We visit “Bonchi,” a super-size gourmet restaurant in Yamanashi Prefecture

This restaurant will challenge even the most massive of appetites.

Yamanashi, also known as the land of Mt. Fuji, is famous for delicious grapes, and now (apparently) huge servings of food. When we specifically searched for “super size gourmet Yamanashi” in a Google search, the restaurant that kept popping up in results was a joint called “Bonchi.”

▼ This quaint-looking restaurant has satisfied many large stomachs.

Bonchi is famous for serving up huge portions of curry rice, yakisoba, katsudon, and more. Two members of our SoraNews24 team went with every intention of destroying the entire menu. I mean, hey, we’ve destroyed a two-foot tall parfait before. We had no fear.

We had wanted to order the store’s most famously huge dish, stamina-don, but unfortunately they didn’t have enough ingredients that day to make one for us. We settled for the beefy gyudon (beef bowl) instead (630 yen, or US$5.69). Assuming everything on the menu was ridiculously large, we prepared ourselves accordingly. However…

▼ …well, this is underwhelming.

It wasn’t nearly as big as we thought it would be, but it’s still a pretty decent price. No complaints. The second thing we ordered was the umanisoba, which cost us 730 yen. Since the gyudon wasn’t too intimidating, we thought we could handle this one.

▼ But then…

…this colossal creation was set in front of us.

▼ Here’s how it looks next to the beef bowl.

Easily three times the size as our gyuudon, we were a little shocked, to say the least.

▼ It was even dripping over the side of the bowl!

What’s even more amazing is that there’s only a 100 yen difference in price between the two menu items. And so we began our food challenge – with empty stomachs and full wallets.

▼ Contender Number One starts to dig in…

▼ …and tag teams with Contender Number Two.

It took us a full 30 minutes before we were able to polish off the two dishes. That’s all we could manage. The real kicker is that when we went to pay our bill, one kind staff member asked us with a bit of a worried expression, “Are you okay? Are you full?” We weren’t able to answer at the time, but we wanted to say, “We’ve never had fuller stomachs in our lives.”

▼ Consider us defeated.

If you’re up to the challenge, consider making the trek out to Yamanashi Prefecture! But remember to watch out for all those zombies.

Restaurant information
Bonchi / ぼんち
Address: Yamanashi-ken, Kai-shi, Tomitake Shinden 457-1
山梨県甲斐市富竹新田457-1
Open 11 a.m.-2 p.m. (lunch), 5 p.m.-8 p.m. (dinner)

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