Fusing an old food tradition with a thoroughly modern one.
As we head towards autumn, and Tsukimi, the moon-viewing festival which falls on 25 September this year, Japanese restaurant chains are beginning to reveal their seasonal Tsukimi menus, inspired by the tradition of enjoying the autumn full moon. Domino’s Pizza is one of the big-name chains joining the festivities, as it does every year, but this time, it’s turning the tradition on its head by pushing its pizza aside and putting a giant mound of egg tarts front-and-centre instead.
Though eggs are commonly associated with moon-viewing in the food world – dishes that contain a fried or raw egg often have the word “tsukimi” in their name, due to the way they resemble the moon – they get thrust into the limelight during moon-viewing season, where pizza chains like Domino’s tend to add them as toppings to mark the festival.
▼ In 2024, Domino’s served up a pizza with slices of egg as part of its moon-viewing menu.
Dial things further back in time, though, and the original customs associated with the tradition of moon-viewing have nothing to do with eggs at all. Instead, the food commonly displayed, and eaten on the moon-viewing night, was tsukimi dango (“moon-viewing dumplings“), stacked high in a pyramid shape.
As a nod to the original traditions of Japanese moon-viewing, Domino’s is now evoking the look of the dango pyramid, but using egg tarts in its construction instead. Selling them in boxes inspired by the sanbo, a traditional three-legged stand used to display offerings like moon-viewing dumplings during the autumn season, the “Almost One Pound Egg Tart” (2,399 yen [US$15.06]) contains 20 egg tarts, while the “Almost A Kilo Moon Viewing Egg Tart” (4,099 yen) contains 40 egg tarts.
▼ A pound is almost half a kilo, and a kilo is 2.2 pounds.
This out-of-the-box thinking surprised our reporter P.K. Sanjun when he heard about it while attending the grand unveiling for the press, so much so that he asked Brand Manager Morita the following question:
▼ “Do you really think a pound of egg tarts will sell?”
Without skipping a beat, Morita answered:
▼ “Yes, we absolutely think they will!”
Morita went on to explain that the Domino’s 2026 autumn campaign is based around the concept of autumn being the “season of appetites”, and although people might not normally eat large quantities of pizza or egg tarts at once, the company wanted to create a product that was new and exciting… and deliberately indulgent.
Like its pizzas, the egg tarts are baked in the store’s ovens, allowing Domino’s to deliver them freshly baked to customers’ homes. Although they’re regularly sold at the chain in sets of three, they remain something of a hidden treat, so the new campaign also serves to bring the sweets to the radar of customers.
The chain is aware that most of its customers come to them for pizza, though, so it’s also releasing a special Otsukimi Cheese Sauce, a round container of cheese sauce designed to evoke the full moon.
Made with cheddar and Camembert cheeses, the sauce has an intensely rich, savoury flavour, with plenty of saltiness and umami. Though there’s no egg in this offering, Domino’s says that through research, they found that customers’ fondness for the company increases as the amount of cheese increases, so it doesn’t hurt to bring cheese into the equation for the celebration.
▼ If the cheesiness in this tub is anything to go by, customers’ love for the chain will soon be over the moon.
With cheese and egg tarts being the star players in this year’s moon-viewing range, Domino’s really is thinking outside the box for this year’s celebrations. The new items will be available at Domino’s branches around Japan from 31 August to 30 September.
Featured image: Press release
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[ Read in Japanese ]