I first heard of the Miracle Fruit Cafe while watching the technology show Beyond Tomorrow. One of the hosts, Hayden Turner, visited the cafe during an episode in Japan.

the miracle fruit in all its glory

First off, what is a miracle fruit anyway? The “miracle fruit” is actually a berry that when chewed before eating makes sour foods taste sweet. Yes, sweet. After chewing this berry, you can bite straight into a lemon and not taste anything sour.

The berry is native to West Africa and has been eaten by the natives for centuries. For a comprehensive overview – check out wikipedia. In the 21st century you can buy the berries on the internet to try for yourself, or you can visit the Miracle Fruit Cafe in Ikebukuro.

So why is this awesome? Because you can take a low calorie food, like a lemon and use the juice as a sugar substitute – effectively making an extremely low calorie dessert. Great for dieters, right? Well, maybe…

I had been dying to try out the miracle fruit every since I saw the Beyond Tomorrow episode. I was more excited about the experience than the actual food itself. The next time I visited Tokyo, I made it my top priority to venture out to the Miracle Fruit Cafe, which is located in Namja-town – a fairly small theme park in Ikebukuro.

Just to get into Namja-town, you have to pay about 400 yen per person. This gives you basic access to the park, but you’ll still have to pay extra for any activities.  I recommend going hungry because they have some pretty great looking deserts in their Ice Cream Town and the Tokyo Desert Republic. But, I didn’t have time for that. I was on a singular mission to try the miracle fruit – no time for fun, and no time for other adventures on this day.

I dragged my brother along with me. He wasn’t too excited about it, and I can understand why. Namja-town is filled with active kids running around and having a great time – but the parents stare blankly while sitting on benches scattered throughout the park. Being adults, there really wasn’t much for us to do but eat. So, on to the cafe!

Arriving at the Miracle Fruit Cafe, we were seated by the hostess and given our menus. My mouth was watering at the thought of the low-cal, sweet, sweet desert that I was about to try. I looked over the menu and decided on the lemon parfait. The miracle fruit was brought out to me along with a two minute timer. I was instructed to chew the miracle fruit until the time ran out. While chewing the berry, I looked around at the other customers in the cafe. No one else was eating any of the miracle fruit desserts. They were all there for the curry (which looked fantastic).

It’s never good when you go to a restaurant and no one is eating the specialty dish. “Oh well,” I thought. They’re the ones missing out. This is going to be awesome! A few minutes later, the waitress brought out the lemon parfait. I took one bite of the lemon sherbet, and it was SWEET! It really did work! I had a few more bites. The lemon still remained sweet, but the tasted was distinctly different from the sweetness of sugar. The sour turned sweet lemon didn’t really have any depth of flavor to it. I ate about half of the parfait before deciding that I had experienced enough to the miracle fruit.

I ended up getting some matcha ice cream in Ice Cream Town on the way out of Namja-town to cleanse the pallete. There’s nothing like matcha ice cream! (The miracle fruit didn’t seem affect the taste of the regular food.)

If you’re looking for a novelty experience, you’ll enjoy the miracle fruit cafe. It’s definitely an adventure and an experience I won’t forget. I would definitely take my visiting friends to the cafe just to see the looks on their faces as they bite into that lemon for the first time.

The Miracle Fruit Cafe (in Japanese)
At Sunshine City in Ikebukuro, Tokyo
東京都豊島区東池袋３丁目
サンシャインシティ・ワールドインポートマートビル2・3階 入園ゲート2階