The Quintessential Quintuplets x Mixx Garden

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For a Quintessential Quintuplets fan, travel to Japan in April-May, and you’re almost guaranteed to find a TQQ-collab café . And for this year’s location, I headed to Mixx Garden in Ikebukuro for their “Retro Girl Café ” collaboration, featuring the Nakano sisters in retro Showa-era dresses.

So what was the café experience like? Does the menu accurately portray each of the quintuplets? And is it worth the visit? Let’s get to it. How Good was The Quintessential Quintuplets x Mixx Garden Collab Café Actually?

–Interior–
–Menu & Series Accuracy–
–Retro Girl Birthday Waffle–
–Nino’s Character Drink–
–Miku’s Character Drink–
–Collaboration Goods–
–L-Size Bromide & Drink Coasters–
–A4 Illustration Card–
–Collaboration Merchandise–
–Verdict–
–Getting There–

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🏠 Interior 🏠

Mixx Garden is a fairly small café compared to some other collab stores I’ve been to, but the few decor elements that are present aren’t too bad at all – with illustration frames around the café and a large poster by the cashier showcasing collab-exclusive artwork, and background music featuring all the vocal tracks from the anime/movie & character songs.

And for a quick mention, reservations are made on TableCheck (via the Mixx Garden website.) Dining time is 70 minutes (ordering period is 40 minutes) with 5-6 timeslots per day.

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📋 Menu & Series Accuracy 📋

In addition to being based around each quintuplet’s signature color and personality, the menu is also themed around retro Japan’s showa-era café s and coffee shops (Kissaten), from dishes like ice cream parfait, meat sauce spaghetti, and korokke sandwiches, to the classic fruit-milk and cream soda.

Here’s a quick rundown of each of the Quintuplet’s dishes & drinks

Main Course
🟡 Ichika – Lemon Seafood Gratin
🦋 Nino – Cream Puffs & Vanilla Ice Cream with Edible Flowers
🎧 Miku – “Black Charcoal” Korokke Sandwich with a Side Salad
🍀 Yotsuba – Rare Cheesecake with Kiwi, Mango, and Pear
⭐️ Itsuki – Spaghetti with Curry Meat Sauce
🍦 Retro Girl Parfait (Random) – Strawberry Parfait
🎂 Retro Girl Birthday Waffle (All) – Belgian Waffles with Brownies & Mixed Fruit

Drinks
🟡 Ichika – “Energy drink” & elderflower syrup drink
🦋 Nino – Violet flower & Kyoho syrup drink
🎧 Miku – Butterfly pea & matcha soda drink
🍀 Yotsuba – Tropical fruit & orange syrup drink
⭐️ Itsuki – Collagen peach & strawberry syrup drink
☕️ Mixx Garden Tea (Select) – Various Herbal Tea Blends

As for series accuracy, I think they did a great job here!

The color accuracy checks out of course, but my favorite part is how well they incorporated the “Retro Girl” part of the collab – as almost all of the dishes here are something you can actually find at a Showa-era Kissaten.

And as a small easter egg, every single item on the menu is garnished with silver ball sprinkles, just like how the café -exclusive artwork of each of the Nakano sisters all feature some sort of pearl element in their costume.

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🎂 Retro Girl Birthday Waffle (¥1,650) 🎂

For my main dish today, I ordered the Retro Girl Birthday Waffle – the perfect choice for when you can’t decide on which of the Quintuplets to go for – or need a compromise option if you’re sharing it with someone else.

The dish itself is packed with lots of individual elements, featuring two Belgian-style Liège waffles, whipped cream, chocolate brownies, heart-shaped marshmallow, mixed fruits & jam, maple syrup, chervil leaves, and silver sprinkles… very impressive.

Flavor-wise, it’s genuinely not bad. The waffles are pre-made (though I assume in-house) with little bits of crunchy sugar, and the rest tastes exactly like it should, but the complexity of it all makes for quite the enjoyable experience – though of course, at collab café prices.

As part of the order, you also get two happy birthday-themed goodies alongside the waffles: an A4 illustration card of your choice, and a mini placemat – featuring all five of the quintuplets.

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🦋 Nino’s Character Drink (¥750) 🦋

Nino’s drink is a retro Fruit Milk-style beverage of violet flower and Kyoho syrup in a condensed milk & clear lemon jelly base, topped with whipped cream and silver sprinkles.

Interestingly… the syrup wasn’t the dominant flavor here, with the main attraction coming primarily from the lemon jelly – though the sour/citrus notes do combine to form a nice-tasting drink.

Overall quite good!

How does one dispense whipped cream perfectly on the rim like this?

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🎧 Miku’s Character Drink (¥750) 🎧

Notice the lack of Miku merch from my random coasters & acrylic stands…

Miku’s is by far the most unique of the quintuplets – being more of a Cream Soda-style drink. Clear cider mixed with some butterfly pea tea and matcha syrup, with a condensed milk & lemon jelly base, topped with whipped cream and some silver sprinkles.

If you’ve read my previous TQQ collab café s over the years, you’ll know that I like to joke that Miku will never get a ‘Matcha Soda’ drink strictly because it doesn’t match her signature color. Well… happy to report that I’ve been proven wrong (though my color theory still stands!)

Being relatively light on butterfly pea flavors, the ‘Matcha Soda’ really shines through here from the matcha syrup, condensed milk, and cider (despite also being on the lighter side.) You can recreate the flavors at home with some matcha powder & clear soda, but as a collab café novelty drink – this one was an absolute treat!

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🎉 Collaboration Goods 🎉

The collab event also comes with a collection of goodies: some free with every order, and others available at their merch corner.

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🎉 L-Size Bromide & Drink Coasters 🎉

For each (non-Birthday Waffle) main course order, you’ll receive a L-Size bromide photo card of your choice, while every beverage order gives you a (random) drink coaster.

I wanted Nino (then Itsuki and Ichika), while my brother wanted Miku (then Yotsuba), and for our two drinks, we got…. Nino and Ichika. Not too bad on my end, but clearly not a good start for my brother.

In addition to the drinks, you can also get another coaster by sharing a photo of the café with the hashtags #ミクガ and #五等分の花嫁 on Twitter.

Of the two additional coasters, we got an Itsuki and a duplicate Nino. An absolute win for me, but yet another loss for my brother.

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🎉 A4 Illustration Card 🎉

For every ¥5,500 spent on food & merch, you’ll be given an A4-sized illustration card of your choice.

I’d obviously go for a Nino here, but as we haven’t had a single Miku item today, I decided to let my brother choose his favorite for this one.

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🛍 Collaboration Merchandise 🛍

You can also find lots of goods at the merch corner, featuring all the usual (random & non-random) assortment of collaboration items: can badges, bromide cards, acrylic stands, stickers, tapestries, photo frames, and more.

Continuing my lucky streak, the three acrylic stands I bought were exactly the three I wanted! My brother didn’t want to risk getting any duplicates, however, so he ended up purchasing a L-sized Yotsuba standee before we headed out.

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⭐VERDICT⭐

So how good was The Quintessential Quintuplets x Mixx Garden collab café actually? It’s quite nice! The decor is a bit more minimalistic than many collab stores I’ve visited over the years, but the overall theming is very strong here, with some great character designs (though that’s subjective) that translate into the food very well.

Objectively the menu items were fine. Upper mid-tier compared to other collab cafés – but nothing too special, and you are essentially paying a higher price for the “character experience.” But as a once-in-a-while visit, it was a very enjoyable stay!

So if you’re a fan of the Quintessential Quintuplets and want to spend an hour at a TQQ-themed café , then keep an eye out for future The Quintessential Quintuplets collabs at Mixx Garden!

For more The Quintessential Quintuplets collab café reviews, check them out here!
Full Review: The Quintessential Quintuplets Tree Village Café
Full Review: The Quintessential Quintuplets Café (Sweets Paradise)

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🚗 GETTING THERE 🚗

Mixx Garden is located around the Ikebukuro area, not too far from Sunshine City and Chiikawa Park.

From Ikebukuro Station (JR, Marunouchi, Tobu Lines & more), head to Exit 35 and it’s a manageable 10-minute walk.

If you’re taking the Yurakucho Line, you can also head to Higashi-Ikebukuro Station and take Exit 2, where it’s a slightly closer 8-minute walk.