Authentic — Restaurant in Tokyo

I had an unpleasant experience at this restaurant this past Saturday, March 26, 2022. My wife and I dropped by the restaurant to place a take out order. The door was locked and we waited for the restaurant owner to ackowledge we were at the door. When he opened the door he asked us to come in to be seated. We informed him we are placing a take out order. He said we could not wait inside. My wife is a native Japanese speaker and placed a take out order for three avocado burgers.

It was a rather chilly evening, so my wife asked if we can wait inside the restaurant, but the request was rudely and inconsiderately rejected. So my wife and I literally walked two doors down to a cute wine bar called “Bistro Le Chat Noir”. We were pleasantly greeted and seated . We enjoyed a glass of wine at this cozy wine bar/restaurant while we waited.

When we went to pick up our order at Authentic Burger, we were surprised to see only two avocado burgers instead of three burgers. I believe the owner was confused when we placed our order since we ordered two without cheese and one with cheese. I was thinking, if that was the case, then why didn't he ask for clarity or at least make an effort to report our order back to us. He was not that busy, so this not an excuse. He only had one customer inside his burger restaurant.

I was okay with the order not being correct. The problem arose when my wife asked him about the order and that it was not complete. My wife stated we had placed an order for three avocado burgers not two. The owner was quick to jump on the defensive and rudely stated my wife was to blame for this confusion. We were immediately alarmed at his lack of customer service skills and even more alarming was his tone and demeanor. He blatantly and openly stated it was all my wife’s fault.

Since his response was very rude and aggressive, when he offered to make the other burger I, obviously, said "No". He never apologized or made any effort to apologize. I was appalled to have experienced this low level service from this type of restaurant in this area of Tokyo.

After this incident, my wife quickly and thoroughly read through other reviews and noticed there were many other reviews that pointed out this restaurant owners’ lack of respect for people and rude customer service, rather lack of customer service.

I must say the burger quality is good but we will never go back to this establishment since we have experienced this type of treatment. This lack of customer service is unacceptable.

We will gladly give our business to other restaurants who actually care about their customers and have...

Not customer friendly, smelly and depressing.

This place used to be good, but things have taken a bad turn:

First, there are dozens of signs that tell you all the things you cannot do. It almost feels like having to sign a contract before being allowed to eat. The door only opens from the inside and before they let you in they explicitly ask you to acknowledge that this is a cash-only place. Then, there are a dozen rules around photography and other things. In short: The attitude of this place completely stinks and does not make it inviting. The owner is not smiling and seems to hate his customers and his job. I would encourage him to just call it quits or have someone else manage the day-to-day.

Second, if you eat in, you will walk out of this place smelling like grease and old fries, there is no way around it. Your clothes, your hair, everything. Clearly the owner hasn't invested in a good ventilation system for keeping customers and food prep as separate as possible.

Third, the place is small. They have arranged seating in a way that there is a good chance you will literally face the wall while eating. Less seats but with an outside view seem possible but again, it's obvious the owner doesn't care about his customers.

The food itself is just okay. The burgers and fries are really salty and there is way too much sauce on the burger, making everything drown in mayo and ketchup. Patties are small, bread is thick, which together with really small portions of fries makes things really doughy.

Overall, the owner seems to want to squeeze every last Yen out of his place before retiring while sacrificing customer service and experience. 10 years ago there were not that many good burger places around Tokyo, but these days you can get much tastier, friendlier and less smelly food all...

This is a cute little burger place tucked away in between Roppongi and Akasaka (technically the address is in Akasaka). We thought we would give it a try as it close to our apartment. The establishment appears to be run by a husband and wife couple (although they may not be a couple), and is pretty small inside. Like a lot of Japanese establishments there are a lot of rules posted - mostly for good reason, but since is the first thing you see before a menu it can be a bit surprising. Also, at the time of the publication they were only accepting cash payment. There is also a sign on the door that says that they will open the door to let people in (maybe a pandemic rule that is lingering). I ordered a normal cheeseburger, and my partner had a cheeseburger with bacon. Overall, both pretty tasty, and the burger is well assembled. They make a homemade sauce that is good but very peppery (black pepper) - maybe a little too peppery. I agree with other posts that the fries could use little more flavor or salt or something. But in summary, this is a good little burger place if you're in the neighborhood, prices are also reasonable for the quality. I would suggest that they could do a little more to make customers feel welcome as opposed to a barrage of rules that the customers are first greeted with, but this is also not uncommon...