Monsoon Cafe, Odaiba, Tokyo

Another restaurant review here.  This one is for the Monsoon Café in Odaiba, at the same location in Odaiba as The King of the Pirates restaurant.  The Monsoon Café is located throughout the Tokyo area and I’ve also been to the Maihama Monsoon Café. The Tiki connection here is the Monsoon Café’s selection of tropical drinks.  

Monsoon Café has a Southeast Asian feel to it, palm trees, somewhat third-world settings and lots of bamboo.  The food at Monsoon Café is a mix of exotic Thai and Vietnamese food and some familiar Chinese items.  The restaurateurs did a good job with this one, and it actually felt humid in the restaurant (although I haven’t been fortunate enough to visit SE Asia, this is my impression of it from Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, the Hang Over 2 and those feed-a-poor-child commercials/ads).  Unfortunately, they ruined the theming by playing reggae/hip hop music in the restaurant.   

 Let’s get to the food and the grog.

We ordered a variety of dishes and plates, xiao long bao, Thai shrimp toast, nama harumaki, the oriental salad, the meat satay set, and the pork and pineapple fried rice.  The xiao long bao (shou ron po) were pretty average, and you can get better ones from Chinese restaurants.  The Thai shrimp toast was pretty darned good, and had a nice distinct shrimp flavor with a nice crunchy crust.  The oriental salad was decent, but nothing to write home about.  As to the meat satay sticks, you can’t go wrong with sticks of meat that aren’t overcooked.  Two thumbs up for these.  Finally, the pork and pineapple fried rice was the favorite dish for our group.  A perfect blend of sweet and somewhat salty.  The best part of it was the fried rice was not too dry.  I think we ordered two plates of it.  As to my drink, I ordered the Exotic Pineapple.  I’m not sure what was in it, but I suspect rum.  It tasted pretty good, but not enough rum for my tastes. Finally, we ordered a dessert that had ice cream, fruit and little hard crepes.  Very nice presentation, but it tasted just like a bunch of sweets thrown together.

We love themed restaurants, so there’s a good chance we’ll hit another one of the Monsoon Cafés at another location in Tokyo.  The theming gets four out of five satay sticks.  As to the food, I give it three out of five satay sticks.