Food,  Travel

The BL Cafe Experience

July 20, 2020 /

One word: overrated. Honestly, I’ve been intrigued with this cafe ever since I first learned about it through some show over YouTube. The show’s host from Hawaii gave the cafe a rating of three stars and I questioned why her rating was rather low. After visiting the cafe myself, I now understand why she couldn’t even bother to give four stars. The irony of it all is that a decent amount of YouTubers rave about this cafe and I thought I’d be able to rave about it as well. Unfortunately, I can’t even rave about it…

I realize many that are interested in this cafe are those that like the bl/yaoi genre. That’s fine, really but I am sure there’s also those that are just flat out interested for reasons outside of the bl/yaoi spectrum and I fall into this category, whatever the category is.

A big part of me wanted to see the good looking guys I had seen on YouTube and that’s what I did, although I don’t think I was able to see all of them due to being seated at the counter which practically faces you away from everything. Okay, that’s a bit of a lie. At the counter, you do get to see the guys work so if you want to look at the guys work, you can probably look as much as you want. Just know that you might come off as a creep but do it, if that’s what you want to do. You need to sort of get your money’s worth somehow after all, right?

Where are you?

The main guy that welcomed me was super cute and welcomed me pretty warmly. It was just a shame that his interaction with me sort of ended after explaining the rules of the cafe and taking my order. I was like where are you and then where are the others? The funny thing is that I don’t ever recall him introducing himself after asking me for my name. There were two other employees that did introduce themselves to me, though. And then there was this one employee that seemed a bit aloof or cold, but maybe that’s just part of his act? I sure hope so. (More on him later.)

The food

Ordering food is optional but I decided to order anyway. As a vegetarian that doesn’t do visible eggs, I decided to make it an exception this time around and went for the omerice. I don’t think there was anything else I could have ordered, honestly and this omerice was already a stretch for me. A major stretch since I found two pieces of chicken. I left the pieces to the side and am unsure if the omerice was supposed to have chicken pieces or if that was a mistake on the cook’s part. Two pieces of chicken is a weird amount afterall.

Anyway, the taste was below subpar. Definitely not worth the 900 yen. Of course, I realize the point of this dish is to have one of the guys draw on your plate with ketchup but can’t the taste of the omerice be better? I should also mention that the food wasn’t even warm by the time I got it, not to mention how long it took for me to get the food in the first place. The egg also didn’t seem well cooked; I am not sure if that’s just how omerice is supposed to be but I wasn’t feeling it too much.

Honestly, I really should’ve just sticked to my order of orange juice which was already a whopping 400 yen. (I mean I wasn’t even that hungry anymore by the time I arrived to the cafe. Oh well.)

Food “finished”, I am clueless as to why no one bothered to take my plate away despite me having finished the food. No joke. I could let this point slide if it had to do with them being way too busy or something but if one of their employees could remove the finished plate of the girl near me, then why the lack of attentiveness towards my finished plate? I don’t know, really.

After an employee drew on my plate, I was pretty much left alone after that. I don’t know what the average person would expect from this cafe but as a first timer, I was kind of hoping to receive more attention/interaction and I unfortunately didn’t receive that. I honestly wanted out upon finishing my food but decided to give the cafe the benefit of the doubt by entering extra 30 minutes territory, which is an extra 500 yen. I had heard that if you stick around, you might catch sight of the guys doing a Pocky scene. So, instead of paying for the Pocky scene yourself, you can just witness it at a cheaper price from afar. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to witness anything and throughout that whole time, my presence was left unacknowledged.

Look, I get that it makes more sense to pay attention to larger groups but I felt super left out and because of that, I wanted out. I couldn’t justify paying extra just to sit around; it didn’t make any sense to me whatsoever.

So right before my extra thirty minutes approached, I asked a guy that had no prior interaction with me whatsoever if I could have the bill. (I just showed a Google translate screen instead of saying anything and he called for my omerice artist to tend to me.) This guy wasn’t cute; he was handsome. Handsome but something about him seemed a little cold and aloof. I mentioned earlier that I hope it was all a part of his act, but he could have been annoyed that I had chosen to pester him instead of pestering my omerice artist (or another guy). It’s just interesting that his eyes were sharp enough to notice the cash I had placed underneath the bill. If his eyes were that sharp, he would have noticed that I was done eating and could have removed the plate from my area, right? (I don’t know about you but this rubbed me the wrong way.)

And it wasn’t just my finished plate that was never removed; my welcome towlette was never removed either. Not sure if that’s the norm in Japan but I found it weird.

Of course, I realize that it could be a language barrier thing where whoever noticed it might have just not wanted to bother in order to avoid interacting in English. I really don’t think this is the case but I really don’t know either.

Foreigners Welcomed

If anything, foreigners (yes, including the stereotypical looking foreigners) seemed to be welcomed at the BL Cafe. I say this not only from the decent amount of foreign YouTubers visiting the cafe, but from my own experience and observation. On the day I visited, there was a table filled with stereotypical American visitors. They were entertained quite well and honestly, I couldn’t help but to be a tad bit jelly of the attention they were receiving.

While I’m not so sure how comfortable the average native patron is with foreigners, the employees, in general seemed open and warm enough to foreign patrons.

Parting is Sweet

Ironically, the best part of this experience was being said bye to if that makes any sense. Three of the guys came to see me leave and say bye. That was probably the warmest part of my BL Cafe experience and honestly, I found that troubling.

I can definitely see people wanting to come back after being parted so warmly.

Thankfully, I am a true cheapskate overall and would never frequent a place like this. Once is more than enough of an experience. That coupon I was given by my omerice artist for my future visit? Thanks but no thanks. If any of you want this coupon because you know you’ll frequent the cafe more than twice, let me know. (Follow me on IG and/or Twitter and leave a comment below as well as in my social media account. While I don’t know if it’s transferable, I believe you should be able to use this coupon after your first visit to the cafe. Yay for you!)

Cute and what?

The guys working here may be cute but cuteness doesn’t do much for me when I can look up cute and hot guys through Instagram any time and for free. If it’s a problem with loneliness, just scroll IG and eat with your favorite IG celebrity. Voila! Problem solved.

Advice for First Timers

  • If you’re going to experience the BL Cafe alone, set your expectations low. Like super low.
  • Go with someone as the employees seem more attentive and interactive with big groups.
  • If you’re afraid the experience will be unsatisfactory and a waste of your hard earned money, stick to one drink and an hour’s stay only. As service is slow, possibly on purpose, make sure to keep your eyes on that clock.

Where is the BL Cafe?

Finding the place isn’t too difficult but it isn’t all that easy either. I advise you to use Google maps to get you there. Be on the lookout for a black board that says BL on it somewhere. There will also be a vertical white sign hanging above. If you see these two things, you probably have found the BL cafe and all that’s left to do is to climb the stairs and enter the left door (there is no door to your right, btw).

Google maps will tell you that this place is across a university. Don’t be fixated on looking for a university because I didn’t notice the university while heading to the cafe. Another thing to note is that the cafe is located right before a lengthy road overpass, should you be heading from Sunshine City area.

Don’t forget to share your experiences with me, should you decide to visit the BL cafe.

Links, should you need it:

Special links, should you want to preview BL Cafe’s staff: