Izakaya chain Torikizoku has announced it will raise its flat all-item price to ¥410 starting October 1st. This ¥20 increase is its first in one year and five months, since May 2025, and aims to absorb rising costs for ingredients like domestic chicken and vegetables, as well as soaring energy and labor costs. The all-you-can-eat plan “Toriki Banquet” will also rise to ¥4,100. On 5ch threads, complaints that wages aren’t keeping pace clashed with comments noting it’s still cheaper than a hotel buffet or all-you-can-eat yakiniku, while plenty of posts nostalgically recalled the old flat prices of ¥280 or ¥300.
Eternal Hospitality Group announced on the 10th that it will raise the flat all-item price at its Torikizoku izakaya chain by ¥20 to ¥410, effective October 1st. This is the first price hike since a ¥20 increase in May 2025, a gap of one year and five months. Through the price increase, the company aims to absorb rising costs for ingredients such as domestic chicken and vegetables, as well as energy and labor.
Torikizoku sells all items, including yakitori and alcoholic drinks, at a single flat price, and operates 696 stores as of the end of August. The price of its all-you-can-eat banquet plan, “Toriki Bansankai” (Toriki Dinner Party), will also rise by ¥200 to ¥4,100.
Nikkei
Source: nikkei.com / Original article here
Bureaucrats' pay is going up just fine.
Even after the hike, you can still stuff yourself on chicken-breast skewers plus rice and egg for just ¥820.
Wouldn't Yayoiken (a teishoku set-meal chain) do just as well…?
Especially with the 1% consumption tax bump on top.
As the "cost-ratio guys" love to point out, restaurants typically price things at 300-400% of ingredient cost.
A 9% consumption-tax difference is basically a rounding error, so it's normal to assume it barely matters — claims that it has a huge impact are just propaganda from people who oppose the tax cut.
Wish they'd let the all-you-can-eat plan start from just two people.
Toriki-zoku: "No way. Round up four people."
I went a lot since it was my local spot.
The Shuntokumichi branch still runs a ¥250 tax-included flat-price campaign regularly.
Toriki-zoku's price is tax-included.
Also there's no otoshi (obligatory starter charge), so just multiply ¥410 by the number of items you order.
Maybe that's the revived store.
Mine was back in the late 1990s — a loose era when even high schoolers could just walk right in.
That's the revival's first store.
Of course, during the campaign a reservation is mandatory —
people line up for an hour just to book one.
Well, no yakitori there, but still.
The Hilton's dinner buffet is ¥9,800 with drinks sold separately, so with alcohol included it'd run more than three times what you'd pay at Torikizoku.
While they're at it with the price hike, they should let solo customers just walk in for the banquet plan too.
They could poach customers from places that won't let a lone diner do all-you-can-drink.
Toriki-zoku: "No. Round up four people."
Look at eating out in America — even figuring ¥100 to the dollar it's absurdly expensive, same in Europe; dining out being crazy expensive is basically the norm there.
Japan's heading that way too — the low-margin, high-volume model just isn't sustainable anymore.
Ichiro, which opened a location in New York, starts at ¥800 a plate after all.
It only got popular because it was ¥300.
Young customers especially are going to bolt.
Chicken breast is actually hard to cook so it tastes good.
This place is perfect for refueling on protein after you've wrecked your muscles doing the Big 3 lifts (squat, bench, deadlift).
Why are kamameshi and katsudon the same price as edamame or cold tofu, are you idiots, Toriki?
Lol, true.
Regulars order it first thing.
If you buy frozen yakitori at Trial (a discount supermarket) and grill it yourself, it's ¥50 a skewer.
Guess gas and labor are free then?
And with frozen ones you probably can't even pick the cut, right?
Still feels like a cheap amount to me.
That's not cheap.
There are plenty of places where ¥3,000 gets you all-you-can-eat-and-drink.
If I'm paying ¥2,800, I'd rather go to an all-you-can-eat yakiniku place…
https://www.yakiniku-king.jp/menu_all/lunch/
At this point I'd pick Daikichi without hesitation.
Wait, what are you planning to have bought up there…? (Daikichi is also the name of a pawn-shop chain, hence the joke)
Still looks better than dropping ¥4,100 at Torikizoku…
The chicken-tare katsudon at 270g for ¥390 is plenty.
Even after the hike to ¥410, one ¥500 coin fills you up and you still get change back.
It's a true friend to the common people.
Background and Talking Points
Torikizoku is a major flat-price izakaya chain operating 696 stores as of the end of August, and this ¥20 increase is its first since May 2025. Price hikes at restaurant chains are driven not just by ingredient costs but also by rising labor and utility costs, so this isn’t a move unique to Torikizoku. Opinions in the thread were split on how the consumption tax affects pricing — some posts argued that since ingredient costs run only 30-40% of the selling price, the impact of tax-rate changes is minor, while others debated the tax-inclusive pricing display. Comparisons with other formats, like hotel buffets and all-you-can-eat yakiniku, were also lively, and because of the flat-price format, the per-item increase is immediately noticeable — which seems to be driving the split reactions. For customers who remember the old ¥280 or ¥300 prices, the cumulative size of the increases over time is likely also a factor.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (News Express+) thread “Torikizoku Raises All-Item Price to ¥410, a ¥20 Hike From October, Citing Soaring Ingredient and Labor Costs.”
