Daimaru Kyoto turns its basement food hall into a rice-bowl contest for the 27th year running
Daimaru Kyoto's basement food hall is staging its 27th Donburi Grand Prix, a two-week rice-bowl showcase running from a ¥745 half-and-half bowl to a ¥3,400 sukiyaki bowl -- a long-running fixture that doubles as a live read on what a Kyoto department-store food floor can charge and sell through.
Daimaru Kyoto said it will hold the 27th edition of its "Donburi Grand Prix" rice-bowl event from November 4 to 17 in the basement food hall it calls Gochiso Paradise (ごちそうパラダイス), gathering 21 shops selling 23 bowls priced from ¥745 to ¥3,400.
The cheapest bowl is a half-and-half rice bowl from Shanghai Deli at ¥745; the most expensive is a beef sukiyaki and grilled-beef bowl from Sanjitei at ¥3,400. The store is also holding a tuna-cutting demonstration at its fresh-fish and dried-goods counter on November 14, after which Chuyoshi will sell a limited-run tuna bowl at ¥2,000, with numbered tickets for 15 servings handed out on the day, Daimaru said.
Running the same contest for 27 straight years makes it less a stunt than a fixture Daimaru can use to gauge what shoppers will still pay for a quick lunch -- and the roughly 4.5-fold spread between the cheapest and priciest bowl, from a convenience lunch to a sukiyaki splurge, says as much about the range of a Kyoto depachika's (basement food hall's) customer base as any single price does.