DokiDoki is really great

"Do you want to see the pig?" I decide I can't possibly be hearing Maki correctly. I had spent the whole day with one of the teachers from my school and through broken English and Japanese we had managed to make ourselves understood, but I knew we were supposed to be going to a restaurant right now, not a farm—clearly I was misunderstanding her. My Japanese is terrible. I decide the best course of action is to stay silent and look confused.

She repeats herself. "Do you want to see the pig?" I nod yes which is what I do when I am confused in this country. I just nod yes to everything even if I have no clue what's going on. But then sure enough there is a pig in front of the restaurant, and its name is LaLa.

"Do you want to see the pig?"

This is how I am first introduced to DokiDoki, quite possibly the best restaurant I've been to ever. I am prone to exaggeration, but I kid you not, this is a great restaurant. For about 1400 yen, you get full access to a truly magnificent organic foods buffet. And in a country that prides itself on having reasonable portions, it is quite a thing to see a small, 45 kilogram woman like Maki go back for three heaping plates of food.

But see if you can blame her. With five different kinds of rice, six different pasta dishes, three kinds of curry, at least six different salads, and additional random dishes on top of that (kimchee, congee, miso soup, gyoza, fried chicken, takoyaki, and oh yes, scrambled eggs, as well as tons of different stir-fried veggies) you just feel like you have try everything—not because it's there, but because it all tastes so good.

Almost all the vegetables used at DokiDoki are locally grown and food isn't left under heat lamps like the gross buffets in Las Vegas—every dish is fresh. In fact, every time a new dish is brought out, the chef announces what it is, how it was made using the ingredients of the season and then invites you to try it. How could anyone resist? Live piano music playing in the background and a laid-back, log cabin ambience make it easy to kill hours sitting in this restaurant just waiting to get hungry again so you can go back for more. Is there something you really like? Just ask the chef how it was made. According to Maki, it's restaurant policy to tell you if you want to know.

DokiDoki though is a lot more than a restaurant. It's more like a small town. There is a supermarket selling mostly locally grown goods, a cute garden to wander around in, a flower shop (the largest I've seen in Japan so far), and on certain days a farmers' market where each farm sets up its own stall to sell produce.

If there is a drawback to this restaurant it's the long wait for a table—Maki and I had to wait about 45 minutes to sit and I understand this is pretty typical. But luckily, you can go next door to the greenhouse to play ping-pong or walk over to the petting zoo and take a gander at the prairie dog living there. The wait goes quickly. DokiDoki has thought of everything.

Later in the night, after trying two different curries, two different kinds of pasta and a Chinese egg custard, I told Maki I probably ought to stop because it couldn't be good for me to eat all that food. She stared at me aghast. "But it's organic! It's healthy!"

So true. So I went back and got another plate.

The best part? You don't have to eat at all the next day. Really.

Pocket Farm DokiDoki
1945 Shimo Haji Aza Takayama, Ibaraki-Machi
東茨城郡茨城町下土師字高山1945
Phone: 029-240-7777
Website: http://www.ib.zennoh.or.jp/poket/index.html
Email: dokidoki@ib.zennoh.or.jp
Open: 11:30–2:30 and 6:00–9:00

Cost

1365 yen for lunch
1470 yen for dinner

How to get there

25 mins by car from Mito station
20 mins by car from Iwama station
10 mins by car from the Iwama Interchange, Jōban Expressway
13 mins by car from the Ibaraki-Machi East Interchange, Kita-Kantō Expressway
8 mins by car from the Ibaraki-Machi West Interchange, Kita-Kantō Expressway

Sorry, there is no bus that passes this restaurant.

Images thanks to tabiji.org.