Alice in Dancing Land is a theme restaurant in Shibuya, Tokyo, inspired by Alice in Wonderland. I previously visited a similar restaurant, Alice in Labyrinth located in Ginza, Tokyo, and produced by the same chain, which you can read about here.
As I brought Zhen to Alice in Labyrinth on her previous visit to Japan and she liked it a lot, we thought to check out another branch when she visited this time round. The differences between the branches are the decor and menu. Food items are roughly the same, but presentation differed quite a bit.
Let me confess. The 3 pictures above are a lie.
I actually took them in reverse order. Meaning, I only took them at the end of the meal while leaving.
When we arrived, we took a lift right down to the reception area and appeared in the door behind the lady. My knees were still hurting (from the Korea trip 2 months ago fml) and I literally couldn’t walk down stairs without pain shooting through my knees and someone to help support me. Had a glimpse into my old lady life there =_=
But when I saw that the stairs looked so nice, I painfully climbed the stairs up when we left and took them in reverse chronological order instead so as to photograph the place.
Why does this matter? Not like you would know or care lol. To show how devoted I am to blogging that I would even climb mountains (fine, stairs)!!! And I have a feeling the one person who knows the truth might mention it anyway :D
Decor
Alice in Dancing Land has a dreamy, magical setting, different from Alice in Labyrinth‘s mysterious fantasy atmosphere. I like both though! ;D
Menu
The menu was actually on the verge of breaking apart (the clock part is way too heavy for the binding) but I bet you can’t tell from the photo.
I ordered the HAPPY UNBIRTHDAY!!!
Dunno why my drink needed 2 straws… the funny thing is on the other hand, Zhen’s drink was missing its straw!
When we entered the restaurant without a reservation, we were given what were possibly the lousiest seats in the entire restaurant.
Seriously, it’s a tiny nook in the furthest corner of the restaurant. The store room was behind me, and I was flanked on both sides with a wall and a partition. All I could see was Zhen’s face and I have to stretch my neck out just to see how the rest of the restaurant looked like. It was so horrible!
I asked for a seat change, half expecting them to decline my request because I didn’t make a reservation, but fortunately there were free seats and we were moved into civilisation!
ADVICE: Definitely make a reservation if possible! (especially if you want the pretty carousel seats!)
Food
The food was mediocre. Overall, it wasn’t tasty but wasn’t outright inedible either. I think the pasta was the worst of the lot though. It was much too bland for my liking.
My Happy Unbirthday drink however, was quite good! Zhen ordered a lychee drink and she didn’t like it because it was too bland.
The food over at Alice in Labyrinth was MUCH better. It was delicious!
Price
Similar to other branches. The 500 yen cover charge per person still applies. We spent around 5,500 yen in total for dinner.
It was interesting checking out this place, but now that I’ve been here, I won’t be back again. I will still check out other branches though!
Still, if you are inclined to visit just for the experience (perhaps a quick stop during your Shibuya shopping?) details are as follows!
Alice in Dancing Land (Shibuya)
Website: http://www.alice-restaurant.com/buto/top.html
Address: Zero Gate, B1F, 16-9 Udagawacho, Shibuya, Tokyo 150-0042 (just look for a giant green Bershka building. The restaurant is in the basement.)
