme. Some items resemble the character of Kirby, such as pink custard cakes and burgers with pink buns, and others are within the series' theme, such as a tomato soup dish that resembles the Maxim Tomato

power-up In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a Game mechanics, game mechanic. This is in contrast to an Item (game), item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that ca ...

and a salad plate made to resemble the boss character Whispy Woods. Some items have little resemblance to the series apart from a sticker bearing the likeness of one of the characters. Other items are designed to promote specific games within the series, such as a cake based on the "Mouthful Mode" power-up from ''

Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a 2022 Action game, action-Platformer, platform game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the thirteenth mainline installment in the Kirby (series), ''Kirby'' series, second on the Switch, as ...

'' (2022). The most expensive item, "Kirby Café's Stone-Oven Pizza ~Half & Half~", costs ¥3,980. Most dishes are priced within the range of ¥1,500 to ¥2,600. The restaurant also has temporary seasonal offerings such as a chocolate pizza, served on a board shaped like

inhaling, that was added to the restaurant's winter menu on January 15, 2021, and was served until February 28. For its "Sweet New Year 2021" celebration the Kirby Café added a "hamburger" to its menu consisting of a slice of strawberry standing in for the tomato and a dollop of chocolate

mousse A mousse (, ; ) is a soft prepared food that incorporates air bubbles to give it a light and airy texture. Depending on preparation techniques, it can range from light and fluffy to creamy and thick. A mousse may be sweet or savory. as early ...

for the patty. Kirby Café also sells merchandise, both inside the restaurants themselves and through external gift shops. Items sold include magnets, mugs, neck pillows, postcards, kitchenware, and

tote bag A tote bag is a large, typically unfastened bag with parallel handles that emerge from the sides of its pouch. Totes are often used as reusable shopping bags. The archetypal tote bag is made of sturdy cloth, perhaps with thick leather at its h ...

s featuring the series characters. The gift shops do not require a reservation to visit. The music that plays within the café consists of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

arrangements of the series' music, and was arranged by the composers who work on the ''Kirby'' video games; these soundtracks are sold at the stores as ''The Sound of Kirby Café'', with two volumes released in August 2016 and December 2019. Some merchandise, such as figurines, can only be purchased as part of a meal.

References

{{Restaurants in Tokyo Restaurants in Tokyo 2016 establishments in Japan Kirby (series) Restaurants established in 2016 Theme restaurants Video game culture Buildings and structures in Sumida, Tokyo Buildings and structures in Fukuoka Nintendo buildings and structures