Hello Kitty Mini Cafe Grand Opening

On Friday, April 7th, the Hello Kitty Mini Café opened at the Santa Anita Mall. After their recent great success and incredibly high demand from both the Hello Kitty Café Truck and the Hello Kitty Café Pop-Up Container, they decided to open a permanent location for guests to enjoy.

At this location they will offer a vast assortment of treats and beverages that you were able to experience at the food trucks and the pop-ups. Pastries are made fresh every day by hand. Even better, they will adapt their menu to seasonal changes which allow fans to experience fresh and new treats! Other than their amazing food, you are able to pick up special merchandise such as: t-shirts, mugs, water bottles, and more from this location.
 
For their grand opening, the Hello Kitty Mini Café offered a special for their early customers. A free drink with purchase to the first 50 customers and a commemorative prize to the first 100. We, Hama and myself, got there right when the mall opened but were surprised to already see a long line waiting! While in line we had the chance to interact with other customers that were equally as excited for the event. When the café finally opened, there was a roar of excitement as the first customer made their order. The service was fast and polite. There were a lot of people ordering and we had first anticipated that the workers would not be ready for the rush but were very pleasantly surprised. They took to their job with ease and everything was very orderly despite the crowd. We hardly had to wait between ordering and receiving our food! Everything was just amazing.

Their menu had an assortment of treats to offer and we couldn’t stop with just one. We were able to meet up with Mark, whom we know from Harajuku Day and Akiba Day, which was awesome since we were able to enjoy a lot of the menu together. In total we ordered the: birthday cake, 5 piece macaron set, strawberry cake, mama's apple pie, mixed berry tart, Hello Kitty pocket pie, and the strawberry mint lemonade. It was a lot of food but every bite was magical.

The macron set came with five different flavors that were color coded: blue for chocolate, green for pistachio, red for strawberry, cream for vanilla and yellow for passion fruit. These macrons are just amazing. They had amazing texture and were really soft when bitten. The filling flavors were rich and you could tell that they used actual ingredients when making them. Pistachio was very nutty while the chocolate was very smooth. Strong but not overpowering. My favorite were the fruit ones, especially the passion fruit. It had an amazing layered taste that perfectly balanced out the tartness of the fruit and sweetness of the pastry. Every macron other than the cream one, which was decorated with Hello Kitty's face, had a cute fondant bow at the corner. If I could order just a set of passion fruit macrons, that would be amazing.

One of their most iconic pastries would have to be the birthday cake. It is shaped like a present with fondant ribbons and Hello Kitty color themed sprinkles covering the whole cake. It seems like the base is made of pound cake but I loved that it was not heavy at all. The cake was light and spongy with a rich taste. Each bite also included the sprinkles that gave it great texture. This is the kind of birthday cake I wish I could have every year!

Next was the pocket pie, or pop-tart. It comes in the shape of Hello Kitty's head with icing, sprinkles, and a large chocolate bow. The shell of the pocket pie tastes like short bread and the filling was luxuriously smooth. You can get the filling in two different flavors: ??? and raspberry, we got the raspberry. Again, what I love is that the filling was not overly sweet and had a great smooth texture. Like the birthday cake, the sprinkles on top also gave a great crunch with every bite. This pastry has a very intricate layered taste.

With a super cute presentation of edible pearls, Hello Kitty shaped fondant decoration, white icing, and a large strawberry; is the strawberry cake from the Hello Kitty Mini Café. This cake is amazing! Its cake part is very light and fluffy with a layer of more strawberries and icing. What I love to do was to cut a slice so I am able to have the cake and decorations in one mouthful. I would leave the strawberry for last because the lingering taste of the cake on the tongue was a mix for the tartness of the fruit.

I am a sucker for tarts, fruit tarts are just the best! For the mixed berry tart, it came with: blueberries, blackberries and raspberries! All piled onto a red crust filled with custard and topped with a dark chocolate disk embossed with the image of Hello Kitty. Originally, I had thought the crust would be flavored with berry puree but it was just colored. The berries of this tart was all fresh and very delicious. It was a great foil to the custard below.

The last pastry would be the mama's apple and that was by far my favorite. Its crust was so flaky and soft while the apples within were very well seasoned. My favorite part is that the apples were a little tart. Having the apples a little tart makes everything refreshing and not overpowering. Add in the mix of cinnamon and sugar seasoning and everything is a dream. The presentation for this treat is just as cute. It is in the shape of a mini pie with lattice top crust and topped with another Hello Kitty head. This is definitely the pie that I'm going to order on my every visit.

With a spread like this, you need something equally as great to wash it down. My pick was the strawberry mint lemonade and I was not sorry. This is by far my favorite drink and especially for the summer. Inside are little cubed pieces of strawberries and mint leaves. In every gulp you can taste the berries and the mint leaves make it so light. The lemonade itself is also very nice and tart without being overly sweet. Again, by far my favorite drink and on my "to order" list on my visits to come.

At the grand opening, fans came dressed in super cute Hello Kitty themed coords and products. Children were very excited and some of them were also decked out in super Hello Kitty outfits. I was lucky enough to be able to get the commemorative gift, which was a cute key chain in the shape of a to-go coffee cup. It is decorated in with an adorable design and had a sleeve that announced the grand opening date. We had so much fun. Hama even got a picture taken by Sanrio and was featured on their Facebook page! I continued to stay throughout the day and by the time I left, around 6:15 PM, the line had not decreased at all! While they sold out of their most popular treats by that time, the staff were still diligent and helped out customers to the best of their abilities.
 
My go-to menu:

• Strawberry mint lemonade
• Mama's apple pie
• 5 piece macron set
  

 
Overall, this was such an awesome experience and we're so excited to have this café as a permanent fixture in a location that is so close to us! We also want to give a huge shout out to Mark and Dyann for helping us so much! We can't wait to come back in the very near future. In the words of the Hello Kitty Mini Café staff:
 
Have a sweet day!

-Eunice