BITE-SIZED BLURBS: DORINKU MYSTERY BOX

Our Bite-Sized Blurbs are our honest opinions about a local restaurant, bakery or café that aren’t part of a larger Gracilianca series! Bon appétit!

The focus of this bite-sized blurb is Dorinku - specifically, one of their newest (and arguably most intriguing) menu items - the Fukubukuro Mystery Box! (Who doesn’t love a surprise?) Per its website, each box contains “$65 value of food items & products randomly selected by [the] chef for a complete meal for two people”.

Locations: Dorinku has two locations in Edmonton - Dorinku Tokyo (10205 Whyte Ave) and Dorinku Osaka (10328 Jasper Ave) - though it appears the mystery box was only available at the Dorinku Tokyo location (see below for more details regarding ordering!)

Items on the menu: Fukubukuro “Mystery” Box, $50

(We ordered this box in mid-January and at the time of publishing, it is no longer on the Dorinku website. Hopefully they bring it back in the future!)

Tell me more: Dorinku (literally “drink” in Japanese!) is a Japanese pub, or izakaya, that opened their doors in 2016 with a mission to “bring a slice of Tokyo Street Culture to Edmonton". Izakayas are casual after-work spots, similar to tapas bars, where you can order a variety of small dishes, though both of Dorinku’s locations also offer larger fare.

Ordering the mystery boxes was extremely easy - we placed the order online the day before for pickup and the process was relatively painless. We received a confirmation email right away, and when picking up, the order was ready to go - no issues at all!

For the purposes of this review, one box was ordered and split between C&G for lunch!

So, how was it? Here is breakdown of what our box had, starting from top left and moving clockwise:

1 bottle of Ramune soda

Small bag of snacks: 2 mini green-tea Kit-Kats, a mini packet of Kinoko no yama (mini biscuits) and a grape jelly snack

Chicken karaage (4 pcs) and rice

Chicken wings, Japanese style calamari, 3 pcs tako yaki

Sauces and 2 green tea bags

Spicy tuna tartar with wonton chips

6 pieces of pressed tuna sushi

Dorinku savoury chilli oil

Overall, we were pretty stuffed and had leftovers! Plus, it was nice to have a drink included, and we appreciated having a fun extra - the chilli oil - that could be used later!

For our rankings, we’ll be looking at a few categories, taste, presentation, and value!

TASTE:

C: 4.25/5 - I thought this was great! I loved the pressed tuna sushi (it would’ve been a bonus if it was pressed salmon sushi, which is my absolute favorite dish at Dorinku). The chicken karaage is always a must have, and I quite enjoyed the tako yaki! The tuna tartar was interesting (chopped tuna mixed with kimchi sauce and green onions), and I had fun eating this but I wished Dorinku had supplied more wonton chips as we ran out of chips quickly but still had lots of tartar left over. I found the chicken wings and calamari to be mediocre - I could have done without these.

G: 4/5 - Overall, this box was very solid! My favourites were the pressed sushi (which is always a Dorinku must-have, in my opinion), the chicken karaage, and the tako yaki - these dishes were all pretty delicious and flavourful! I was a bit unsure about the Japanese style calamari but was pleasantly surprised - it had a slight crunch to it and was pretty tasty too. I felt the spicy tuna tartar was pretty mild (I also agree with C about the wonton chips!) and the chicken wings could’ve had more flavour, but otherwise I enjoyed all the components of the box - did not feel like there were any misses in it for me!

PRESENTATION:

C: 5/5 - I loved the black mystery box that everything came in - it was sturdy and easy to transport! Everything inside was very nicely organized, and each dish was packaged either separately in its own container or own compartment. Beautiful packaging and presentation!

G: 4.5/5 - Everything seemed to be very well packaged and organized! I liked how the dishes were separated and neatly sorted into containers. The sauces and tea bags were also in their own container to prevent spillage, which I appreciated. No complaints!

VALUE:

Box Breakdown (disclaimer: this is just a rough estimate, for fun!):

• 1 bottle of Ramune soda - value on Dorinku’s website: $4.40

• Small bag of snacks: 2 mini green-tea Kit-Kats, a mini packet of Kinoko no yama (mini biscuits) and a grape jelly snack - estimated value $2

• Chicken karaage (4 pcs) and rice: not an exact comparison; chicken karaage appetizer on website is $10.80 (per the Dorinku Osaka menu, this contains 6 pcs, but does not appear to include rice)

• Chicken wings, Japanese style calamari, 3 pcs tako yaki: could not find wings on a menu item to compare this to; possibly comparable to “Bloody Hell Chicken” which is $12.80 per serving → ½ portion equivalent to $6.40; full serving of calamari is $11.80 → ½ portion equivalent to $5.90, 6 pcs of tako yaki on website is $7.80 → 3 pcs equivalent to $3.90

• Sauces and 2 green tea bags

• Spicy tuna tartar with wonton chips - not on their current menu; $8.80 on a previous version of their menu

• 6 pieces of pressed tuna sushi - not on their current menu; $14.80 for 6 pieces of comparable pressed sushi (salmon, wild saba)

• Dorinku savoury chilli oil - $8 on Dorinku’s website

Rough estimate of total value: ~$65

C: 4/5 - I thought that this was pretty good value for what we paid! I definitely feel like we got our $50 worth, and we were VERY full after eating this. I think that this would be a good amount to feed 2 people for dinner! I enjoyed that there were little “treats” inside that we could save to eat at another time too, like the fun drink, the chocolates and biscuits, tea bags, and the chili oil!

G: 4/5 - I was impressed by the value in this box! When adding up the numbers, it did seem to match the advertised $65 value. When split between two people, the actual cost works out to $25 per person, which is pretty reasonable for the amount of food you get - especially considering the extra item it comes with (chilli oil, in our case) which you can use later at home for future dishes. This box is a fun and reasonably priced way to try a bunch of different items that you might not otherwise go for!

FINAL THOUGHTS: Would you get another mystery box again?

C: Yes! One thing you have to know about me - I LOVE mystery bags/boxes… I fall for these whenever I’m shopping at Miniso or Ardene’s! I have never gotten a food mystery box before, so I was very pleasantly surprised. Not to mention that Dorinku is one of my favorite restaurants, so of course I would get another one of their mystery boxes… hopefully next time there’ll be a gift card inside! (Some of their mystery boxes come with a gift card with a mystery amount on them!)

G: Absolutely! Like C, I also love mystery bags and boxes - I used to dabble in subscription boxes for funzies (maybe an idea for a future Gracilianca review?). It's like getting a surprise gift for yourself - and it's always great when you turn out to love the majority of the things in the box. As a Dorinku fan, colour me impressed!

Disclaimer: This review is not affiliated with or sponsored by Dorinku - views expressed are solely our opinions!