Our very own Mr. Sato was ecstatic to get his hands on their 1.8-kilogram (3.97-pound) yakisoba dish.

Never one to shy away from a ginormous food-eating challenge, our Japanese-language correspondent Mr. Sato has seen his fair share of absolutely ludicrous portion sizes in his day. That’s why he immediately knew that he had to place an order upon learning that a chain overseen by Japanese competitive eater and YouTuber Max Suzuki was open for business.

▼ Max Suzuki

Max, who was mentored by Takeru Kobayashi of Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest fame, has recently banded together with the Daisho Group (which runs the Shoya chain of izakaya) to open a delivery-style restaurant business called Max Suzuki’s Seabura Hanten). Seabura literally means “back fat” but is perhaps slightly more appetizing when referred to as “the fatty upper part of roast pork,” while hanten means “Chinese-style restaurant.”

165 locations were able to open simultaneously on January 29 using existing Daisho Group restaurants around Japan, with plans to open an additional 70 locations after the current State of Emergency is lifted. The restaurants will operate exclusively through ordering and delivery platform Uber Eats, but locations have also been allowing take-out this month as a test trial.

The current menu offers a variety of Chinese-style dishes such as fried rice, yakisoba (stir-fried noodles), karaage-don (fried chicken rice bowl), and other “stamina-fueling” dishes. Since Max is supervising things, perhaps it’s no surprise that the portions are also extremely large, like with the hefty “Triple Mega Serving: 1.8-kilogram (3.97-pound) Meat and Vegetable-Abundant Yakisoba with Seabura Sauce” for 3,100 yen (US$29.40).

▼ This is not a drill, people–here is the Mega Yakisoba!

The yakisoba menu item on Seabura Hanten’s website reads as follows:

“WHOOOOOAH! What is this beautiful visual with a hefty dollop of guilt that doesn’t stop violently tempting the stomach! I can’t take it any longer! Bon appétiiiiit! Oh, please forgive me–my excitement got the best of me there. LOL”

Such a description was probably penned by none other than Max himself. After all, when the dish is composed of 300 grams of meat, 900 grams of vegetables, and 600 grams of noodles, what’s not to be excited about–unless you consider that to be only a small snack!

The yakisoba arrived about 40 minutes after Mr. Sato placed his order. Here it is in all of its unwrapped glory:

Max’s smiling face on the package was almost blinding.

The container was packed to the brim with yakisoba. Mr. Sato put his iPhone SE next to it for scale.

If you’re still having trouble gauging its size with the phone, how about comparing it to Mr. Sato’s head?!

He had never seen such a bursting container of yakisoba in his life. At first glance it looked like the noodles were taking up the most space, but there seemed to be plenty of vegetables in there, too. Could it be said that this dish was actually healthy…?

It was a struggle to grab anything with his chopsticks when the contents were so packed. When he finally managed to grip some noodles he paused for a moment to enjoy them glistening in their saucy glory.

He could’ve gone on to eat them as is, but there was no way that he would pass up this chance to try Seabura’s special sauce.

Trying not to think of the fact that it was basically a giant clump of calories, he poured the entire contents of the sauce container over his noodles.

The fattiest of fatty yakisoba dishes was now complete!

At this point Mr. Sato honestly couldn’t tell if the noodles gleaming in the light were a result of the special sauce or the fatty topping, but he didn’t care as long as they were delicious. He slurped them up with gusto and realized that his mouth was slick with a layer of grease. He thought that if he looked in a mirror his lips would be shining as if he wearing an edible, delicious lip gloss.

All in all, Mr. Sato hopes that this delivery and takeout model bodes well for the restaurant during coronavirus times. Also: you should order the yakisoba and other dishes only when you’re really, really hungry–hungry enough to eat a Meat Castle, in fact.

Reference: Daisho
Photos © SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
[ Read in Japanese ]