BODY: A press event in Tokyo this week ended the way few restaurant launches do: Godzilla made a surprise appearance, and the chain's head of culinary development was visibly taken aback.
Shabu-Yo, the all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu chain run by Skylark Restaurants, is running a tie-in with Godzilla -0.0 from October 22 until mid-November at every location nationwide. The film opens November 3 — Godzilla Day, the anniversary of the 1954 original and, conveniently, a national holiday.
Three limited items get folded into the chain's existing buffet courses (two-pork, beef-and-pork, and Kyushu black pork with beef). The headliner is the "Black Chige Broth of Despair," a red chige miso base finished with black garlic oil; the development chef said the heat was chosen to express Godzilla's sheer strength. Alongside it come Godzilla dorsal-fin gyoza and jet-black "Godzilla-style" cheese dumplings. The team settled on three design cues — black, the dorsal fin, and strength — then worked backwards into dishes that still felt like Shabu-Yo.
The chain also pitched DIY combinations built from buffet ingredients: "Godzilla Footprint Curry" (rice, curry, vegetables, a black cheese dumpling, lettuce, and chili flakes) and "Despair Spicy Mixed Noodles," using the black broth with ramen noodles, pork belly, wood-ear mushroom, and doubanjiang mayo.
Order a collab course and you get one of five original cork coasters, handed out at random. There's also a prize campaign for Godzilla figures.
Pricing starts at ¥2,309 for an adult weekday lunch and ¥2,859 for weekday dinner, with elementary schoolers from ¥1,099, preschoolers free, and a ¥100 discount for diners over 60. Weekends and holidays add ¥220; some central-city branches add ¥330.
The insider take
Shabu-Yo is a format well suited to collaborations. Because diners assemble everything themselves, a tie-in needs only a broth packet and two new tray items to feel like a full experience, and the "arrange menu" recipes exist to be photographed and reposted. The random coasters do the rest: five designs, one per order, and a built-in reason to come back before the film's opening weekend.
Originally reported by GAME Watch (Japanese).