Is this ice cream dessert worth the hype?

If you’re looking for an area of Tokyo where you can enjoy a wide variety of fancy sweets, then Ginza needs to be on your list. Right now there’s even more reason to visit the ritzy neighbourhood, because sweet tooths on social media in Japan have been raving about something called the “350% Pudding Soft Serve”.

Pudding, or “purin” as it’s known in Japanese, is like a Japanese custard pudding or creme caramel. Though it sometimes makes an appearance as a soft serve ice cream flavour, we’d never heard of a “350% Pudding Soft Serve” before, so we took the train to Ginza to find out what it was all about.

Located on the first floor of Exitmelsa, not far from the Ginza 4-chome intersection, we found the viral dessert at Purin Kenkyujo (“Pudding Lab“).

Purin Kenkyujo describes itself as a high-end pudding specialty shop that uses quality ingredients for premium flavour. It operates primarily as an online business, with products made to order, but it has one physical store, here in Ginza.

At this store, you can find three types of purin soft serve, or “soft cream”, on the menu: “100%”, “150%”, and “350%”.

▼ Percentages are an unusual way to sell a dessert.

Looking at the descriptions for each, we discovered that the 100% Pudding Soft Serve (1,080 yen [US$6.82]) was described as “a sweet made by squeezing pudding that has been frozen at minus-eight degrees Celsius (minus-17.6 degrees Fahrenheit) into the form of soft-serve ice cream.”

The 150% is the “100% Pudding Soft Serve” with one pudding added as a topping (1,296 yen), while the “350%” contains the “100% Pudding Soft Serve” with a whopping five additional puddings. The price for the 350% is 1,836 yen (US$11.60).

▼ Naturally, we went for the “350% Pudding Soft-Serve”, which staff prepared right in front of us.

▼ It looked adorable, with its cluster of small puddings sitting on top.

▼ You can choose two caramel sauces with your order, and the bitter one was particularly delicious.

The purin were delectably soft and jiggly, filled with the rich custard flavour that makes the dessert so popular. In between bites of purin, we were able to enjoy spoonfuls of purin-flavoured soft serve, giving us two ways to enjoy the sweet treat.

Though this dessert sits on the pricey end of the purin spectrum, considering that Ginza is one of the poshest districts in all of Tokyo, with prices to match, and Purin Kenkyujo sells puddings that can cost up to 5,400 yen ($34.12), this isn’t a bad deal for a quality sweet in Tokyo.

Is it worth the hype and calories? Well, for dessert lovers, absolutely. It’s moreish, decadent, and a delicious way to overload on pudding. If you’re simply in it for the ‘Gram, then it’ll definitely get you noticed on social media, so in our opinion it’s a win-win for all types of sweet tooths, and worth the trip to Ginza to try it.

Store information
Purin Kenkyujo / プリン研究所
Address: Tokyo-to, Chuo-ku, Ginza 5-7-10, EXITMELSA 1F
東京都中央区銀座5-7-10 イグジットメルサ1F
Open: 11:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m.
Closed: According to the operating days of the facility

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