JAPAN TODAY

TOKYO — As one of Tokyo’s swankiest neighborhoods, Ginza is home to numerous up-scale restaurants and cafes that will as much do damage to your wallet as fill your stomach with delicious food. From French cuisine to delicious brunch, you can find just about anything in Ginza — including a Vampire Cafe.

Though you might not expect to see many theme restaurants like this in Ginza, it turns out these bloodsuckers have been going strong for over a decade. If you’re hoping for a night of spine-tingles and blood-red everything, this is the place for you.

Having been in business for over a decade, the restaurant certainly seems to be doing something right, and with an average rating of 4.3 stars (out of a possible five) on Facebook and 3.18 on Tabelog (a Japanese site with notoriously picky reviewers), it seems like most people are happy they visited.

The interior is apparently based on the concept of Dracula’s castle — perhaps not where we’d usually want to dine, but you shouldn’t say not to trying anything once. In addition to the host, the servers are “vampire maids,” but they look like normal human goth lolitas to us. Either way, no one has mentioned being drained of their blood between courses, so you can probably leave your garlic at home.



As you would expect, the food and drinks all have vampire themes and names. One Tabelog user even noted that “the names are really long,” which might be problematic if you’re just looking to start eating, but we can’t help thinking it adds something to the setting. For example, one drink is called the “Dracula — The Count’s Power” and another is the “Iron Maiden — The Virgin’s Fresh Blood.”

The food is offered both a la carte and as courses. Courses are all priced differently, but most of them are between 3,000 and 4,000 yen Many of the courses also have all-you-can-drink options (for a set number hours) as well.

Just as important for a theme restaurant is the atmosphere, however, and it definitely looks like the Vampire Cafe is doing an excellent job on that front. From blood cells painted on the floor to red curtains to black everything, the interior certainly looks like it was designed by a vampire. The low lighting also helps set the mood—it would almost be romantic if it weren’t for the fear of Count Rose lunging for your neck.

Though you may imagine that the customers are all dour goths waiting to shake off this mortal coil, it turns out that most of the restaurant’s patrons are just normal folks celebrating birthdays or stopping by on their way home from a shopping trip; the restaurant is even popular as a destination for dates. See? We told you the lighting was romantic!



Restaurant Information
Address: La Paix Building 7F 6-7-6 Ginza Chuo-ku Tokyo (Google Maps)
〒104-0061 東京都中央区銀座6-7-6 ラペビル7F
Phone number: 03-3289-5360
Hours: 17:00 – 23:00 (Last order: 22:00)