Sanrio’s pudding-dog mascot Pompompurin got his first nationwide standalone café on Wednesday, 22 October 2014, on the third floor of CUTE CUBE HARAJUKU in Jingumae. Shibuya Channel’s opening-day report treated the shop as a full-room experience — not a short pop-up — with character greeters, a wide food and sweets lineup, and merchandise you could only buy on site.
Menus and tenants change; treat operational details as historical.
Finding the third-floor room
From Harajuku Station’s Takeshita Exit, the walk was about three minutes down Takeshita-dori; the building sits on the right-hand side. CUTE CUBE’s compact vertical footprint is typical of Harajuku side-street retail — a small facade, then themed floors above street noise.
Inside, Pompompurin and friends occupied the center of the dining room. The mood was compared to inviting guests into “Pompom Room” — soft, yellow-forward, unhurried, and entirely on-brand for a character built around comfort food and napping.
Food: savory plates with mug bonuses
Savory items mixed café staples with pun-heavy naming:
- Prin’s Tsukimi Loco Moco (¥1,290, tax excluded)
- Bacon & Mushroom Carbonara (¥1,490, includes mug)
- Tomato & Mozzarella Cheese plate (¥1,490, includes mug)
The mug-included dishes were part of the collectible loop — meal plus a takeaway piece of tableware featuring the characters.
Sweets: pancakes, parfaits, and parade plates
Dessert coverage highlighted shareable visuals:
- Caramel Pancakes (¥1,200)
- Bagel-kun Special Pancake Tower (¥1,490, mug included)
- “Prin and Friends” Sweets Parade (¥1,200)
- Mango Parfait (¥1,100)
The original writer admitted the menu was cute enough to trigger a “order everything” impulse. Prices in the source were pre-tax.
Merchandise only sold here
Beyond food, the café carried Pompompurin Café–exclusive goods — T-shirts, tote bags, and similar souvenirs positioned for tourists and character collectors. That retail layer mattered in Harajuku, where themed shops often compete on “only available at this address” items as much as on taste.
How it fits Harajuku’s character-café wave
The mid-2010s saw Sanrio, anime franchises, and game IP rotate through permanent and limited cafés across Tokyo. Pompompurin’s Harajuku debut claimed first nationwide store status for the brand’s dedicated café format — a step up from shorter collaborations in department store restaurants.
Harajuku shares foot traffic with Shibuya even when the mood differs. Watching the wider district on a Shibuya Crossing live camera still helps read weekend density; a Takeshita-side café was the indoor counterpart — queues climbing to the third floor while the street below stayed packed.
If you are planning café hops on a trip budget, pair this archive note with cheap eats in Tokyo.
Store facts (historical)
- Name: ポムポムプリンカフェ（Pompompurin Café）Harajuku
- Opened: 22 October 2014
- Hours: 11:00–21:00
- Address: 1-7-1 Jingumae, CUTE CUBE HARAJUKU 3F, Shibuya, Tokyo
- Phone: 03-5786-0780
- Website (historical): http://pompom.createrestaurants.com/jp/index.html
Confirm current operation before visiting.
