Saizeriya's Secret to Survival - by Leon - Hidden Japan

To me this only defines one of the two traits that the franchise has: Italian. Today I want to delve into the other: Cheap. Yes, today’s post is entirely focused on the global costs involved in delivering margherita pizzas for 400 Yen (~$3 USD).

Before we jump into it, just like Saizeriya’s great value offers, Hidden Japan is currently running a birthday special for paid subscriptions!

Was Saizeriya really designed by a lost Italian who got trapped in a Japanese convenience store for days, subsisted on a highly modified Italian diet, then came out the other side with low cost yet tasty Italian food?

Sadly the truth is much more mundane. It was founded by a Japanese man who wasn’t even that interested in Italy. Yasuhiko Shogaki was once a part-time chef whose manager told them “You’re pretty good at this chef business, why not own your own restaurant?” but in Japanese. Shogaki decided off the back of some positive reinforcement, to give it a go and found a nice older fruit shop in Ichikawa, Chiba to open his Yoshoku/Western-style ( learn more here), restaurant. He kept the fruit shop name… Saizeriya.

This turned out wonderfully, and now he’s a billionaire. Or at least that’s the smoothed over version. This first restaurant was less than successful. By that I mean, it was burnt down after drunken customers fought too ferociously.

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