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All-you-can-eat meals for 500 yen at 83-year old granny’s eatery

By on June 12, 2020

Hacchi, an 83-year-old grandmother runs Hacchan 500 shop, a casual eatery in rural Kiryu-shi, Gunma prefecture. The nondescript place offers all-you-can-eat home cooked meals at a price that can’t be beat – 500 yen!

It’s no wonder locals flock to her eatery for lunch and dinner. Kids eat free and at times, there are free omiyage (take-home) bags depending on the leftover for the day. “Take this home. Tomorrow is a holiday,” the caring granny says to one of her customers as she hands him a bag with leftover food.

In an interview with TBS, she said that for 21 years, she has never increased her price. “Meals here have always been fixed at 500 yen.”  When asked why she hasn’t thought of increasing the price, she said, “I was born poor and had a hard life. I don’t want my customers to experience any of that. I simply want them to eat well and be happy.”

Many small eateries in Japan have survived for decades despite maintaining a slow-growth strategy and her place is no different. But she confides that despite operating at a 70,000-yen loss on bad months, her place has somehow survived for 21 years making people happy.

Casual eateries generally want customers to eat and leave promptly to turn the table over as quickly as possible. But that doesn’t happen at Hacchan’s shop. Customers often stick around for as long as they want. Food is served buffet with over 20 kinds of home-cooked style meals from curries and yakisoba, to salads and grilled meat. Customers grill their own meat just like they do at home.

Thanks to an active daily routine and working later in life, Hacchi is able to run the eatery all by herself. She goes to market at night and cooks from 6 am with no extra help. In a separate interview, she shared the reason why she never hired a helper. “I’m actually old. I could use some help but I started not trusting people after the person I hired before stole from me,”  reveals the energetic granny.  “I don’t like to do that again. I’m okay. My friends give me a helping hand whenever I’m busy.”

She was 62 when she started the business after the pachinko parlor she worked at was shut down. She then started selling side dishes to survive. One day, a customer told her, “You have so many delicious dishes. You should be running a restaurant.”  Later, she decided to give it a try and never looked back.

Quite active for her age, Hacchi attributes her good health to eating fish. “I eat tuna sashimi every night. I love tuna probably because I live near a fish shop. No matter how rainy it gets, I can easily go out to buy my tuna.”

About Tracy Nakayama