The 100% Chocolate Cafe

If you think dessert is the best part of a meal, check out our review of the world’s best chocolate shops.

If you think dessert should be the only part of a meal, head to Tokyo, Japan and check out The 100% Chocolate Cafe.

But don’t let the name fool you. The 100% Chocolate Cafe isn’t exclusively a cafe where every menu item involves chocolate. It’s also a store — where every item for sale involves chocolate. And there’s also a street-side walk-up window — exclusively for chocolate.

Fifty-six varieties of chocolate, to be exact. Some of come from a specific geographic locale (like Brazil and Tanzania). Others are flavored (with ginger, honey, basil or the like). This being Japan, some varieties are simply bizarre. (Collagen??)

Each chocolate variety is numbered and assigned a color tone. Whenever a chocolate is packaged — in a box, a wrapper, a plastic bin or whatever — that varity’s number and/or color is used. This system makes it easy to order your flavor(s) of choice even if you don’t speak Japanese or English. Or if your mouth is too full of chocolate to speak at all.

As for the menu items, the specialty food is a “cornet” — a warm bread-y pastry that’s crispy outside, soft inside and stuffed with your choice of melting chocolate. You’ll also find chocolate cakes and snack-sized wafers that sandwich oozing chocolate.

Though we like the food, it is the selection of creative drinks that, in Spot Cool Stuff’s view, give the cafe its chocolatey raison d’être. There’s chocolate tea, “Chocolate Squash” (a sort of chocolate soda — pic to right) and “Chocolatepresso” (real chocolate bits brewed in with espresso). Our favorite is the “Chocolate Mousse Drink” that mixes hot milk, caramel or strawberry sauce and chocolate mousse together in a tall mug.

Even if you aren’t particularly fond of chocolate, it is worth going to the The 100% Chocolate Cafe for the cool vibe. The joint was designed by the same firm that did, among other venues, the flagship Uniqlo store in New York City and the Ozone bar and lounge atop The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong. The ceiling features dark wood that’s shaped to resemble — what else? — the squares of a chocolate bar. Underneath that awaits an open, glass-filled layout and a hip clientele enjoying their sweet goodness to Bossa Nova tunes

You’ll find the entrance to The 100% Chocolate Cafe at the base of The Tokyo Skytree — the world’s tallest tower. Whether you ever look for the cafe’s exit is entirely up to you.

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Other cool Tokyo travel ideas from Spot Cool Stuff:

Visit a Tokyo Cat Cafe
Shop at Gashapon, One of the World’s Best Toy Stores
Order a Sake From a Buddhist Monk Bartender
Get Served by a Monkey Waiter

Other chocolate-related posts on Spot Cool Stuff:

Design Your Own Chocolate Bars
2Go Self-Heating Hot Chocolate
Hike the Chocolate Hills ← less to do with chocolate than you’d think
Where To Bathe In Chocolate

Elsewhere on the web: