Unlimited Event by Japanese Company in Nagoya
Unlimited for 90 Minutes at 18,000 KRW per Person
150 Types of Frozen Foods and 50 Types of Haagen-Dazs
There is a temporary frozen food buffet operating in Nagoya City, Japan. The protagonist is the 'Chinhan Restaurant,' which has been running for fifteen days from the 13th to the 28th on the 2nd floor of Global Gate at Nagoya Sasashima Live. The Japanese word 'Chinhan (チン！する)' comes from the sound of a microwave finishing. This so-called 'frozen food buffet' charges 2,000 yen (about 18,000 KRW, including tax) per person. Elementary school students pay half, and children below elementary school age enter for free. There are a total of 108 seats, all operated by advance reservation. Counter seats are available for one or two people, and tables are only sold as two-person seats. For groups of three, two tickets for two-person seats must be purchased.
Upon entry, guests can enjoy unlimited frozen food and ice cream for 90 minutes. Most of the products are commercially available, with 150 types of frozen food and 50 types of ice cream provided. All the ice cream is Haagen-Dazs. After entering, guests sit at their seats, select products displayed in the frozen showcase, and heat them in the microwave before eating. The event runs five sessions daily (each 90 minutes) over fifteen days, and it is expected that more than 7,000 people will visit this year. The organizer, 'Japan Access,' is a food wholesaler mainly dealing with frozen foods. Since 2013, they have held the 'Frozen Award,' ranking frozen foods and ice creams, and to commemorate the 10th anniversary of this event, they devised the frozen food buffet. It was first held in October 2022 in Akihabara, Tokyo, where over 10,000 people applied for reservations, but only 2,000 succeeded. The second event in 2023 expanded in scale and was held in Umeda, Osaka, attracting 6,300 visitors.
The organizer's event community site has received over 420 reviews. The average rating is about 3.6 out of 5. Visitors generally evaluate it as an interesting project and an enjoyable experience. The experience of selecting products and heating them in the microwave has become a hot topic on social media (SNS). Netizens unanimously say, "It was fun choosing frozen foods and discovering new products that I usually don't get to try." Regarding the unlimited Haagen-Dazs ice cream served alongside the frozen foods, many gave positive feedback, saying, "It was great to eat as much of my favorite ice cream as I wanted." Most complaints were about the insufficient number of microwaves. One netizen said, "Waiting for the microwave took 30 minutes, making the 90 minutes too short," and added, "Next time, please provide one microwave per table or increase the number significantly."
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