We don’t know why people always make the same mistakes, and history always repeats itself. In this case we are talking about Lotteria, one of Japan’s largest fast food chains. In the past, it had once made the mistake of selling a ramen burger that sandwiched droopy ramen between buns. It wasn’t well received. And then they brought to us a tsukemen burger, which also didn’t do well. We thought they’d have learned their lesson, but no! Much to our dismay, starting on September 8, they started selling a neapolitan spaghetti burger. We’re not quite sure why they are so insistent on putting noodles between buns, but we do know that the new noodle burgers aren’t impressing diners in Japan.
・Produced by Chef Kawagoe
This time celebrity chef Tatsuya Kawagoe was tasked to produce this noodle burger. The previous noodle burgers were also produced by famous ramen places. It seems like no matter how famous the partner producer is, the burger is bound for no good. We expect no more this time round.
・The product looks classier
The packaging looks more elegant this time. You can’t see the noodles at first glance and it looks better than before. The noodles have been cut and purposefully pressed into the shape of a regular burger filling. We are not sure if it’s intentional, but it definitely looks classier this time.
・This time it’s ‘Western’
The two previous burgers were both Japanese cuisine fusions, so this is the first time the noodle burger returns to its Western roots. Since neapolitan is a tomato based pasta, we thought it might go well with the bun as a burger patty, similar to putting ketchup on your bun.
・The balance is decent
We took a bite of this new burger and found our mouths full of a tomato-based sauce. If that is the case, then this is definitely a winner among all the noodle burgers so far. In fact, the taste is pretty well balanced, as expected of Chef Kawagoe. This is probably the best out of the three noodle burgers, except…
・Take away the noodle please
This product is advertised to contain a lot of ingredients, but all we see is noodle. Furthermore, we are not sure what the noodles are doing in the burger. Without the noodles, this might have been a pretty decent burger with meat sauce.
・It’s just okay
We thought this might be a toned-down version of all the outlandish creations Lotteria has come up with before. But seriously, we really don’t need noodles in our buns. We love the creativity, but we just want to tell Lotteria: no more noodle burgers, please! Like, seriously.
Images: RocketNews24
[ Read in Japanese ]
Leave a Reply