Baratie, One Piece Restaurant in Odaiba

This year, I’ve made a promise to myself that I will visit one of the famous One Piece Restaurant in Odaiba called Baratie.

Yes, I promised myself. Even If I have to go alone, I won’t mind.

However, so lucky of me, last Sunday, finally I got my long-awaited chance to visit this place!!! Moreover, I’m not alone but with one of my friend who happened to like One Piece as well, so we kinda shared all the fan-girling time together!!

At first I went Odaiba for some appointment with my friend in the morning and eventually it was finished right during lunch time so we decided from the start that we will just go stroll here for lunch together. Odaiba is kinda far from Tokyo, as it can take up to 45 minutes to reach, so I seldom visit Odaiba and while we were there together at that time, It’s such a good chance to visit!!

I assume everyone that stumbles my blog here at least know a little bit of One Piece and the story of The Baratie that were told in the anime itself, so I will skip the explanation right on this paragraph. 

Located on the Fuji Building 7^th floor (nearest station is Daiba Station using Yurikamome Line), using escalator walked straight and right from the restaurant gate, greeted by Luffy, Chopper, and the head statue of Going Merry!

I’m quite sad to say that the main gate is NOT that catchy, as in if Luffy and Chopper were not there to mark the One Piece feeling, people wouldn't know that there’s a One Piece Restaurant there. The main gate is very... normal. Well. Blame the high expectation.

However the small disappointments were cured a little bit by the kind greetings from the staff and of course, the main star, Sanji himself! (Plus all the ridiculous ingredients behind him hahaha cannot stop laughing.)

The restaurant’s decoration itself was very unique. It was so full of a pirate-feel atmosphere! All the ship parts decor combined with world map projection on the ceiling, it was quite mesmerizing.

I assume that quite a lot of foreigner went here as they have menu in English.

We went for the 3^rd and 4^th one from the menu as it looks interesting.

The Jambalaya fried rice plus soft shell crab as toppings.

And the hamburger set (covered by a thing like fried cracker dome, forgot to take picture of what’s inside..)

The real dish looks nicer that the photos on the menu. Great job!

Plus, we decided to order another side dish which is the famous Treasure Box Set for around 780 yen if I remember it correctly. Insides were chicken karaage (fried chicken nuggets), several pieces of small hash browns and the sauce.

They have several options for beverages and deserts too. We decided to order 2 sodas for 680 yen each. The red one called “Luffy” and the blue one called “Sanji”. Talking about obvious..

The food didn't taste bad, but it was not surprisingly good either. For that 1500 yen up price, it can be considered quite expensive. However remembering that usually this kind of restaurant sells the ambiance and experience more than the taste of the dish, it’s still reasonable for me.

Not so reasonable for non One Piece lover though. Well..

Surprisingly they gave us a small surprise show too!! During our meal, suddenly, (one person cosplaying as) Zeff, the owner of Baratie came out, gave us such a theatrical speech and fist bump customer per customer on each table while strolling around! Interesting!

Finished with our meal and a bit of chit chat, we took several photos more of the restaurant before we leave.

Well, to be honest, it was lower than my expectation. I expected that there will be more unique and lavish decoration, figures of characters (not only Sanji..) and a lot more choices of food.

However seeing how much they try to live up the ambiance itself and how much effort they build the details (like, prints on plate, prints on menu and table, food presentation etc), this restaurant worth to be admired for. So far I love every detail that they made, so it wasn't that disappointing too.

Still a restaurant worth visit for me! If you happened to be in Odaiba and would like to try one example of an anime-themed restaurant like this, Baratie will always be my recommendation!

See you on next post!

Sakura Season is Here! (Part 2) - Nakameguro and Tokyo Midtown

Just as I promise in my last post that I will make a review on several cherry blossom  - from here I will refer to ‘sakura’ - viewing spot in Tokyo for this 2015, I went to 2 new spots that I've never went before for hanami (sakura-viewing, in Japanese).  Referring to the previous post, my first 2015 hanami place were Ueno Park.

The second place that I visit is the one in an area called Nakameguro. It’s a very near walk from the Nakameguro station itself. Just follow the crowd flow there and bam! Around 800 cherry blossom trees will greet you alongside the river.

I have to say timing is everything in hanami. Weekend will be so crowded, and the more you postpone your hanami trip, the more likely you will see more of a bald sakura tree rather than a very dense pretty one.

I went here on Friday morning before my work, considering that Friday is still counted as weekday, so I guess the crowd is still tolerable (compared to the Ueno Park one which was very, very crowded).

I think the best part of hanami in Nakameguro was, having a picnic alongside the sakura trees were not allowed here as the available space were mostly for pedestrians only, thus makes it easier for people to enjoy and take all the best photos of the sakura. 

Moreover, almost all the café along the river start selling so many finger foods and drinks such as sakura sparkling wine, fruit punch, sausages, hotdogs, fried sweet potato, kebab etc which I foud quite rare in Japan (usually in a festival like these, all food that they were selling will be Japanese food ONLY, such as takoyaki, okonomiyaki etc. So bored of that..)

This is only one small part of the stalls.

and several more photos: 

I have to say that Nakameguro is the best spot so far for me.

And the third and maybe the last one that I have visited was Tokyo Midtown. I visit this spot on Sunday evening, and because too bad that on Saturday and Sunday morning Tokyo was raining quite heavily plus the strong wind, it’s like, almost 50% of the sakura petals already gone.

The amount of the fallen petals were too much!!

It must be very pretty when all the petals were still intact.

And the crowd is very, very tolerable. I the crowd went for other more pretty spot..

But still I think Tokyo Midtown’s sakura still can keep their last beauty alive!

And this last picture concludes my hanami journey on 2015, I think. Considering that based on forecast, next week will be raining for almost the whole weekdays, it will be a very small chance for the sakura to hold until end of April.

Last year, I went for the one in Shinjuku (Shinjuku Gyoen) and Chidorigafuchi Park. These two were very pretty too; they have a very big open space garden which is perfect for picnic with friends and lots of benches to sit and chill. Too bad I didn’t have enough time to visit these two again this year. However on the other hand I got the chance to visit several new places, which is nice!

So, for a conclusion... My favorite hanami spot for this year goes to Nakameguro, no doubt J

Looking forward to visit there again next year sakura season!!

Nb: please note that this is a very PERSONAL preference. I give my rating based on my own trip on my own time on my own taste, so it’s a very subjective review. If you think that there were several places better than what I have reviewed here, I would like to hear from you! Sharing is always a good thing and fun!