The opening of Orange County’s Gudetama Café has been anything but “meh.” Lines filled the parking lot of the Buena Park Downtown Mall on its opening day on May 4, as hundreds of fans showed up to try a cafe dedicated to the world's favorite anthropomorphic, completely lazy egg.
Some waited hours, others were turned away. Yelp reviewers wrote that they waited 12 to 16 hours to enter Sanrio's genderless, unfertilized egg temple with its own Netflix show. Some guests had to make subsequent attempts to visit, but found that wait times this week had been reduced to between 20 and 40 minutes since the first Saturday of business.
Once inside, everything is yellow and egg everywhere, especially when it comes to the food. Most items have egg lid. Statues of characters can be found hanging from the ceiling and on display tables. The walls are flooded with murals of Gudetama nonchalantly saying, “Meh,” “Whatever…” and “Can I go now?”
The bright yellow building just east of Knott's Berry Farm marks the first Gudetama Café in the U.S., a tasty counterpart to Sanrio's Hello Kitty Cafés in Irvine and Las Vegas, which specialize in sweets and food service. tea. Several Gudetama Cafés have emerged in the last decade, starting with a pop-up shop in Japan, then larger-scale Gudetama Cafés in Singapore, Osaka and Tokyo, as well as a restaurant in Brighton called Gudetama's Lazy Lounge in England.
Buena Park's Gudetama Café uses some of the egg menu items seen in other international iterations, but the menu leans decidedly American with breakfast sandwiches, egg sandwiches, and sides of bacon and cheese tater tots.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
A Sanrio representative told The Times that the company plans to open more cafes based on its litany of friendly characters throughout the year, and that in the pantheon of those characters, Gudetema, although newer, has already become one of the most beloved, especially by older fans who can relate.
Cesar Shih is the manager of Gudetama Café and franchisee of Habit Burger Grill; He also helped bring the Hello Kitty Café to Las Vegas in 2016 (he has since left and has no affiliation with irvine location). Shih said she joined the Gudetama Café project because of the appeal of Gudetama itself.
Almost every dish at Gudetama Café includes runny yolks, and most come adorned with the face of Sanrio's beloved lazy egg.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
“We went into COVID and people developed a different mindset,” he told The Times the day before the cafe opened. “Before we were so immersed in the hustle and bustle. Now it's like: Gudetama is tired all the time but he is not stressed. “I really fell in love with the character.”
Several fans echoed the sentiment during a preview the day before the cafe opened. Among the many attendees dressed in yellow, Gudetama-themed hats, shirts and dresses was Risa Light, dressed in an egg-inspired beret, a white dress and a yellow apron.
“Gudetama is the new icon of this new era,” said Light, who teaches Japanese slang on Instagram. “Gudetama is obviously super kawaii, super cute, but he's also lazy: he doesn't want to go to work. Today he just wants to stay in bed and I identify with him a lot. [In the past] “There was no character like this that we could identify with as much as Gudetama.”
Olivia Lopez, a nine-year-old visitor, told The Times that Gudetama reminds her of her mother, Cynthia “Cyn” Lopez. The duo wore matching T-shirts with the slogan “Gude vibes” and drove from the San Fernando Valley to try out the new restaurant. Content creator Lopez, who describes herself as a Sanrio fan since childhood, said she jumped at the opportunity to see the cafe and “share this passion of loving Sanrio” with her daughter.
When creating the cafeteria menu, the egg, of course, was crucial. This location uses pasture-raised eggs from Vital Farms on a menu that's decidedly more American than its global counterparts: While previous iterations featured fluffy Japanese pancakes, curry, and udon, Buena Park's offers classic breakfast sandwiches with bacon and American cheese, burgers covered in egg and avocado toast, plus an egg-covered chicken katsu sandwich, and all are served with tater tots. Most of the yolks feature Gudetama's half-hearted face, while the brioche buns come emblazoned with the character wearing a chef's hat and reclining on her eggshell.
Having collaborated with Beard Papa's in the past, Sanrio suggested adding that Japanese bakery's famous cream puffs to the cafe's menu. Gudetama Cafe offers the original cream puff prepared to order, as well as a version covered with a deep yellow icing, although it is not egg yolk but mango sauce.
Shih, who also helps supervise the food, said Café Gudetama's kitchen team is also developing its own desserts, such as Portuguese egg tarts and yellow macaroons, and he wanted the café to be more casual, with ordering at the counter. . format, as opposed to full-service dining, to be “more reflective of Gudetama's personality.”
If fans of Gudetama, like their favorite egg, find the idea of getting out of bed too daunting to even make it to Buena Park right now, there could be other reasons to visit this and other Sanrio cafes in the future.
“We are excited to finally be able to open the doors,” said Jill Koch, senior vice president of marketing and a 22-year Sanrio employee. “And stay tuned. More coffee news coming soon. … There will definitely be multiple vacancies for the rest of this year.”
Gudetama Café is located at 8340 La Palma Ave. in Buena Park and is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Fridays and Sundays.
LA Times staff writer Jireh Deng contributed reporting to this story.
