Revisiting Anime-themed Restaurants I've Visited Throughout The Years

On my website, I have visited some anime-themed cafés and restaurants and given my thoughts about them at the time.

Now, years later, I thought of revisiting them. I want to see if these places are still operational and if anything has changed since my last visit.

1. Dungeon Akiba (#112 Unit A San Francisco St 1550 Mandaluyong)

Unfortunately, this place permanently closed its doors years ago. In 2019, while I was planning to celebrate my birthday, they closed shop, claiming they'd move to a new location. It never happened.

For the uninitiated, Dungeon Akiba was a mix of a small restaurant and an internet café. They also had their own maids, so it also served as a mini maid café. During it's lifetime, only a few people visited the place and that could be why it got shut down in the first place.

If you want to know more about my review of Dungeon Akiba, you can check my retrospective here.

2. Y Café (Brgy, Salcedo Village, Don Chua Lamko Building Leviste, Cor H.V. Dela Costa, Makati)

Like Dungeon Akiba, it also permanently closed its doors for some reason. When I visited the place two years ago, it only had a few visitors and its website wasn't working. Maybe the lack of profit during the COVID years caused its closure? 

Unlike Dungeon Akiba though, this anime-themed restaurant was featured in multiple news programs and vlogs. So it must be a popular establishment, right? Right? It sort of is but Y Café is something that only a few people can enjoy in my opinion. Read more about it in my review from 2022.

3. The Little Tokyo District (Chino Roces Ave, Pasong Tamo Corner Amorsolo Street, Makati, Legazpi Village, Makati)

Fortunately, this district in Makati is still alive when I revisited it during the Chinese New Year celebrations. While not really an anime-themed restaurant, it is a little district in Makati where weebs can experience authentic Japanese cuisine and culture. When I dropped by here the first time, I visited Yamazaki Ramen House, a neat place since you can read manga while eating your ordered dish.

On my second visit, I visited Hana, a much smaller restaurant inside Little Tokyo. It has this small restaurant in Japan feel that you thought you were in an izakaya in Tokyo at 10 PM even though it's just noon. 

  

The staff is nice and the food is authentically delicious. They also give you a cold towel before every meal so that you can freshen up your face or hands. 

What changed back then and now is that two pachinko parlors surround the area.  I don't have any pictures of how these parlors look inside but it felt like a seedy casino once you enter.

Pachinko parlors aside, I am glad this place is still alive after COVID-19. It would be nice to have something catered to anime fans like a maid café or a merch store.

If you really want something that catered to anime fans and anime fans alone, you may have to walk for a few minutes.

4. Aniporium (2nd Floor, Eton Tower Makati, Makati)

Perhaps the most famous, and infamous, anime café in the Metro, Aniporium surely survived the S-DIVISION scandal of 2024 and they have moved to another location. They are now located on the second floor of Eton Tower. 

Don't let the location change think that they've changed the merchandise they're selling. They still sell merchandise and snacks. The only difference this time is that the café greets you first and the anime merchandise store is hidden at the back.