We scale Tokyo’s newest attraction: A four-patty teriyaki tower. 

Just a few days ago, we found out that Burger King would be adding another meaty monstrosity to its periodic one-pound beef burger series, and this time the star of the show would be teriyaki sauce, the sweet-salty soy glaze that’s often used to add a distinct Japanese flavour to meat and vegetables.

Called the Tokyo Teriyaki Tower Super One Pound Beef Burger, the new release is only set to grace menus around Japan for a short two-week period, so we headed down to our nearest Burger King to try one out as soon as they were released on 25 June.

As the first Japanese-flavoured mega burger from the chain, we were excited to find out what it would taste and look like, so when we placed our order, we asked the staff to slice the beast in two.

▼ This hefty burger is priced at 1,380 yen (US$12.45).

Peeling back the wrapping, we found the burger was wrapped in another layer of wrapping, only this one was sliced right through the middle, so we were able to open it up and admire the beefy burger in all its glory.

▼ How gorgeous is this?

The vision of beef and melted cheese before us immediately had our taste buds standing to attention, and it wasn’t long before the delicious aroma of the grilled beef patties tantalised our olfactory senses as well.

The only thing left to do now was bite into the magnificent beast, so we held the wall of meat up for one final gaze before sinking our jaws through its saucy layers.

The first thing we tasted was the teriyaki sauce, and then the flame-grilled beef… then the flame-grilled beef… and then the teriyaki sauce again. It was as if the two main ingredients were fighting to be the dominant flavour, but the aftertaste left us with no shadow of a doubt that the beef here was the winning component.

The beef dominated each mouthful until we came to the centre of the bun, where the battle between the two strong opponents actually melded into a strong friendship, producing a gloriously well-rounded balance of flavours.

This was the best part of the burger, and as we started to yearn for the teriyaki sauce to shine through more strongly, lifting the top bun revealed the reason for its lack of strength.

▼ Most of the sauce had seeped into the bun.

This concentration of teriyaki sauce at the top of the tower meant the levels below were sadly lacking in flavour. It was meat-upon-meat-upon-meat-upon-meat until you reached the top, making it a hard slog to get there, and we began to wonder if we’d be able to completely conquer the tower.

That’s when we came up with the idea to eat it vertically, which allowed gravity to pull the sauce to the side of the patties, allowing the teriyaki flavour to hit the tongue just before the meat.

It was an awkward and messy process, but it worked a treat by adding extra flavour to each layer of beef, which improved the whole experience immensely. This gave us more gusto to carry on, enjoying saucy morsels of meat in every mouthful, and we even stopped a few times to dip the burger into the sauce that dripped out below for added hits of salty sweetness.

Before we knew it, we’d scaled the tower and demolished it, licking our lips and wiping the leftover sauce from our chin and cheeks with a sense of satisfied accomplishment. It wasn’t easy, but with the vertical hack you too may be able to walk away with a pound of meat in your belly, and if you get in quick you’ll get a free sticker to commemorate the experience.

Photos: ©SoraNews24
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