Robots, monsters and owls prowl Tokyo's eateries

A girl holds an owl in a Tokyo Cafe. [Photo by Erik Nilsson/China Daily]

Robots fight and dance. Top hats twirl atop a merry-go-round in a room furnished with multicolored mushrooms. Owls perch on patrons' arms.

Snakes slither atop tables.

A ramen theme park serves much more - and much odder offerings - than noodles.

Tokyo hosts a plethora of wonderfully weird places to have dinner with - or without - kids.

A T-Rex with glowing eyes that exhales smoke literally eats lead from a Gatling gun operated by a woman atop a vehicle seemingly from the Mad Max franchise at Shinjuku Robot Restaurant.

Then, the dinosaur eats her. Her legs thrash outside its jaws before the final gulp.

Next, a shark - ridden by a mermaid, of course - swallows another evil samurai cyborg.

Robotic knights fight a raptor the size of an elephant. But the bird spits exploding fireballs that overcome the technologically advanced androids', um, swords.

A fire-breathing insect carries a turtle wearing a helmet and goggles into battle.

Oh, and a martial arts-performing panda rides a wooly rhino to war, too.

Pyrotechnics permeate the performance.