With a little under a week until Valentine’s Day, Japan is still in the midst of chocolate madness, and it appears the fast food industry is no exception. Hot on the heels of their unique french fries and chocolate sauce combination, fast food chain Lotteria has now come out with a burger with … yes, you guessed it — chocolate sauce!
For a limited time until late February, Lotteria is offering their “Chocolate & Honey Mustard Grilled Chicken Burger”. If you think the name sounds fancy, that may be because it actually is kind of a fancy burger, judging from the description provided in Lotteria’s press release. The burger features a thick piece of chicken thigh that is marinated in white wine, garlic and onions and then oven-cooked. And the important honey mustard sauce is made from a mixture of whole-grain mustard and french mustard, to which honey and mayonnaise are added. To all this, you can add the chocolate sauce, which comes in a separate packet. The chocolate used in the sauce is the milky and flavorful yet mild Ghana Milk Chocolate produced by Lotte, the popular snack maker belonging to the same corporate group as Lotteria. Marinated chicken and Ghana chocolate? We definitely had to try this unusual combination!
▼ I bought the Chocolate & Honey Mustard Grilled Chicken Burger, priced at 390yen (US$3.80) along with a drink.
▼ This is the packet of chocolate sauce that came separately.
▼ The burger came in this paper wrap.
▼ The burger unveiled!
▼ And also a look at what’s between the buns.
▼ Now, for the chocolate sauce …
▼ We don’t want to be stingy with the sauce, do we?
▼ You can see there’s plenty of mustard sauce and chocolate sauce.
So, how was the Chocolate & Honey Mustard Grilled Chicken Burger? I actually quite liked it. The chicken was thick and juicy, and the chocolate sauce matched it quite well. The flavor of the mustard sauce was slightly strong, so maybe it could have been milder. In fact, it may be interesting to try what it would be like with just the chicken and chocolate sauce. Still, the chicken was flavored very nicely — the marinating definitely seemed to work here — and I enjoyed savoring the rich sweetness of the chocolate along with the juiciness of the chicken.
If I had the chance, I would be more than happy to have the burger again. On second thought, the french fries with the chocolate sauce, which I haven’t tried yet, look awfully good too …
Reference and top image: Lotteria press release (Japanese)
All other photos: RocketNews24