Our stomachs are more than pleased after eating all of the cheese.

Cheese can be a somewhat difficult product to find in Japan. Supermarkets generally stock only a few standard varieties, and anything imported comes with a hefty price tag. That’s why any deal that comes with unlimited cheese is likely to pique our interest in a big way.

Our latest find is a series of eateries operated by the same parent company as the Saint Marc Cafe chain of ChocoCro fame. As of July 21, it has four restaurants that offer an all-you-can-eat cheese buffet for 70 minutes in Osaka, Okayama, Tokyo, and Fukuoka prefectures. One of those four and the one closest to our editorial office is Cheese & Doria Sweets in Tokyo’s upscale Jiyugaoka district. This branch is located within the De Aone shopping mall on the third floor.

Naturally, the only way we could satisfy our curiosity was to pay it a visit.

We took a seat inside and immediately grabbed a menu. While the all-you-can-eat cheese deal can be paired with a main dish like doria for an additional 550 yen…

…it can also be ordered on its own in two versions: the volume salad set (1,199 yen) or the all-you-can-drink wine set (1,639 yen). The former comes with your choice of one of three salads (grilled chicken colorful salad, bacon and Džiugas cheese caesar salad, ham and mozzarella cheese salad) and the latter with your choice of red or white wines. We opted for the volume salad set.

The biggest moment of anticipation was when we finally made our way over to the cheese corner, where eight different cheeses were laid out in a glorious spread. We decorated a plate with small samplings of each as artfully as we could.

The finished plate really highlighted how different all of them were. Pictured below, clockwise from the right, are: cottage cheese, dried fruits cream cheese, walnut mascarpone, basil cream cheese, and cheddar cheese (in the center). 

Continuing clockwise from the right are ricotta cheese, smoked cheese, and caramel mascarpone.

Viewed altogether, it was a truly cheesetastic plate.

Our first bite also told us that we didn’t have to worry about the taste–it lived up to the visuals.

Thankfully, the spread also came with unlimited crackers and baguette slices so we could balance the dairy with some carbs.

We were impressed because the bread was also high quality and made a wonderful accompaniment for the cheese.

By the way, there was a self-serve water station which offered a delightfully refreshing orange-flavored water as well.

After about ten minutes of slowly but steadily munching on the samples, the grilled chicken colorful salad we had ordered arrived. It was a decent size, bigger than a side salad for sure, and lived up to its colorful name.

The salad was delicious on its own, but we recommend adding some of the cheese to it as well. After testing several combinations, we found that the cottage cheese, basil cream cheese, and smoked cheese paired the best with it.

It was a very satisfying amount of ruffage with flavorful toppings that didn’t make us feel guilty about polishing off the whole bowl in no time at all.

OK, now back to the cheese. We wanted to try experimenting with some additional toppings, so we also grabbed some of the blueberry sauce, honey, and olive oil that were for the taking.

Drizzling them on certain cheeses served to amplify their deliciousness.

Among the combos, the dried fruits cream cheese paired with honey was a standout. We couldn’t help piling it on cracker after cracker.

Time was flying by. We wanted to make sure to get to the dessert cheeses before leaving so we pulled ourselves away from the honey cream cheese combo and turned to the sweetest offerings.

First up was the caramel mascarpone. The caramel lent a surprisingly bitter taste to the mix which resulted in a unique, sophisticated flavor.

This is a good time to share that the dessert cheese actually changes daily from one of six different offerings: granola cheese, blueberry yogurt cheese, satsumaimo (Japanese sweet potato) cream cheese, strawberry mascarpone, tiramisu-style cheese cream, and of course, the caramel mascarpone. They were all intriguing enough that it made us want to return in the future to sample them all.

Actually, at the register, we received an unexpected bonus in the form of some coupons for future visits. We guess a return visit really is in order!

All in all, binging on cheese was a fantastic way to spend a little over an hour on this day.

For another restaurant with an all-you-can-eat cheese deal, see this writeup of our recent visit to Tokyo’s Good Spoon Handmade Cheese & Pizzeria.

Restaurant information
Cheese & Doria. Sweets / チーズ&ドリア.スイーツ デュアオーネ自由が丘店
Address: Tokyo-to, Meguro-ku, Jiyugaoka 2-15-4 De Aone Jiyugaoka, 3rd floor
東京都目黒区自由が丘 2-15-4 デュアオーネ自由が丘 3F
Open: 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Website

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