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Japanese burger chain Mos Burger replaces its buns with two halves of a giant tomato

Oona McGee Jul 29, 2015
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Japanese fast food chain Mos Burger has built a reputation over the years for its healthy burger options. For those with an aversion to traditional wheat-based buns, Mos Burger offers versions made with grilled rice patties. And if you’re counting calories, they’ll simply wrap your filling in lettuce.

Now there’s an even more impressive option for health-conscious customers: a burger stuffed between two halves of a giant tomato. Available after 2:00pm from only one outlet in Japan, we stopped by to check out the rare red burger, taking lots of delicious photos for you along the way!

Limited sales of the tomato-bun burger can only be found at the Think Park Plaza store in Osaki, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo.

We’ve come for the Toma-mi Burger, which combines the word ‘tomato’ with the character 実 (mi, meaning fruit, seed or nut). Although it’s technically a fruit, the humble tomato was classified as a vegetable for culinary purposes after a U.S. Supreme Court Ruling in 1893. The more you know!

Mos Burger has always made a point of using thick slices of locally-grown tomatoes in their products. Now it’s the star of the show, as the piece that holds it all together – literally.

The unusual burger is only available as part of a set, which includes a glass filled with more tomatoes instead of a serving of fries, for 880 yen (US$7.12). Seeing as the meal is designed to help customers get over the summer heat, we decide to really put it to the test by sitting outside under the hot Japanese sun.

The Caprese salad contains classic ingredients: fresh tomatoes, basil, mozzarella cheese and an olive oil and balsamic dressing. The flavours were fantastic and the cool tomato pieces refreshing. We loved the fact that it was served in a glass with a small silver fork!

The red roundness of the tomato ‘bun’ had been enticing us from the minute we set eyes on it.

Looking inside, we found a massive tomato, at least the size of a regular Mos bun, cut in half and filled with a classic patty, onion, lettuce combination. The patty wasn’t piping hot, which meant it went well with the cold tomato casing, and the whole thing was surprisingly easy to bite into as the skin on the vegetable was nice and firm. This was one good-quality tomato!

The initial bite was an odd experience because we were waiting for the usual chewiness of the bread bun. Instead, we really noticed the crunch of the lettuce, but the flavour of the tomato really sang as the hero of the dish. When we looked closely, we could see the hole where the core had been carefully removed.

This is definitely an impressive summer burger. It left a clean feeling in the mouth and we actually felt healthy after eating it! There was no strong meat flavour and despite the huge amount of sauce, which meant we couldn’t remove the beast from its package for fear of major spillage, it didn’t overpower the other ingredients or make them soggy.

So, do we recommend the Toma-mi Burger? A resounding yes. We’d order another one in a heartbeat!

But would we eat it outside again in the humidity of a Japanese summer?

Now that’s the question that’s hard to answer!