This cautionary tale proves that the Japanese word for “large serving” could result in having to eat a truly mountainous meal.

Small Japanese restaurants are usually generous when it comes to serving customers. Whether it’s free refills of rice, tea, or side salads, family-owned businesses like to look after their clientele, and for some of their most popular dishes they’ll often offer “omori” (literally “large serving”) for a small fee or at no additional cost. The omori serving is generally equivalent to an extra bowlful of rice or a few more pieces of chicken, but for one hungry customer at a restaurant in Gunma Prefecture, his request for an omori serving of rice and karaage fried chicken turned out to be more grub for his yen than he could have ever expected, and he shared photos of his gargantuan meal, along with his story, for everyone on Twitter to enjoy.

According to the diner, he was hungry at lunch after eating an early breakfast and so thought to order a large omori portion at the restaurant. He asked for an “Omori karaage fried chicken meal set”, to which the staff member replied “Thank you for waiting, we’ll make it the omori size.” Then, when the staff member asked whether he wanted the rice or the chicken to be extra large, he asked for both to be upsized as he was pretty hungry. The staff member asked “Both?” in a surprised way, but he casually dismissed it, confirming his request for both to be omori.

When his meal came out, he discovered why such a fuss had been made over his order. Both dishes were more like a “yamadori” (mountain serving), usually seen at restaurants that serve up super-large creations under more definitive labels like mega-mori, deka-mori, toku-mori, giga-mori, and doka-mori. There were no verbal giveaways at this restaurant, however, to hint that “omori” meant a huge plateful of chicken and a glistening, towering cone of moulded rice would be headed his way!

Fellow Twitter users were equally surprised by the turn of events at the restaurant.

“It’s like food for a whole party!”
“I don’t know what I would do if this happened to me!”
“This is like a scary Japanese folktale!”
“That’s probably at least an entire day’s worth of calories in one sitting.”
“I’d love to eat here!”

The meal was actually so big that other diners in the restaurant asked if they could photograph the food. Despite being shocked and unprepared for the huge serving, at 1,250 yen (US$12), this was an absolute bargain, especially considering the regular sized set meal would have cost 800 yen. Thankfully, the hungry diner says he was able to finish the meal in about an hour-and-a-half, all while reading a manga comic.

Despite this diner being unaware of their special omori deals, the little restaurant in Gunma Prefecture is apparently well-known for their super large servings. If you’d like to try devouring a set meal with a rice tower, check out the restaurant details below!

Restaurant Information
Houmitei/芳味亭
Address: Gunma-ken, Tone-gun, Katashina, Kamada 7048-1
群馬県 利根郡片品村 鎌田 7048-1
Hours: 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.; 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. (closed Tuesdays)

Source: Hamusoku
Top Image: Twitter/@adastra0214