On June 11th, two Square Enix-run cafes in Tokyo started their special collaboration event for the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII. The event includes special thematic menus, décor in both cafes, and of course, special anniversary merch limited to the cafes.
As HLJ’s resident FFVII diehard, I booked reservations for both cafes over opening weekend.
Menus
Food
Cait Sith Manju Supernova (Sephiroth) Red Materia Ice Cream Plate
The food menu at each cafe is actually different, so if you want to experience all the great menu items, you’d have to go to both cafes. On top of that, you’d have to go to both twice, because halfway through the event, the menu items change.
More food below, taken from the official cafe pages!
Lifestream Pancakes Chocobo Salad Bowl Tifa’s Gratin Made For Marlene Jessie’s Specialty Pizza Sector 7 Slums Burger Blue Materia Ice Cream Plate Chocobo Manju w/ Mako Tea Buster Sword Opening Menu Item Corneo’s Oil Soba Ultima Monster Burger w/ Omega Fries Midgar Fondue Pizza
It’s worth noting that while ARTNIA does have lots of other food options if you don’t want event menu items (but why wouldn’t you?), but the Square Enix Cafe only has a limited number of additional items, and they’re all side dishes like fries.
Drinks
Mako Eyes (Cloud) Icicle Inn Meteor Smoothie (Sephiroth) Treasured Materia Drink (Yuffie) Cosmo Canyon Costa Del Sol Banora White Apple Juice (Zack) Gold Saucer Nibelheim Promise At The Water Tower (Cloud & Tifa) Shinra 64th Floor Gym Energy Drink
The drink menu is actually the same for both cafes, with a twist: while the drink menu changes halfway through the event like the food menu, they actually swap at the cafes. So Group 1 drinks are available at ARTNIA and Group 2 drinks are available at the Square Enix Cafe for June, and then they swap offerings halfway through. That said, I was able to get every drink in the event between my two visits! (Not that I didn’t have help drinking them!)
More drinks below, taken from the official cafe pages! (I did order these, but forgot to take pictures before digging in!)
Heavy Shot (Barret) Chaos Smoothie (Vincent)
Every drink purchase comes with a coaster at random, and the selection of coasters is different at each cafe. Plus, you have the option to buy one of four stylish muddlers with each drink purchase for an extra 880 yen. I personally loaded up on Shinra muddlers because I am in deep(ground).
A huge bonus? You don’t need reservations to enjoy the drinks; both cafes are offering takeout, so you can swing by and get any of the available drink menu items (and some muddlers if you’re so inclined).
All of the special menu drinks are non-alcoholic.
Square Enix Cafe
The inside of the Square Enix Cafe is absolutely decked out with decor. From full-wall decals, to a giant anniversary banner and framed art all over the place, the atmosphere was completely immersive. Diners also enjoy background music from a variety of FFVII compilation games (and film) — even a guitar-heavy rendition of the main Before Crisis theme!
ARTNIA
ARTNIA has limited cafe space, as it doubles as a merch shop, and so the décor wasn’t as extensive at this location. They did have some decals on the display windows on the outside of the building, though, that weren’t seen at the SEC! Those include the FF7 world map, a reimagining of the nostalgic “NEW GAME” screen, and the 25th anniversary logo.
Being half shop, ARTNIA also has a merchandise showroom that’s really beautiful, and just for the anniversary cafe they put several of the FFVII Play Arts Kai figures on display. I’m always surprised at how big they actually are in person every time I see them! I snapped some photos, but as with the windows, everything is incredibly reflective, which doesn’t make for great pictures…
We still have several of these figures in stock now at HLJ! (And if you’re thinking about grabbing any, consider getting them soon before hype picks up after the broadcast later this week! More on that at the end of the article.)
Exclusive Merch
A handful of exclusive merch was made to celebrate the anniversary, some of which might be available more widely after the cafe run, but can currently only be purchased at these two cafes. The good news is, you can get any of it without a reservation, as both cafes allow general shoppers to enter.
Any respectable popup cafe has unique collectible coasters as a bonus for visiting, and both of these have placemats, too! The offerings are different between ARTNIA (#1, #2) and the Square Enix Cafe (#3, #4). Let me know in the comments which designs you want most! Personally, I was gunning for the Before Crisis Turks designs — and I got ’em!
… & More
If you’re in Japan, there’s still time to get in — ARTNIA is completely booked for the entire event, but the Square Enix Cafe in Akihabara still has openings. The event runs until July 22nd. Tickets are 1,000 JPY per person and include 1 free drink.
And whether or not you’re in Japan, you’ll want to check out the 10-minute livestream announced for the anniversary of Final Fantasy VII on June 16 / 17th (depending on your timezone). Huge news is expected, so you won’t want to miss it! Set a reminder for the English stream below!:
What a time to be a fan of FFVII!
