We visit a Harajuku cafe where you can customize food with your favorite idol’s member color

Cafe de Lapis has not only beautiful and delicious food, but it’s idol otaku-friendly!

Fans of idol singers know that every idol in a group has his or her own “member color”. This is the color that the idol typically wears at concerts to make them easily distinguishable on stage. Fans also use glowsticks that are their idol’s member color at concerts so that they can see how much love and support they have in the audience. Member colors are also important when it comes to merchandise, since they allow fans to express their support for the idol as well as the group.

Member colors are a really vital aspect of idol fandom and culture that is incorporated even into fans’ everyday lives. That’s why as idol otaku ourselves, we were excited to check out a cafe in Omotesando, a trendy shopping area of Tokyo’s Harajuku neighborhood, called Cafe de Lapis, which offers you the chance to customize your food with your favorite idol’s member color!!

Cafe de Lapis is located about a seven-minute walk from Omotesando Station, just off the main street. It’s surrounded by lots of greenery that gives it a nice, calming atmosphere. This beautiful facade almost made us forget we were in the middle of a big city.

The interior also had a very relaxing vibe, making use of lots of neutral tones and natural materials like wood. As idol fans, we’d brought acrylic standees of our favorite idols, but once we were inside, we felt a little shy about bringing them out in this sophisticated-looking cafe.

Clutching our bag of precious acrylic stands, our hearts thumping nervously, we found a seat and began to peruse the menu. Cafe de Lapis is famous for its food that comes with brightly-colored agar-agar confections called amber sweets, which look like gems and come as toppings for cake, pudding, and cider. Cafe de Lapis allows you to choose the color of your amber sweets…and to our surprise, the menu said, “Please choose your favorite idol’s member color”!

In most cases, we idol fans often feel embarrassed about bringing our idol goods to ordinary restaurants, so being welcomed so openly as idol otaku to this cafe really set our hearts at ease, and let us feel brave enough to order our favorite idols’ member colors.

The colors of the amber sweets are based on birthstone colors, and there are 14 different options to choose from. The color blue alone has three different variations, which was great since most member colors are distinguished between the light and dark varieties of each color.

Even better, you can choose up to two different colors for each cake, drink, or dessert! Most idol otaku don’t have just one favorite idol, so this way, you can match up at least two of your favorite idols, or even pair a member color with your own birthstone color.

Today we ordered the Lapis Birth Stone Cake (700 yen/US$6.16) and the Lapis Birth Stone Cider (500 yen). We brought along standees of Manaka Inaba, our favorite idol from the group Juice=Juice, and Rika Shimakura from BEYOOOOONDS, so we used their member colors– hot pink for Manakan and lavender for Rika–to top our cider and our cake.

The result was absurdly pretty, and we couldn’t help but place Manakan and Rika-chan behind the cake and beside the cider for a very photographic moment! The acrylic stands actually looked really sophisticated when paired with our snack, and the sparkly treasure-like sweets were like a personification of our idols’ brilliance.

Even though it was so pretty we almost didn’t want to eat it, everything looked so yummy we couldn’t help ourselves. The cake was a very refreshing no-bake cheesecake with a crispy cookie crust, and the combination was stellar. The crunchy amber sweets added a nice texture contrast to the softness of the cake, so all around it was a fabulous combination.

The amber sweets in the cider have less sugar in them and are more like jelly, which was a delight. It was a lot of fun to alternate between sipping the cider and scooping the sweets out with a spoon. Digging between the ice cubes was like a little treasure hunt on its own! As time passed, the cider gradually changed colors to match the sweets, which was really cool and served as a great tribute to our favorite idols.

When we went to pay, we were delighted to find that you can also buy the amber sweets by the bottle for 500 yen apiece. They were arranged neatly on the checkout counter by color, and it was so pretty, we were tempted to buy them all! They’d be a great gift for a fellow fan.

All in all, our otaku heart was extremely satisfied with our experience at Cafe de Lapis. The fusion of our favorite idols and the amber candy was too wonderful, and the time we spent there was very relaxing. Of course, if you aren’t an idol fan, you can still enjoy your time at Cafe de Lapis. It’s a beautiful cafe with a delicious menu, so definitely stop by if you find yourself in the area!

Cafe information
Cafe de Lapis
Address: Tokyo-to Shibuya-li Jingu-mae 3-5-21 KOH-I-NOORⅡ  First Floor
東京都渋谷区神宮前3−5−21 KOH-I-NOORⅡ  1階
Open 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m. (6 p.m. on Sundays)
Website

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