Village Vanguard DINER — Restaurant in Tokyo

In Japan, 20th July is Hamburger Day 🍔🍔🍔 The reason? McDonald's opened their first store in Ginza exactly 50 years ago in 1971.

Now when it comes to quality, there are many better places than McDonald's and one of those is Village Vanguard Diner, which have 11 branches around Japan 🇯🇵 and offer more gourmet-style burgers 🧑🏻‍🍳

Today at their Kichijoji branch I tried their most popular item - the Pepper & Cheddar Melt Burger, which includes a thick slice of bacon, smothered in melted cheese, sprinkled liberally with pepper 🥓🧀

I was lucky to get a counter seat so could see the chef frying and preparing the burger, making me even more hungrier 🤤

Service was super fast and my order came within less than 5 minutes ⏲ As I ordered double patties, this combination was like an explosion of meat umami in my mouth and the juices were flowing 💦😋

Ordered together with handcut fries and ginger ale, it was a decent meal that would do any American diner proud 🇺🇸

If you are in the Kichijoji area and looking for burgers I highly recommend this place - their menu has over 12 different varieties so am sure there will be something to whet your...

There was a queue all the way to the street but I could a get counter seat quickly, being alone. I got the avocado cheese single burger. I felt it was a good quality burger with subtle taste. There is no secret sauce or strong-taste patty but the ingredients come out well together without any being overwhelming. The potatoes push the subtlety a bit too far though and were rather bland, I had to add salt. The portion was rather small for the 2,020 yen price tag, I didn't really feel full.

Edit: on my second visit, I tried the chili cheese burger which was more enjoyable, tasty and juicy, yet even more expensive, it could be 5 stars if it was a...

The place is pretty cozy and they play good jazz music. I can go here and dine alone or bring my friends. The service was fast and the staff seems friendly. I ordered an avocado burger with homemade potatoes. The potatoes were delicious, that crispy skin was sooo good. As for the burger, it was meh. It wasn't bad but it wasn't life-changing haha. I think I'll try the classic burger next time, the nori (seaweed) was drenched with this bitter sauce and it really changed the taste of the avocado and meat patty (I had to put it on the side). So overall, I'd still give this place a very good rating for their service, atmosphere...