For the May Golden Week holidays I did a loop around Kyushu. I’d originally meant to go abroad, but work was so busy that I switched to a domestic trip instead. The first stop was Sasebo, a city known for the Huis Ten Bosch theme park and for the Sasebo burger, which has lately been spreading with branches all over Japan.
The history of the Sasebo burger started, like Korea’s budae jjigae, under the influence of a US military base. Okinawa’s taco rice and steak have similar origins. Yokosuka’s navy curry is nothing special and Okinawa’s taco rice tastes very ordinary, so only tourists visiting those places go for them, whereas the Sasebo burger has grown into a nationwide thing. I figured there had to be something special about it, so I made it the first stop of the trip.
So where I ended up was Misa Rosso, the burger place in this area with the best reputation on the restaurant-review sites. True to its fame, it served up a seriously delicious burger. On this trip I relied on restaurant-review sites a lot, and the ratings for tourist hotspots and big cities were really helpful, but I found that the ratings for areas abandoned by tourists -_-;; were hardly trustworthy at all. I guess people who don’t live in cities just don’t use review sites much. In backwaters like that, the best bet is to go there and ask the locals. Not that that’s easy, of course.
When we arrived there was already a line..
This isn’t a line to get in, it’s a line to order. After you order they tell you to come back in about an hour. I parked somewhere nearby, waited in the car for a while, and when it was time went in, took a seat and ate..
Misa Monster Jumbo Burger
There’s nothing in the shot for scale.. but think of it as about 3-4 Big Macs. People describe it as the size of a small child’s head. Or a small watermelon.. They give you a fork and knife to cut it with, but it won’t cut. -_-;; Besides, taking a knife to a burger like this feels wrong somehow. Awkward as it is, I just picked it up and ate it. The bun was nicely toasted and crisp, but as you can see, the fillings are fresh and plentiful: fried egg, hamburg steak, lettuce, cheese, bacon, tomato and so on.. Not a single frozen ingredient, and everything was in great shape. What impressed me most was the patty: not a McDonald’s or Big Mac-style beef patty, but a real hamburg steak like you’d get at a yoshoku restaurant, with the juices running out. It felt like seeing the ultimate form of the Japanized hamburger.
Of course, no matter how good the ingredients, you can’t call eating this much healthy. I’ve no idea how far over my calories I went ^_^ Most people ordered the Misa Monster, which is less than half this size, about as big as a Big Mac. At 650 yen it’s fairly cheap, even for a tourist spot. For reference, the jumbo hamburger I ordered was 1,300 yen.
French fries as a side and a ginger ale to drink
The fries were frozen and way too salty, so I gave up halfway through. The ginger ale was a small serving next to the burger, but the burger fillings were so juicy that I hardly needed a drink, so one small glass was plenty. If anything, I was gulping down my drink while eating the fries.
With a taste like this, no wonder it’s famous nationwide. I don’t think something like MOS Burger could compete. If you’re a burger fan, I’d recommend making the trip even from far away. It’s number one among all the burgers I’ve had so far. I haven’t been to any of the branches around the country yet, but I’ll try one when I get the chance. That said, the branch at Huis Ten Bosch looked so half-hearted that it didn’t make me want to eat there.
Anyway.. apparently if you finish this Misa Monster Jumbo in 48 seconds, it’s free.. Even I didn’t dare think about taking that on.. It’d take me about 3 minutes.. hmm..