Requiem: Coffee, Tea, and Fantasy — Restaurant in Anaheim

To celebrate being fully vaccinated, a friend of mine brought my partner and I here. Additionally, I wanted to speak with someone regarding a reservation request I had put in two weeks prior.

Exceeded expectations: -Upon entry, the decor and ambiance immediately immerses you in fantastical space where you can immediately from stories and a role for yourself. Kudos to your photographer and decorator! As it appears so much bigger online, yet every inch of space is utilized phenomenally. Not to mention the cafe's cleanliness, and lovely courtesy of Roku screens for viewing shows, movies, or playing video games, and the collection of books available to read. -Staff is incredibly courteous and kind, and the crew who serviced our group had such a friendly bond with one another, it was infectious, and made all of us feel welcomed. They also assisted us with allergy safe options. -I cannot speak for other's, but my order was delicious and well portioned. The Mana Potion was refreshing and perfectly sweetened. The tomato bisque with the Dragon's Gold's grilled cheese sandwich was chef's kiss

Needs works: -Communication; From numerous glowing reviews, I was all in to celebrate my post pandemic birthday here! I was even considering renting out the whole cafe. Over the course of 2 weeks I had called and left a message over the phone, sent an email via Requiem's website, and sent a message via Instagram. During my visit, I brought this up and was assured I would receive a call back the following day regarding my questions. I have yet to receive any form of communication. -According a several written and verbal reviews, the portions for some of the dishes had gotten significantly smaller than they initially were. -This is an issue I believe the Requiem team may be aware of, but I will still include it. While waiting in line, the menu is difficult to read. You can only really read it when you are directly under it, which can be an issue if it's your first time/are indecisive, and there is a line forming behind you. To combat this, there is a paper sign out front with a QR code to the menu, but it is easy to miss, especially on a windy day. My group did not notice it until the fourth time we passed that particular wall. A menu on a stand along where the line forms, or in front of the manager's tank may help.

This last bit is not for the team, but fellow patrons. If you are coming in for photos, the least you and your group can do is purchase drinks. Remember, this is a SMALL LOCAL BUSINESS. The owners have put in a lot of time, effort, and money into making this cafe BEAUTIFUL. Your social media likes won't pay their rent.

TLDR; Out of this world decor and ambience. Courteous and friendly staff. But whomever is handling the communication side of things may need assistance to handle customer inquiries. Food ranges from phenomenal to good, but inconsistent portions. Great menu options, but hard to read at a distance.

I hope this business is able to expand and reach its...

The cafe itself is super cute, with a cozy atmosphere! Definitely the place for fantasy vibes. However, we were unfortunately left very disappointed when we visited for the Over the Garden Wall collaboration. We decided to come for the Fanart event, as I’m a huge long-time fan of the show and can never find art or merch, or really even people who know what I’m talking about.

We drove 6 hours, and ended up waiting in a 3-hour line. It only went around the corner and down half the sidewalk, but it rarely moved. The artists decided to stay late, which is awesome and appreciated! Right before going in, we were told to get our food at the cafe first before going to the art. However, inside they were out of just about everything. The fanart event, I was disappointed to find that it was mostly art and merch completely unrelated to the show, and of things I don’t know anything about—despite the social media promotions portraying it would be much more OTGW for the collaboration. Ended up leaving after 5 minutes with one sticker and a lantern. Upon calling the next day to ask if there would be any of the food or drinks, we were shortly told that they would get a new shipment sometime in the week and that we should just come back. We don’t live anywhere near the area.

Would have come on a regular, less busy day if I had known that the fanart for the OTGW event was mostly other fandoms and shows (no fault to the artists! we were going based off the social media promotions and the fact it was an OTGW event). We also would’ve really appreciated any kind of update in the line that almost all the food and drinks were out too, as that was the other big reason we and many people came and waited.

While I understand that this is a small cafe and not a convention as they have said, this seems to be a consistent issue according to other visitors and posts. If Requiem wants to run these kinds of events, then the organization and preparation of a con unfortunately needs to be involved. These events need to be ticketed or require reservations, the prices can be as low as they’d like as long as there’s a visitor limit! We would’ve gladly reserved. There’s also no time limit on visitors going inside. We were watching reviews and posts from people talking about how they were spending hours in the cafe. Ultimately, we got something else and went home. I hope things will begin to organize, not just for us but for the staff as well, small-cafe employees shouldn’t have to deal with the stress of such an unorganized influx, especially with frustrated customers. It seems management doesn’t handle negative reviews or criticism...

I hate that I have to say anything other than positive things about this place because it’s such a cute concept and the interior is a really neat experience. The onigiri and coffee we ordered were both delicious! But we also got the Destiny Island waffle dish and I have to say the staff needs to be aware that the pearl sprinkles are inedible. I hurt my tooth with the first bite I took, and had to eat the dish extremely slowly (and painfully) until we eventually gave up and tossed the rest. The pearl sprinkles are so hard, and sitting on ice cream probably makes it even worse, because it’s like biting into a rock. It’s a very jarring experience. I highly recommend someone on the staff tries these sprinkles on ice cream and experiences what it’s like to try to eat a dish with them in it, I would not recommend keeping them around. My second issue was with the gift shop attached to the cafe, which sells a lot of cute products from plushies to tcg packs. They had a couple t shirts folded and bagged on a table marked $45 with a sign that said “do not open” on them, but the designs were clearly intricate and the sizes extremely limited so it was hard to tell what the shirts would look like in full view. I asked a blue haired employee if they had any pictures of the shirts or anything to show what they looked like in full view, and they said, and I quote, “just google it”. It felt so rude and condescending.

This place is a neat experience, and worth visiting, but I really hope they take this into account and remove the pearl sprinkles from their menu items. It’s possible it’s the cold ice cream that makes them harder, but what we had was inedible and a hazard. And I guess if you want to buy merchandise, “just google it” first so you know what you’re...