MOS Burger – Japanese Fast Food

For a quick meal, Japan’s MOS Burger offers a familiar sense of fast-food convenience coupled with a unique take on burgers and fries. A Seafood Fritter on a Rice Bun served with fries and tea is an interesting and low-stress option for satisfying your hunger on the go.

What does Japanese fast food look like?

I have posted about a few quick and easy ways to pick up a meal on the go in Japan. Vending machines are one of my favorites. I also love grabbing onigiri at a conbini. Train food, including bento boxes, hard cooked eggs, and snacks from the train cart, is also fast and easy. Then there are street venders selling a variety of foods on a stick.

Another choice for a quick meal is a fast food restaurant. Some of these look very familiar to us. McDonald’s are almost as easy to find in my travels to Japan as they are at home. I passed two walking from my hotel into the temple area in Nara. Much more tempting to my tourist’s curiosity, however, is a uniquely Japanese fast food restaurant called MOS Burger.

MOS Burger Menu

A quick look at the menu posted outside the door proved that among the more obvious choices for a fast food hamburger restaurant, choices including a MOS Cheeseburger and the Double Fresh Burger, there were a few uniquely homespun offerings. The MOS Rice Burger with mixed burdock, carrot and vegetables looked intriguing. The pressed rice bun alone was worth a try although I had to admit I had little idea of what burdock might taste like.

The MOS Rice Burger with fresh seafood fritter looked a little less surprisingly adventurous. An element of the known and predictable, even if just a shred of carrot, a pea and an identifiable shrimp, helps to ground a new taste experience in a familiar frame of reference. a perspective I have learned to value as I travel.

Placing My Order

Inside, I placed my order at the counter by pointing to my selection on a laminated menu with translations in English. I chose the MOS Rice Burger with Seafood Fritter, a mixture of French fries and onion rings with cold tea to drink. After I completed my order I took a number and found a table.

I sat at a small booth and looked over my surroundings. The other customers that afternoon were young. There were teenagers, apparently students, talking in one corner and a young mother with a preschool child in a nearby booth.

The most attractive seating area appeared to be the smoking area. It was a glass enclosure like a sunroom on the front of the restaurant. Through the glass I could see a couple talking. The young man lounged casually in his chair smoking a cigarette with appealing drama as the young woman listened attentively.

Enjoying the Experience

Before long my order was brought to my table. My MOS Rice Burger came wrapped in a sturdy absorbent napkin. This napkin prevents the diner from having to touch their food and gave me an added degree of confidence that the rice bun would not disintegrate into my lap as I ate.

The burger was fun to eat if not completely delicious. I liked the rice bun, in texture and taste. Browned and a little and crispy on the outside, it stayed together well. The seafood fritter, on the other hand, was crispy on the outside but a little greasy on the inside. The flavor was good though strangely both a little over seasoned and still fairly bland. It seemed to consist more of texture than of flavor. The onion rings and fries were fine but again seemed to highlight the texture of the outside without truly tasting like onions or potatoes.

Since eating Kentucky Fried Chicken as a teenager in Madrid, I have found fast food in a foreign country to offer an experience both comforting in its familiarity and disappointing in its lack of distinction. MOS Burger offered an interesting twist. While it was short on comfortable familiarity it was memorable in the unique quality of the food it offered. Still it’s food summed up the same familiar shortcomings of most fast food restaurants, a meal short on fresh and satisfying flavor.  Even so, I’m glad I tried it.