A TIP OF THE TOQUE AT TOADSTOOL CAFE
A GUIDE TO EVERY ADORABLE DISH AT NINTENDO WORLD RESTAURANT
ONE OF LOS ANGELES’ most anticipated openings of 2023 is here, although thematically speaking, it’s not in L.A. at all. It’s nestled into the peaks and valleys of the Mushroom Kingdom, just next to Bowser’s castle. After years of planning and teasing its newest land, Universal Studios Hollywood officially unveiled Super Nintendo World on Friday. Along with that comes a restaurant that drops diners right into the world of the characters and iconography of Nintendo’s decades-old bestselling series of Super Mario video games, which follow the quests and antics of Italian mustachioed brothers Mario and Luigi.
Entering the land through a large green warp pipe to do battle with the evil Bowser’s lackeys and race down Rainbow Road in an IRL rendition of Mario Kart is going to require some fuel. That’s why Toad, longtime friend of Princess Peach and the chef of the mushroom-themed restaurant Toadstool Cafe, is busy chopping and boiling ingredients for guests on a large video screen.
“You’re in for a real treat,” Toad says, chef ’s toque swaying on his red-and-white mushroom-top head. “Whatever you choose, I think you’ll be happy, so just relax and enjoy your meal. You’ll need the energy to continue your adventures through the Mushroooom Kingdommmm.”
Chef Toad’s sprawling new 250-seat restaurant offers not only sustenance but also an extra pinch of so-cute-it-hurts immersion: Oversize knobby, faux-wood chairs and pink-and-white-dotted booths provide the seating under an expansive ceiling from which more green warp pipes protrude here and there. Providing even more whimsy, a large red mushroom overlooks the dining room under a domed ceiling at the restaurant’s center.
The food is just as transportive. Edible-ink printers emblazon burger buns and chicken sandwiches, while sugar cookies get transformed into power-up blocks, each cookie printed with question marks and arranged to form one side of a cube that holds tiramisu and cream. A printed crown cookie adorns a Princess Peach-inspired cupcake that’s swirled with two tiers of frosting and enough glitter to fill the Valley of Bowser.
A Caprese salad resembles the iconic, foreverangry character of the chomping piranha plant towering over slices of mozzarella. Digital screens around the dining room provide a peek “outside,” where Toads play leapfrog, saunter around in the sunshine and, in the kitchen, prepare salads, sandwiches, pastas and desserts inspired by some of Nintendo’s most beloved personalities.
Bowser’s warship digitally makes its own appearance roughly every 15 minutes, dimming the lights in the dining room as the screens depict lightning storms, thunder and general calamity. It also causes disruption in the kitchen: Bullet Bill rips through the chefs’ stations, causing mayhem, but the cooks eventually return to whipping up burgers, fiery pastas and Yoshi egg-crouton salads.
The restaurant’s actual kitchen sits behind the dining room’s back wall, where three large screens depict Chef Toad’s sous chefs and line cooks cheerfully chopping carrots, carrying pots to conveyor belts and otherwise creating guests’ meals.
To serve up to 4,000 guests a day, the facility is equipped with a small army of chipper rainbowheaded Toads and their human-counterpart chefs, who work at stations for pastry, plating, roasting and baking, boiling pasta, grilling meat and even printing via a mechanical, almost conveyor-belt-like device.
Super Nintendo World opened in Japan in 2021 with its own Toad-led version of Toadstool Cafe, called Kinopio’s Cafe, and while there are similarities to its counterpart’s menu, there are tweaks at the Hollywood location; for the piranha plant Caprese, the mushrooms in the salad are marinated. It’s all in the details, according to chef Julia Thrasher, who oversees the restaurant as vice president of culinary affairs and executive chef of Toadstool Cafe, working underneath the animated Chef Toad, of course.
“Everything on the menu is actually being created by Chef Toad,” Thrasher says with a grin. “And Chef Toad is honestly always creating something new. This menu is themed out to the Mushroom Kingdom, so there is some nod to a mushroom, whether it be the shape of it, the flavor of it, or it’s themed to the landscape.”
I warped into Super Nintendo World with Amy Wong, The Times Food team’s audience engagement editor, to taste these whimsical, adorable creations by chefs Toad and Thrasher. Here’s our guide to the entire menu — sans two soups (one mushroom, one a nondairy tomato variety) that launched after our visits — complete with taste-test reactions and our favorites listed in descending order.