A sweet buffet that includes unlimited drinks as well.

As big fans of Mister Donut, Japan’s premier doughnut chain, we sometimes find ourselves daydreaming about what it might be like to have free rein in one of their stores, gobbling up as many of their delicious delights as we please.

We don’t usually divulge our gluttonous food fantasies to our colleagues, but when it ended up happening in the office the other day, it worked in our favour because that’s when we learned that the chain actually offers an all-you-can-eat doughnut buffet.

The Doughnuts Buffet (“ドーナツビュッフェ”) costs 1,800 yen (US$12.67) for adults (junior high school students and older) and 800 yen for children (three years to elementary school students).

The buffet is only limited to a number of select stores, which aren’t disclosed on the official website, making this a bit of a hard-to-find deal. However, staff at any Mister Donut store will be able to tell you which branches offer the buffet if you ask them, and we were able to track down a participating store at the Hashimoto Ekimae branch in Kanagawa Prefecture.

▼  Advance reservations are required, and when we arrived at our allotted time, we were handed a “Buffet Card” after paying and shown to a seat reserved for the buffet.

Rules vary depending on location, but here we were informed of the following rules:

  • All the doughnuts and pies in the showcase are all-you-can-eat, and a selection of target drinks are also all-you-can–drink .
  • When ordering additional doughnuts or drinks, you need to line up at the cash register each time.

We were ecstatic to hear that the all-you-can-eat deal covers all the doughnuts and pies in the showcase, as there were some new limited-edition items we were keen to try. In order to get our money’s worth, we decided to stick to a strategy and ours was to:

・Aim for new products and pies with a high unit price
・Eat sweet and salty items alternately to prevent boredom
・Choose drinks with a high unit price and aim for three drinks

We aimed to eat at least six doughnuts or pies to make this buffet a bargain, and after making our first order at the register, the 60-minute time limit had commenced!

We first ordered:

・Iced Jasmine Tea (275 yen)
・White Pon de Custar Almond (220 yen)
・White Pon de Mitarashi (198 yen)
・Zaku Mocchi Ring Beef Stew & Potato (275 yen)
・Angel French (165 yen) )
・Shrimp Gratin Pie (242 yen)

At this point, the retail value for what we’d ordered came to 1,375 yen so we were already off to a good start.

All the doughnuts tasted fantastic, and we made sure to switch between sweet and salty items to keep our taste buds entertained. The Iced Jasmine Tea was a good choice as it helped to cut through the oiliness and refresh the palate, but we ended up finishing it halfway through so we ordered another drink to help polish off our first order of food.

・Caffeineless Ice Cafe au Lait (341 yen)

Once our glass and plates were empty, we decided to order a muffin and a hot drink to complete our feast at the buffet.

・Moist Muffin Berry Yoghurt (242 yen)
・Cafe au Lait (308 yen)

It was a warm and hearty way to end the meal, and by this stage we were full and satisfied. However, we found ourselves wanting something else to refresh the palate before leaving, so we ordered one last drink.

・100-percent Valencia Orange Juice (264 yen)

The juice was a fantastic palate-cleanser, and by the end of the buffet, we’d made our way through six donuts and pies and four drinks, which came to a grand total of…

▼ …2,530 Yen!!!

The entire bill was almost evenly split between food and drinks, with 1,342 yen worth of doughnuts eaten, and 1,188 yen worth of drinks drunk. We’re sure people with more ravenous appetites might put our buffet to shame, but in the end, we were happy with what we were able to put away, and because we didn’t overdo it, we’ll still happily eat Mister Donut doughnuts again another day.

Either way, it’s better than the all-you-can-eat burger fail we experienced at Burger King three years ago!

Reference: Mister Donut
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