Daibutsu, Kamakura

Daibutsu, Kamakura
Daibutsu in Kamakura, June 2010. There were thousands of school kids visiting that day. It was still great fun.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Melamine-tainted dough spurs Saizeriya to give pizza refunds

From the Japan Times. Melamine-tainted dough spurs Saizeriya to give pizza refunds

YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) Saizeriya Co., a restaurant chain offering low-cost Italian food, said Tuesday it will pay refunds to customers who ate its pizzas after the made-in-China dough was found to be tainted with the industrial chemical melamine.

Oh man! I ate at this restaurant in 2006. The article states that the contaminated dough was used over a recent 8-day period. Makes me wonder how many other times they may have used tainted melamine dough or other products.

One of the things I liked about this restaurant was that you can get a decent amount of yummy food for a very reasonable price. I hope it is not just because they were buying cheap dough.

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:04 PM

    Ewwww....I kind of figured this would happen eventually. I first became acquainted with Saizeriya last month when I was working for a school in a crappy area. It just reeked of cheap and nasty, and it showed in the quality of the food. Something about the screw cap jugs of Y300 (or somewhere near it) table wine was unsettling, too...Thanks for the report, that will have been my first and very last visit to Saizeriya.

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  2. I don't know about the one you went to but the one I went to was clean and the food was decent for the price. Maybe I was just really hungry or like simple food but I liked it.

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  3. Anonymous7:48 PM

    Individual Saizeriya restaurants vary wildly in quality. There are two here in Shinjuku. The first floor one near my apartment with glass covered terrace is very nice (though glass enclosed area got switched to being the smoking section so now I never go), but the other basement one near the station is much lower class.

    I've eaten dozens of their pizzas over the years, but none in the past 6 months or more, so I guess no refund for me, though they say you don't even need to show a receipt!

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  4. Yeah, Jason, I wondered about the receipt thing. Is everbody in Japan just extremely trustworthy? Because if this was the US, 97% of the population would go there to get a refund or free pizza.

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  5. Kudos for reporting on this. My friends and I enjoy eating at the Saizeriya in Ashikaga quite a bit. I find the food super cheap and of decent quality. We have had plenty of good times with their super cheap wine as well.

    I think they don't have a choice concerning the refunds. Requiring a receipt would be seen as an empty gesture. Who the heck keeps their weeks old dinner receipt?

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  6. I agree John. But still, in the US, many people would go get a coupon for a free pizza even if they never ate there.

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  7. Ooooohhh... that explains it! We noticed recently that the Saizeriya carpark, which is usually pretty full, was empty, and again the next night... and the next. I wondered if there was some scandal going on.

    I quite like the Saizeria near us. It's cheap, fast and the food is not too bad.

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  8. I still like it Melanie. Next time I visit I will probably go again.

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  9. I know people (and me included) who just couldn't resist of getting free vouchers even if we never been there!

    :D

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  10. I admit I would probably do the same thing.

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