The term Saize guy has become a hotly debated topic
October 18, 2024 2:09 AM Subscribe
Was Saizeriya really designed by a lost Italian who got trapped in a Japanese convenience store for days, subsisted on a highly modified Italian diet, then came out the other side with low cost yet tasty Italian food? Sadly the truth is much more mundane. from Saizeriya's Secret to Survival [Hidden Japan]
See also: The Italian-American-Japanese (Mario) Effect
See also: The Italian-American-Japanese (Mario) Effect
My kids love it, I find the food way too sweet which is the Japanese part of western food, but you cannot argue with the price! The emphasis on improving processes for employees versus simply grinding them down was good to read.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 4:33 AM on October 18
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 4:33 AM on October 18
It's a reliable place, if not splashy. Mrs. Ghidorah and I end up at one maybe once a month or every other month (we live in the burbs, it's basically chains, izakayas by the station, or cooking at home for us), but Saizeriya never feels as much like giving up as going to Gusto or any of the other main "family" restaurant chains here.
Two things: the article didn't mention the one thing that kind of sort of bugs me about eating there: there are no knives in the "kitchen" in a Saizeriya. Everything is prepackaged to involve just a simple warming, so there's no need for anything to be cut. Still, cheap, filling, and not terrible.
One negative, though: We went earlier this week, and the weak yen is clearly taking a toll. The menu is much smaller than it used to be, and some items are different. The garlic bread is gone, and the focaccia has shrunk and become much less pleasant than before. Shakers of "parmesan" cheese dust are gone, but you can get a sad little bowl of it for something like seventy yen.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:50 AM on October 18
Two things: the article didn't mention the one thing that kind of sort of bugs me about eating there: there are no knives in the "kitchen" in a Saizeriya. Everything is prepackaged to involve just a simple warming, so there's no need for anything to be cut. Still, cheap, filling, and not terrible.
One negative, though: We went earlier this week, and the weak yen is clearly taking a toll. The menu is much smaller than it used to be, and some items are different. The garlic bread is gone, and the focaccia has shrunk and become much less pleasant than before. Shakers of "parmesan" cheese dust are gone, but you can get a sad little bowl of it for something like seventy yen.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:50 AM on October 18
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Is it somewhere I would choose to go to? Probably not. Is it somewhere that has a way of being surprisingly decent and ending with a check that’s half what you expected? Absolutely.
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:31 AM on October 18 [4 favorites]