Robots, monsters and owls prowl Tokyo's eateries

Kawaii Monster Cafe's Mushroom Disco. [Photo by Erik Nilsson/China Daily]

Another thing about the restaurant - it serves food.

So does the city's Kawaii Monster Cafe, where "dad's beer" comes in a beaker, moms sip "potion" cocktails from jars and kids' meals come in neon colors.

It's perhaps the only place where you'd order "colorful poison parfait extreme" for your young ones without concern for their health beyond too much sugar.

A huge pair of googly eyes pop from the wall of the lobby that leads to dining areas where lips are affixed to walls, dangle from the ceiling and serve as the centerpiece of a cake that, in turn, centers the merry-go-round - that, in turn, serves as the center of the room.

Bunnies and unicorns spin around the layers of loafs that dribble with frosting.

Children can't go on the merry-go-round (it's meant for go-go dancers, who teach routines to guests) but can climb the plastic vines that twist toward the ceiling.

Monster Cafe's Mushroom Disco seems like a magical place where Candy Land took a magical dose of its namesake fungi, which incidentally serves as its Technicolor furniture - that is, largely as parasols that block strobe lights.

Families who visit the city's owl cafes agree they're a hoot in every sense.

Many are more like petting zoos than places to enjoy brewed beverages.

Some don't even have coffee that's not canned. But a hot cuppa isn't the reason families visit.

It's the chance to feed fish guts to owls and to have them perch on forearms for photos and petting sessions.

Serpents slither in aquariums that top tables in analogous snake cafes, which often actually do prepare food and drink.

Guests can choose the specimens to place on their tables and switch whenever they like.

They can also purchase shed skins - or the living reptiles themselves, as pets.

Yes, you can order one lemon tea, two cheesecakes and three corn snakes if you so choose.

(Serpents, at least, should be ordered, "to-go".)

But if you're looking for food with entertainment, rather than entertainment with food, the Shinyokohama Raumen Museum serves hearty helpings of both.

Invisible hands lift chopsticks dangling with noodles outside.

The top floor hosts an area where kids can slot-car race and parents can buy such essential items as plastic bowls of fake ramen that serve as smartphone holders.

Shinyokohama also hosts jugglers, fortune-tellers and old-time candy shops.

The downstairs is rendered as a recreation of retro Tokyo.

Replicas of antiquated buildings serve as modern ramen restaurants plastered with old movie posters and other nostalgic references to the "golden years".

That said, early 20th-century Tokyo didn't host robot restaurants, or monster, owl and snake cafes.