Eorzea: The Final Fantasy Cafe

Despite my friends having done so, I haven't played the latest iteration of Final Fantasy, the 14th in the series. The series itself though is one I've pretty much grown up with and look back at fondly - and it's still hard for me not to get giddy when I hear the music from the games starting up. Though I can't say I've loved every Final Fantasy game I ever played, the name of the brand itself holds a special place in my heart. I guess.

But I'm not the only one! I've also gathered fellow gamers and Adventure Friends Millo and Agha to my cause, as we set out to discover the official Final Fantasy Cafe, named Eorzea. As simple as it may sound, getting into the cafe in itself is somewhat of a quest. From what's been made apparent to me, you can't just stroll in and expect to be seated. One has to reserve online and get a ticket for one of the two hour time slots. They take everyone in at the same time, and kick you out after two hours. When we showed up I was even afraid for a moment that they wouldn't let us in, because I apparently didn't go through the typical reservation process. But in the end we made it!
 In truth, Eorzea is just about completely based on Final Fantasy XIV (that's 14, for the roman numeral illiterate.) But given that the series has familiar characters and items that made regular appearances, it wasn't too hard for us to find things we recognized.

In terms of decorum, Eorzea has this really nice polish to it. Whereas many themed bars kind of haphazardly throw objects related to the theme around, this one had this really neat, posh kind of feel to it. Wonderful looking stained-glass windows were set up, and cast a nice light upon some of the tables in the cafe. Not unlike the Dark Souls bar I had been to a while ago, weapons of all types were suspended on walls and over the bar counter. At the very center of the room were the trademark Moogle characters, kind of serving as an anchoring point for everything else. I really thought the presentation was on point, despite the cafe itself being pretty humble in size all things considered.

 Gamers who have a hard time separating themselves from their gaming sessions will be pleased to hear that Eorzea actually has gaming stations. Not that any one of the customers was actually using these seriously, but the option was there. Though most people including ourselves seemed like they were there to satisfy their curiosity about the bar, I figure it wouldn't be a bad place to meet playmates.
 Food wise, Eorzea had a few nifty themed menu items going for it. Most (surprisingly not all) of the items on the menu were based on in-game items or creatures, which was quite amusing, actually. Where else, for instance, can you get a TITAN, GOD OF THE CRAGS burger? Names aside, the food wasn't actually fantastic. Though we did marvel at the Leviathan Ramen Noodles, which came in a blue colored soup, none of us had the guts to order it (or particularly wanted to eat seafood noodles.) We also each ordered drinks - the potion, ether and elixir respectively, and were disappointed that our hit points weren't restored. No joke, though, it was really difficult to figure out what we were actually ordering, since the descriptions of the items were all really cryptic.

 Before we knew it, our two hours were up and it was time for us to get going. We got to keep coasters with cool artwork on them, and our bill was surprisingly cheap altogether, which isn't something you usually get to say when coming out of a themed establishment. So hey, all together, I feel like I can't complain about the time I spent in Eorzea.