Things were getting rough in Japan's hamburger wars. One fast-food chain viciously undercut another. Hamburger prices tumbled faster than Japan's economy in the early 1990s. Then someone at Mos Burger, one of the country's five most popular burger chains (along with McDonald's, Lotteria, First Kitchen and Wendy's), had a brainwave. Instead of offering cheap hamburgers served quickly and efficiently to customers, they would do the reverse and sell a new line of expensive, limited-edition hamburgers that customers had to go out of their way to obtain.
The result is the Takumi ('masterful taste') hamburger, on sale at Mos Burger since the end of last year. At 580 yen (HK$42) for a Takumi burger - 640 yen for one with cheese - the burgers are twice the price of the chain's standard hamburgers, and each Mos Burger branch is allowed to serve only 10 Takumi a day. To make it seem even more exclusive, Takumi are not available at all branches: only 39 of Mos Burger's 154 outlets in central Tokyo serve the elusive patty.
Takumi burgers usually go on sale at 2pm, and if you call a branch to secure one in advance, the staff will advise you to arrive 10 minutes early. Each Takumi takes at least 10 minutes to prepare, and when it finally appears the fortunate customer receives a business-style card bearing the name of the chef who lovingly prepared it.
The strategy seems to work. One sleepy branch of Mos Burger in a Tokyo suburb suddenly filled with customers at 2pm eager to try its exclusive burger. The day's Takumi quota was snapped up in a few minutes.
As for the taste of Takumi, it's not bad (although, having waited 25 minutes for it this writer was ready to sink his teeth into a Styrofoam burger box). The beef is succulent, the salad crisp, and with the mayonnaise and fine, peppery, soy-based sauce it is definitely a cut above Japan's usual hamburger fare.
But is it Tokyo's best hamburger? Sadly, no. But neither is it the most expensive: Kua Aina has made grilling the humble hamburger an art, and the Hawaiian chain's cheapest burger is 780 yen. But Mos Burger's 'excellent taste' effort comes in a fairly close - and cheaper - second.