California's First Hello Kitty Cafe

I haven't yet been to my first ever character themed restaurant, but it looks like I am going to have my first experience right here in Orange County, California.

Yes, you heard right. A Hello Kitty Cafe is opening sometime late this year in Southern California. There hasn't been an exact date or month announced for when this restaurant will open it's doors. Maybe it's still in the early stages of being built or constructed as we speak because I haven't seen any teasers. And, you know that if there was a single preview of the restaurant itself-- those pictures would be shared through social media around the world in a millisecond. Well, within the Sanrio community of course.

There has only been one Sanrio Cafe that has opened in USA and that was in Hawaii. The only difference between the cafe in Hawaii and the L.A. cafe are their names. One is called Sanrio and the other is Hello Kitty. Maybe Hello Kitty Cafe will be different and live up to people's expectations. 

Unfortunately, Sanrio Cafe didn't make any impact in Hawaii with just 3 stars on Yelp. Last year, it was 1 or 2 stars. From the reviews, it seemed like it was a fast-food type cafe on overpriced desserts that looks cute but taste "bland" or horrible. 

Theme cafes are all about their gimmicks. Why else would anyone consider opening one? Money, of course! And, we all know that Hello Kitty sells millions. It's up to the individual fan to part with his or her money for just a cute face. 

One can hope with the new cafe in California that it will be different in taste.  What can be learned about the new cafe is to not expect anything different from other Hello Kitty themed restaurants opened in Asia or Hawaii.  According to the LAist, the "main focus" is a cafe-style food that serves like salads, sandwiches, sliders and desserts. 

Picture by Daily Pilot

As for me, I am what Sanrio is counting me to be -- an obsessed fan. I will be there in line to buy those adorably cute foods to brag about through my social media apps. More likely, when the fanfare has died down. You won't catch me waiting hours in line at a themed cafe. For a Sanrio Convention, yes. For a cafe, no way. 

So FYI - the review for this cafe will be late. I'll be the one watching and reading other fans' excitement when it's officially open for business.

Gimmicks: Theme Restaurants

The Good, the Bad...

When I go to restaurants or even into cafes, I expect to get my money's worth. I expect to fill my stomach with good food. With my favorite restaurants, I always end up leaving satisfied. Mostly because of the talented chefs behind the counter, who actually care about their craft and the reputation that comes with it.

It's what you'd normally expect for the many average restaurants out there in the world. I never try a new restaurant or cafe without looking up their customer feedbacks. A good restaurant rating usually gives people the confidence to try something new. I look up the feedbacks because I don't want to waste my time eating at a bad restaurant who doesn't really care about you, but only your money. With bad food, there's a more likely chance that the service might be bad as well.

When a restaurant or cafe has no diners, the place usually ends up closing down. The exception to this rule is if the place is a theme restaurant, but it seems that theme cafes are getting away with it because they have one thing that the average cafe restaurant doesn't have... a gimmick.

 Pic Provided by IG

Paying a Gawker Fee

Before I got into collecting Sanrio, I have never heard of theme cafe restaurants because there was none from where I live in Los Angeles. The idea of a cafe restaurant based around a character like Hello Kitty or Barbie was very different from the norm. By using a pop culture icon, these cafe restaurants are able to draw in tourists to their place of business. Many curious diners are more interested in the themed decor than if the food is good or not. These theme cafe restaurants hope to use the popular character obsession to feed their pockets rather than caring about their craft and reputation in the food industry. 

 Pic Provided by IG

By going to these theme cafe restaurants, you're basically paying an entrance fee to see the decor and use their very cute themed dinnerware. When one steps into a theme restaurant, one would think that the food art creations would be as impressive as the matching decor. If you've never been to a theme cafe, think again. If theme restaurant owners are in the food business for genuine reasons, then they would have invested in creating food art to impress the fans. 

Seeing that the food isn't their top priority, when will die hard fans ever get a theme restaurant where the gourmet pastry chefs truly cared about your taste buds and the art of creating masterpieces?

For now, you can only rely on individual bakers for great looking food character creations.