The Food Thread - comments and recommendations

[griffin]

A short review of MOS Burger.

Last night, as promised, I went to sample their burgers. It was approaching 7pm, and as with the last time I walked past the place at a similar time
there was this old man there repeating the same three lines to anyone who could hear him:
- Welcome to MOS Burger.
- The only MOS Burger in Australia.... so far.
- Very popular in Japan.

After looking at the website of their JP restaurant menu, I found that this Australian menu was very small... and only included burgers. Yes, I know
it's their name, but other burger franchises don't just exclusively sell burgers (except maybe, In&Out Burger in America).
The Menu has 11 burgers, and on the day I was there they had an extra 'limited edition' burger, which was a spicy version of their regular burger.



Aside from the Burgers, the rest of the menu contains sides and drinks.
And as you can see, the prices for most of the burgers are $4-something, which isn't too bad for something different.

The range of actual burgers is interesting though, with 7 of the 11 burgers using different types of meat. Compare that to the major franchises that
have about a dozen burgers using the same meat patty as it's base.

This also meant that I kinda had to buy more than I probably should have, just to sample as much of the range as possible.

So after standing in a queue for about 5-6 minutes, I placed my order:
Mos Burger (to see what the flagship burger is like without anything added)
Cheeseburger (because I'm a fan of cheeseburgers)
Teriyaki Chicken burger
Fish burger
Wagyu Beef cheeseburger
Seafood Kakiage Rice Burger (bun is made of pressed cooked rice)
Pork Ginger Rice Burger
Spicy Mos Burger

It totaled about $38.

You can watch them making the burgers, which helped pass the time, as it took about 10 minutes for them to get to my order and make it.

WARNING!!!!! - if you ever get takeaway from there, as with any franchise, be sure to check you have everything. They left out a burger on
my order, so was able to chase them up while I was there.
I've never gone back to a place to try to convince them of a missing item, but could imagine that it would be impossible to prove or get a replacement
- or else anyone could do it to get a free item.

Back home I unwrapped each one:



The thing you notice most is that they slather on a lot of wet stuff (sauces, mayo, onion relish, etc), and they even had signage in the store
to tell you to eat it in their bags to prevent dripping stuff onto your clothes.
Their bags are pretty good though, as they aren't just paper - they are grease/water proof.

The downside I had though is that these burgers got cold really fast... perhaps I'm too used to HJs burgers which are microwaved to make sure
they hold their heat longer. These ones only have the meat as their only hot element, which is probably absorbed really quickly into the other
components. They would therefore be best eaten there, as they are fresh and warm.
I was only able to eat 5 of them first up, and about 4 hours later I was able to eat the other 3 (after a quick zap in the microwave).

Each burger has its merits, and I may return to this place again in the future, but the ones I was least impressed with were the two seafood
ones. The Fish Burger tasted like something from McDonalds, and the Seafood Rice Burger had a strong taste to it that I couldn't quite work out
(and I'm not even sure what Seafood items were in it).

I liked the Teriyaki Chicken burger and the Cheeseburger, while the Pork Rice burger and Spicy burger were merit a mention as well.
The relish they have on some of the burgers is very nice, and gives it a really unique taste and texture.

The Wagyu beef seems over-rated though, as it costs a lot more than the others, but still tastes like Beef, so don't know what the fuss is all about.
So we get this Angus beef at HJs and McDonalds which is supposed to be a better beef, and now this Wagyu beef is showing up at places like
Subway...
My question is, what is the regular beef called then, and why is it so bad?

I didn't get to try their chips/fries (called both on their menu), but they didn't look to be anything special. Maybe next time.

BTW, the MOS in the name is an acronym of the words 'Mountain, Ocean, Sun'.
Some interesting info from a wiki site - this AUS store isn't the first outside of Asia, but is currently the only one at the moment, as their Hawaii store
closed in 2005. It is also the 2nd largest fast food franchise in Japan behind McDonalds, with over 1300 outlets.

They have an Australian website address quoted on their menu, but it doesn't have anything up yet. The restaurant has been open 3 months -
they should have had the website up before they even opened. (even the main JP website has nothing consumer-based about their AUS store)

They did have a nice little plaque on the wall to commemorate them being the first MOS Burger in Australia.