I was attracted by the posters advertising the new limited edition Camembert Teritama Burger which is a pork patty topped with an egg and served in a teriyaki-like sauce. You can also opt to have Ume plum powder with your fries, which is very Japanese (and it’s only available in the Land of the Rising Sun). I read about a new nameless burger made with Hokkaido potatoes and bacon that I was keen to check out too.
I have been bugging my better half to make space in our stomach for a meal at McDonald’s Japan. I like visiting McDonald’s in other countries coz they’re so much more awesome than our own. I started my passion when I was studying in Australia, and since then I’ve eaten at the Golden Arches at many countries, from Germany to Sri Lanka to Korea to Thailand.
They have an English menu in McDonald’s Japan but it only lists the regular menu items. I wanted the special and limited edition sets so I had to order by pointing and guessing what each option was. Unfortunately, this means that I missed out on the Sakura Cherry McFizz. It was there in bright pink but I thought it meant Large so I didn’t order it. It was just a 30 yen (RM 1.50) upgrade. The Ume plum powder for the fries was also 30 yen for a sachet.
Camembert Teritama Burger Spring 2016 Set (690 yen or RM 30)
カマンベールてりたま
This is the new 2016 Camembert Teritama Burger! It’s made with a pork patty with teriyaki sauce, egg, lettuce, and delicious gooey Camembert cheese inside a sesame seed bun. I was quite impressed with the use of Camembert cheese but it was the juiciness of the pork patty coupled with the sweet teriyaki sauce that sealed the deal.
It tasted so good with the locally made Camembert and egg.
Teriyaki McBurger (310 yen or RM 14)
てりやきマックバーガー
My better half went for a Teriyaki McBurger. It was decent enough but I thought it was rather unimaginative given the wide range of other options out there which you can only get in Japan. Haha. To be fair, this pork patty is local so in a way, it’s a Japan only burger too.
Names Wanted “Namaeboshu” Burger (390 yen or RM 18)
名前募集バーガー
Namaeboshu literally means “Names Wanted”. This is the new item which hasn’t been given a name yet. McDonald’s Japan is asking for people to name it for a chance to win a year’s worth of this burger! It contains a delicious top, middle and bottom bun with a beef patty, onion relish, Cheddar cheese, awesome bacon slices and a generous scoop of beautifully buttery mashed potatoes from Hokkaido. It was a symphony of perfection!
This burger very aptly comes in an special unmarked box.
The onion sauce has a hint of burnt soy sauce and the hot potatoes topping it is soooo buttery it’s sinful! I got it a la carte for JPY 390. The beef is local and the Cheddar cheese is from Hokkaido as well. The bun is the best thing about this burger though, it’s a very rich and buttery brioche dough. It’s a lot better than the regular sesame ones. Get into my belly!
I really enjoyed this Hokkaido Names Wanted Burger. It represents everything right about McD in Japan – they have frequent limited edition items. This is true of other Japan fast food chains as well since Lotteria came out with a Shinkansen meal for JPY 1,000 in Hokkaido only which has a pork rib burger in the soon-to-be-launched H5 bullet train box. Plus, the Namaeboshu a.k.a. Giyu Innovation Burger (北のいいとこ牛(ぎゅ)っとバーガー) is made with local Hokkaido ingredients.
I dragged my dear for a 40-minute round trip walk in the -9 degree Celsius snow to visit the nearest McDonald’s in Sapporo and I didn’t regret it. 9/10, will eat again!
Yes, nicer overseas. They have pork there, right? But I hear our KFC is nicer than those abroad. Dunno, not into franchise places. Only went to McD in Wellington as they had lamb – we do not have that here. Same like you – I would go for things I can’t get back home (or things heaps nicer, not as miserable as the ones here) when travelling.
Yup, the Camembert Teritama Burger has a pork patty. 🙂
The “Names Wanted” Burger had real bacon too, which we can’t get over here. I make it a point to visit Maccas at every country that I go to. It’s fun to see what’s going on, and our country has one of the worst McDonald’s. It wasn’t always so though, around 10+ years ago, we had a lot of promotions at McDonald’s too e.g. Crispy Prawn Burgers:
http://sixthseal.com/2004/07/mcdonalds-crispy-prawn-burger-and-prawn-wrappers/
No more though, nowadays McDonald’s Malaysia lacks innovation.
Hahaha, overseas MCD always much better than our Boleh land here.
Yeah, it’s a lot better! 🙂
I remember a big juicy Angus burger I ate in McDonald’s in England too but for the life or me, I can’t find the post. We used to have lots of nice stuff too, then nothing for over a decade. Not sure if it’s a policy or management change but it’s sad.
This is making me hungry! I read your description of the pork burger and my tummy is grumbling. Never heard of Camembert cheese so I did a search and Hokkaido makes it. Huh? Japan even makes cheese now?
Yup, Japan makes a lot of cheese! 🙂
That’s coz Hokkaido produces a lot of dairy. They make yoghurt too. In fact, one of the best mango lassi we had was in Sapporo. Haha. Hokkaido makes excellent Camembert cheese – they put it in their cheesecakes too, like in Le Tao.
Those burgers looks so awesome!!!!!!! I like the wagyu beef burger most! *thumbs up*
Thanks Eve! 🙂
The burgers there are awesome! We wouldn’t find a Mos Burger or I’ll love to check that out too. However, we managed to find a Lotteria. I hear Burger King are doing great things in Japan too. The service in McDonald’s in Japan is amazing as well, a far cry from local standards.
LOL! McDonald’s getting the public to name a burger? That’s smart of them.
Yeah, it’s good publicity eh? 🙂
Even better, the winner would get one year’s worth of the “Names Wanted” Burger. Literally one per day. They’ve managed to find the winning entry already though. It’s now called 北のいいとこ牛(ぎゅ)っとバーガー or North of Good Points Cattle ( Giyu ) Innovation Burger.
The bacon+ (mashed) potato burger looks interesting.. The bun and potatoes sedap giler to the max I bet, coz they’re so buttery.. Wah, I think I can eat 5 pieces of burgers!
The buttery mashed potatoes makes the burger. 🙂
Hokkaido is a huge dairy producer and their milk, cream and cheese is delicious! Their potatoes too. All very good quality. The butterfat in the Hokkaido milk sold there is insane, it breaches 3.9% sometimes. I drank 1 liter each day. Haha.
The McD burger looks so much better in Hokkaido, Japan than here. OMG! All looks sinfully delicious. I missed trying any fast food in Japan, regret!
I like to try McDonald’s in different countries. 🙂
I think it started when I was studying in Melbourne. I did my uni there and there was a different menu item each WEEK (!!!). No kidding, it was called Great Tastes and they’ll be a new burger (at least – sometimes 2-3) every week from a different part of the world or Australia and I’ll go on Friday with friends to chow down.
wow, looks really tempting! this puts mcdonald’s malaysia totally to shame! we haven’t had any new burgers at mcd’s kl for ages … it’s always just the once-a-year return of the prosperity burger, along with mostly dessert promotions like pies …
Yeah, I don’t think we had one since the Prawn Burger in 2004! 🙂
That was a really good one but they discontinued it. McDonald’s Malaysia isn’t doing much nowadays, it’s really sad. I’m not sure if it’s coz of the local population they’re selling to, which isn’t big on innovation. I’m sure they did studies and found that promotions like in Japan wasn’t received well here. Oh well…
Gosh, you’re making me so hungry now! I wanna a bite!
It’s delicious! 🙂
I actually couldn’t finish my Names Wanted Burger (coz we had soooo many meals each day) and I tapao it in my backpack. I ate it maybe 6 hours later and it was still very delicious. In fact I’ll say it was even better coz I was hungry again then. Haha.
Not to mention the food, the clean packaging already attracted me! Our burger are so messy with the vegetables all inside the box >_<
That’s one thing we noticed as well! 🙂
The pictures of food in Japan on posters and menu REALLY looks like the real thing. No such thing as Illustration Purposes Only, and this holds true for everything from sushi to ramen. The pictures matches the real thing! I had a really expensive Hokkaido ramen with scallops, prawns and crab claws and I thought “No way it’ll look like the menu” and it came out exactly like it, even the position of the items and both of us were suitably impressed.
Camembert Teritama Burger looks so good! The only McD I had overseas was in Spore. It was at their airport where their Fillet O Fish is only S$2. S$2 sahaja!
I wanna eat McD’s pork burger. I have to make a point to travel to Bangkok at least for this 😀
Yeah, too bad we don’t have pork burgers here. 🙂
The pork burgers in Thailand is pretty good too. I think they have the Teriyaki Burger too, or maybe they call it Samurai Burger. They even have a McPork Burger:
http://sixthseal.com/2006/08/mcdonalds-in-thailand/
Haha!
Japanese burger sure looks & taste interesting…I tink I will check out MOS burger too if I ever in Japan…
Yup, I wanted to eat at MOS Burger too! 🙂
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any near our place. I’m sure there are, and we had a data SIM card so we could use Google Maps but we didn’t have the stomach space, I guess. Too many meals per day and I wanted to find McDonald’s first. We also found a Lotteria in Sapporo too. They have a limited edition meal called the Pork Rib Burger that comes in the new H5 Shinkansen box, it’s only for Hokkaido.
Japan Mac’s packaging looks so nice and so much better
We have Mos Burger in SG, which I think is the closest to Japan fastfood chain, they have Teriyaki Burger too
Yup, I’ve been to the MOS Burger in Singapore! 🙂
I liked it, especially the rice burgers. I tried to find MOS Burger in Hokkaido too but didn’t find it at our place. We should have searched in Sapporo city but when we were there, there were so many things to eat that we were eating too many meals per day. I’ll be sure to eat at MOS Burger next time.
Their serving sizes are better than the ones here. How I wish we can get such tasty burgers here. Their buns look so much better too! 🙁
Yup, the burgers look better too! 🙂
The way McDonald’s is over here, the picture looks NOTHING like the burger. However, in Japan, the photos always look EXACTLY like what you’re getting. We were quite impressed when we were there – no false advertising, even the angle is done just right. The Japanese are good that way.
I also ate burgers from McD when I was in Kyoto and Tokyo but just the normal pork burgers, not these special burgers in Hokkaido which look way, way, way more delicious!
Nice! I think there are times when they are special promotions. 🙂
I missed out on the Ume (plum) fries too, just needed to add 30 yen but the person didn’t understand what I was saying. I could have had a Sakura Cherry McFizz for 30 yen extra too but again there was the communication problem. I later fixed this by using Google Translate to write something in English and show them the Japanese version. It works very well.
Didn’t eat McDonalds much when I was in Japan (only twice if I remember correctly). I still like Singapore’s McSpicy burger the best!
I guess it’s coz we only eat the Spicy Chicken McDeluxe here so it’s not as good anymore. 🙂
It’s the best item in McDonald’s here too. However, you can just eat it that few times before you’re sick of it. I was amazed to read that McDonald’s in Japan has a 1,000 yen (RM 45) burger called Black Diamond that has black truffles inside. I would have loved to eat that.
I always enjoyed their Pork Burgers in Japan. I had never tried elsewhere in other countries as I have no idea where they sell pork burgers too.