At last I have found it, the Hamburger Mecca in Japan. The shop is called Zats Burger Cafe, and they sell the all famous Sasebo Burger among many other greasy fried western style food, and it tastes great! But what is a Sasebo burger exactly?

A regulation Sasebo burger features a patty of Japanese beef, a fried egg, cherry wood-cured bacon a la Canadienne and lettuce, onion and tomato-everything locally produced. Each store makes up to 800 of them a day, yet the owners insists that Sasebo burgers aren’t fast food. I agree, they taste very home made.

The closest Zats Burger Cafe to my house is Yoyogi, about a 19 minute trip including the 12 minute walk to the station, 4 minute train ride and 3 minutes at the other end to get to the front door. The great thing about Zats is they also sell beer, as do most other places. So a Sunday Lunch with a delicious Sasebo Burger closely followed by a couple of Heineken’s, sitting out the front on the terrace watching the people walk buy is just what Sundays are meant to be.

Here is the map to the Yoyogi Zats Burger Cafe for anybody who can read Japanese and lives close to Shinjuku.

I guess my only concern is the price… 680 yen( USD$5.78) for a regular size, no chips or drinks…. hmmmm… not that the price will stop me from going, I’m just worried about how many Zats Burger Cafe staff trips to Hawaii I may end up funding!

You can also check out their website and get an Idea of how hard some of these places are to find if you don’t read Japanese all that well. And yes you will find all the usual mistakes made with Engrish (English) menus, signs and grammar.

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