Sweets Paradise: All-You-Can-Eat Desserts

Does your propensity for sweets extend far beyond a few forkfuls of precious pastry? Is your sweets-centric regimen a cause for dietary concern? Is ice cream your soulmate?

If you answered a resounding “Yes! Yes! Yes!” in When-Harry-Met-Sally style, then head to Sweets Paradise, an all-you-can-eat dessert restaurant where you can forgo nutrition for a day and give rein to your sweet tooth for a delectable 90 minutes*.

Bonus incentive: Provided your stomach is game, AYCE joints can be a healthy part of your cheapo budget (healthy lacking all literal meaning in this context).

Sweets: The Main Course

At the entrance you’ll purchase a ticket for ¥1,530 from a vending machine, which you’ll then hand over to the staff in exchange for a receipt indicating when your time is up.  Then seat yourself wherever you like (closer to the sweets counter will save you time wasted on the to and fro) and have at it! There’s no shortage of choice at this sweets chain. They’ve got puddings, custards, cakes, pies, pastries, a chocolate fountain and a full ice cream bar with a plethora of toppings. And the sweets come in all shades of sugar and spice—fruity, creamy, brûléed, nutty, fudgey, cinnamony and of course chocolaty. A word of advice, though, don’t pile on too much of one thing since options abound and you’ll want to taste a little bit of everything.

My personal recommendations would be any of the cream-filled cakes, the brûléed roll-up cake, and the soft serve ice cream.

Savory, Baby.

Need a quick break between sugary bites? They got that too. You can choose from pasta (pesto, alfredo, tomato and more), Japanese curry with rice, fried chicken, soups, salads and various veggies. The savory items are not bad, but also not good.

Drink Selection

All the drinks are there. Soft drinks. Lemonade. Water. Juice. Coffee. Tea. Hot. Cold.

But you’re not really there for the beverages. And you’re not there to get hydrated. You probably just want to indulge in as much of the sugary, creamy, cakey goodness as possible within the fleeting 1.5-hour time frame. My recommendation? Drink the sparkling water. Just enough pizzazz to not be boring old H2O, and without sugar so you’re not taking away from what you really came for.

Locations

We visited the East Ikebukuro location, which is pretty central but not very busy. However, there are many more restaurants peppered throughout Tokyo. Check out the Sweets Paradise site for all locations with the help of Google Translate.

(*N.B. Depending on which restaurant you visit, the time limit may differ. The Ikebukuro location offered 90 minutes, but others offer only 70 minutes of gluttony.  Be sure to double-check if you go elsewhere so as not to overstay your welcome.)

by Adriana Paradiso