If you knew me in real life, you'd know that I am a big fan of hamburgers.
I live for freshly grilled meat, crisp salad and tasty sauce slapped between two buns. Simply, I can't get enough.
In Japan the burger wars have begun and I love how things are looking.
Firstly Wendy's has left the market place. Good.
Their burgers were cooked with poor quality meat and it was clear that the staff had NO pride when putting them together, I think my pictures speak for themselves.
Recently Burger King has started expanding it's stores and there is a new store near my work.
It used to be a Lotteria, but I hardly ever went there. Their fries weren't that good, the Pepsi had a strange taste to it and the only decent burger they had was
the Zeppin. BK is a MUCH better addition to the town.
The menus are all bilingual, so for those of you who are unable to read Katakana, you can still easily chose what you like. They even have beer on the menu here, I thought that was rather novel. I will do that one time when I can go there after work.
You order, you can ask for extra lettuce or no tomato or whatever you like. Some things are free, some things cost extra, but it's the only place in Japan that allows you to have a burger your way.
On the left of the counter here we have a selection of condiments, so you can grab a handful of ketchup packets for your fries. At McDonalds you need to ask for ketchup if you want it, so this is quite relaxing. Sometimes they will even put it in with your order and a tiny little paper cup for dipping! How thoughtful.
One thing you must get used to is waiting for your order. The counter staff will take your order and money, then give you your receipt. It will have your number on it, they will circle it for you and someone will call it out when your order is ready, they will do so in Japanese so practice your Japanese number recognition skills before coming in!
To anyone who might complain about this, remember that you are in Japan and 99.95% of the customers are Japanese, get used to it. Be grateful that so much of the menu is in English for only 00.05% of their customer base, OK?
Awesome, my Whopper set with medium cola, fries and 6 chicken tenders.
Have it your way. Yes, I think I will.
No Tomato.
Extra Lettuce, Onion, Pickles, Ketchup
Free
At McDonalds I always pick off the pickles as I think they taste foul and add nothing to the flavour, at Burger King I love them and want more! Strange....
Look at all that greenery facing me. Awesome, simply awesome.
But McDonalds is not taking the Burger King threat laying down, they are currently introducing a range of temporary burgers known as "Big America".
Previously the range of temporary burgers was the Nippon All-stars, which was a range of Japanese style burgers. These were quite disappointing. Japanese people who I had spoken to about this range of burgers were also less than impressed by them.
But finally we have a series of burgers that are actually quite good. Firstly the Texas Burger.
So here's the Texas burger set with medium fries and cola. You can't go wrong with McDonalds fries or cola, so they win points right from the start there.
Here's a burger that doesn't look anything like the picture but tastes like it should. The fried onion was crispy, I could taste that there was bacon in there and the relish added a nice tang to it.
This doesn't beat the Whopper in any way, but as it is a limited time burger it is something you should definitely try before its gone.
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Here's one thing that really gets me down if I am speaking to someone in Japanese. For some reason many Japanese people seem to think that by telling me that my Japanese ability is good, it will encourage me.
