It is October and you know what that means, Halloween! I love Halloween. I love going to haunted houses, watching horror movies, and dressing up for a night of drunken spooky fun. Halloween in Japan is a bit different from the States, but it is a lot fun. Unfortunately, corona has canceled a lot of Halloween events this year, but there is one place where you can have that great Halloween vibe and enjoy a delicious dinner. That place is 8 Cafe.
8 Cafe
8 Cafe is located in the Iida area of Naka city. The wife and I went there last Tuesday because I had heard they had a great Halloween menu. If you go to 8 Cafe at night, you might miss it so be careful. There are barely any lights around the area and the cafe is painted entirely in black. After passing it and doing a U turn, the wife and I finally went inside.
So Spooky
Walking into this place felt like I was walking into a mini version of the haunted mansion from Disney. There were Jack-o'-lanterns everywhere, skulls, spiderwebs, and a talking ghost. I was loving this place already.
Inside
The wife and I were seated at a table with two black leather couches. This was awesome, except for the fact that the table was a bit far so I would have to completely sit up to eat. Good for my posture I guess. This place felt like a haunted museum. There were paintings, old style wood chairs and tables, even gothic books and art. The inside was dimly lit and the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack was playing. It was fantastic.
The Halloween Menu
Obviously, the Halloween menu is a limited time deal. The regular menu seems to be a course menu which the wife and I want to try next time. The Halloween menu brought three main dishes; the squid ink pasta, the chicken and bacon pumpkin cream pasta, and the chicken sautee with bacon and pumpkin cream sauce. The wife decided we were trying all of that in one go.
The Halloween Desserts
The Halloween Desserts menu has way more options. The dessert menu has purple sweet potato parfait, pumpkin parfait, Mont Blanc parfait, and waffles with pumpkin. The drinks are cream soda which comes in grape, blue Hawaiian, strawberry or melon. The other drink is simply called the Halloween drink. All drinks come with edible eye balls.
The wife and I ordered a lot off the Halloween menu which we were looking forward to trying, and 8 Cafe did not disappoint.
Grape Eye Cream Soda
First up, was the grape cream soda. Nothing says delicious like soda, ice cream, and an eye ball staring at you while you sip your soda through a straw. It was delicious and pretty refreshing. The ice cream with the soda mixed together is always a welcome treat. "How was the eye ball?" You might be asking. It was a hard zeri or jello, with Calpis flavor in it. All the different pupils had a different kind of flavor to them. It was quite an experience.
Halloween Drink
The menu really doesn't explain this drink well but the presentation is awesome. I want to say that the vial with the eye balls may have been ginger ale. The staff told us to pour the vial's contents into the main drink and stir. The blue part of the drink was fruity and there was an amazing looking blue ice skull in the drink. It was a soda and a tasty refreshing one at that.
The Salad
I forgot to mention, you can order all the Halloween dishes as a set or by itself. If you order the set, you get a drink, soup, and salad. Our salad that night brought a piece of roast beef, pumpkin quiche, and some amazing sauces which unfortunately I can't remember. The soup was cold potato soup and it was delightful. Everything on that plate was fantastic, but I especially loved the roast beef. It was so soft and with the sauces, it was a meaty piece of heaven in my mouth.
Squid Ink Pasta
I have never been a fan of squid ink anything. I have tried a squid ink burger, and squid ink pasta before and I wasn't too fond of them. But this pasta was actually pretty good. It didn't have that heavy smell or taste of squid ink. It was a great pasta dish. The pieces of calamari in the pasta a nice touch.
Chicken Bacon and Pumpkin Cream Pasta
I absolutely loved this pasta. The two pieces of pumpkin were so soft and delicious, the chicken pieces and bacon pieces in there were great. The only thing was that the cream sauce was really thick and heavy. I thought I would get full from the cream alone. Still, I did love this pasta.
Chicken Sautee with Pumpkin Cream
This was my favorite dish out of all our entrees. It brought a few different vegetables, penne pasta and an amazing smelling chicken. This time, the cream wasn't too heavy and went really well with the incredibly tasty chicken. The wife really enjoyed dipping everything in that pumpkin sauce. She couldn't get enough of that pumpkin flavored chicken. I highly recommend trying this dish when you decide to join the Halloween festivities at 8 Cafe.
Pumpkin Waffles
The wife and I were full after all our pasta, but there is always room for dessert. This dessert was extremely fun. Especially, when the wife grabbed the syringe full of caramel and gave the waffles their due injection. The waffles looked like a dessert sandwich with a lot of cream in the middle. Inside the cream were eye balls, grapes and other fruits. The top pumpkin cream was great and went really well with the waffles. The waffles were a bit hard but I really enjoyed them. The wife couldn't get enough and almost finished the whole plate by herself.
Purple Sweet Potato Parfait
At this point in our dinner, the wife and I were beyond full. But we soldiered on and finished our entire meal. The parfait had a lot going on. Sweet potato cream, ice cream, corn flakes, zeri, and other types of cream. This was a great dessert. The wife and I got spoonful after spoonful of amazing sweets. The only part of it I didn't agree with was the bitter zeri at the bottom. It was a smack in the face after having all that good sweetness.
Happy Halloween
The wife and I could barely move after we finished everything, but we enjoyed everything we had. The meal was a little bit expensive but for the amount of food we got it wasn't that bad. We told the staff that we would definitely be back to try 8 Cafe's other dishes.
Before we left though, I had to hit up the bathroom. The hallway to the bathroom is a mix of madness and curiosity. There are paintings all over the walls. Some of those paintings are extremely creepy. The painting at the end of the hallway moves every minute or so and becomes something that still haunts my nightmares till this day. I LOVED IT! "This is Halloween," I thought to myself as I looked at the bathroom mirror that had some fake blood on it.
8 Cafe is by far the most fun Halloween themed restaurant in Ibaraki. If you love Halloween, you should definitely give this place a chance.
So if you are in Naka City and love a good scare, why not give 8 Cafe a try. Who knows, you might see me there, with a chewy eye ball in my mouth from my cream soda.
Enjoy and Happy Halloween!
Fore more information on 8 Cafe, check out their website:
Special thanks to Adam Suslak for the great recommendation.
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