- So good.
They just need to send me these sauces bottled.
On a Wednesday night in Tokyo,
we went to a McDonald's near the iconic intersection
of Shibuya Crossing.
We came here to see how different the experience
of being in a Japanese McDonald's is,
as well as to try unique menu items
that you can only get in this country.
What will they be like?
McDonald's was first opened in Japan in 1971.
There are now nearly 3,000 locations in the country.
Let's start with the queue.
There's a menu to look at
before you get to the main counter.
As this branch is in one of the most touristy areas
of the city, there are English translations,
but I'm a bit surprised at how limited the options are.
I counted 13 burger options, but there's only a few sides.
There are two different teriyaki burgers on the menu:
a standard, and a Chicken Filet-O.
It's quite a wet-feeling burger.
It's like I've just dipped it in gravy.
But, oh God, the teriyaki taste on that is incredible.
Got a little bit of mayo in there, some lettuce,
there's obviously the beef patty,
and then teriyaki sauce.
They put a nice lot of mayo in there,
and I really appreciate that,
because normally when you get mayo in a burger,
they just put a little tiny squirt in.
There are four different types of McFloat on the menu,
which is a Fanta soda
topped with a swirl of vanilla soft serve.
Well, it's kind of like Emerald City
"Wizard of Oz" green going on here,
which is normally not a color
that I would really want to drink.
I'm not really getting much melon,
but I'd say it's more like bubble gum.
If you really, like, if you want to drink green bubble gum,
then get the melon float from McDonald's in Japan.
There's also a cheap value menu, of just 100 to 150 yen,
for which you can get Hot Apple Pie
and Shaka Shaka Chicken.
This is a piece of fried chicken you put salt onto
and then shake in a bag.
It's crispy.
Actually, the chicken's, like, fried really, really well.
It's not cheesy. It's not cheesy.
I'm yet again disappointed by a packet of cheese flavoring.
There's a Gran range of burgers,
which replaces Quarter Pounders.
The expensive Clubhouse burger
with streaks of bacon and cheese,
Gran Bacon Cheese, and Gran Garlic Pepper.
The teriyaki burger smelled so good,
and I would very happily bottle that sauce
and use it as a perfume on myself.
Like this as well.
The smell of some really great,
sweet, sticky garlic sauce is just coming straight off that.
It's got lettuce,
it's got some sprinkle seasoning in there as well,
tomato, mayo, onions, and yeah,
this garlic, like, peppery sauce on it as well.
The burger buns in McDonald's in Japan taste unique.
The buns here, they're so light and fluffy.
It just springs back at you when you push it.
It's like, just a decent bread.
Some of the other burgers are the Bacon McPork,
Egg Cheese Burger,
and a Chicken Cheese Burger.
As well as the standard Filet-O-Fish,
you can get an Ebi Filet-O,
which is made with chunks of shrimp.
Kind of expecting it to be ground-up prawn
which is then somehow fried or battered,
but you've actually got whole pieces of prawn in there.
It's got really nice, almost Thousand Island-style dressing
on top of it, lettuce.
Very simple, but good.
It actually tastes quite fresh as well.
It just, it's not to peel, it's to pinch and then clasp,
which automatically just sounds like a recipe for disaster.
That's a really nice sesame sauce.
It's got a little bit more texture of, like, a mayo.
It's just quite thick.
There's also the standards, like Big Macs, cheeseburgers,
McNuggets, and fries.
Some of the fries, however,
are a bit more unusual than that.
Yes, I spotted something
called Shaka Shaka Potato Butter Soy Sauce.
This quite literally translates into
"butter soy sauce salt."
You know if you've ever been to the cinema
and, like, you've gone to get a handful
of your mate's popcorn, and instead of being salted,
if you thought it was salted, it's actually sweet,
and you get a handful of sweet popcorn
when you're expecting salt.
This is it.
It went on like a salt,
it says the word "salt" in the title, in the name of it,
and it just tastes like a sweet butter.
Sweet, sweet fries. Mm.
The menu had a special Four-Berry Shake the day we went.
Also on the sweets menu is an Oreo cookie McFlurry
and a McFlurry with extra Oreos,
in case you didn't get enough Oreos the first time.
What I've got here in my hand is a Four-Berry Shake.
OK, I can sort of smell berries. I can't taste berries.
I actually, it tastes exactly the same as the melon.
So maybe there's just some bubble-gum blender back there
that they bung everything into.
Mm, I must say this mosquito is
really enjoying this as well.
So what did we think overall?
This might not be a typical experience
of all McDonald's in Japan, but being British,
I appreciated queuing one side
and then waiting in a separate line for my food.
Also, the range of burgers was great,
something for everyone,
from Kalbi Macs to Egg Cheese Burger to the Gran range.
The buns are very sweet, even for McDonald's bread,
but I still couldn't get over how good
that teriyaki sauce was.