On the Beef plays with our mind, but does it satisfy our stomach?

Last week, Burger King Japan confused and intrigued us with the announcement of the latest addition to their menu. Called On the Beef, it’s puzzling not only conceptually, but linguistically as well, since even though “On the Beef” implies some sort of on-top accompaniment, On the Beef is essentially only beef, a hamburger patty served by itself and with nothing on it but a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

For 350 yen (US$2.40), the Standard on the Beef is a hamburger patty of the same size as the one used in Burger King’s Whopper, and priced identically to an extra-patty add-on for the chain’s flagship burger. For 100 yen more, you can upgrade it to either a Sauce On the Beef, a hamburger patty with your choice of spicy, teriyaki, or BBQ sauce, or a Rice On the Beef, a beef patty that actually does have something on it, a disc of rice, but without any special sauce.

The knee-jerk reaction here is “What?!? Why would anyone want to eat just a patty without all of the other things that make a hamburger a hamburger?” But then we stopped and thought about it from a different angle. After all, there are fried chicken burgers, with the buns and fixings of a hamburger but a chicken cutlet in place of a grilled beef patty, right? They’re delicious, but so is fried chicken eaten all by itself (as evidenced by a recent all-you-can-eat fried chicken promotion from Family Mart). So if the meaty center of a fried chicken burger can be satisfying on its own, might that hold true for the meaty center of a hamburger, too?

To find out, our Japanese-language reporter Daiki Nishimoto hopped on over to his local Burger King branch after the On the Beef went on sale on September 26 and picked up a basic On the Beef plus a Rice on the Beef for taste-testing.

Looking at the On the Beef, he still couldn’t help but feel a sense of emptiness. Yes, Japan has “hamburger steaks,” but those are thicker and actually a combination of ground meat and diced onion, and pretty much always served with some kind of sauce. What Daiki had in front of him was just a hamburger ingredient extracted from a hamburger, as though he somehow was incapable of procuring a complete sandwich for himself, or Burger King had gotten itself into some sort of scandal and been forced to suspend serving buns, veggies, and anything other than patties.

▼ At least Burger King gives you a fork, so you don’t feel like a complete animal.

And yet, as Daiki started to feel a palpable sense of pathetic loneliness emanating from the On the Beef, he felt like it was trying to tell him something. Straining his burger senses, he thought he could make out the message that Burger King’s very unusual offering was trying to tell him.

“Judge me as myself.”

Daiki realized that he’d gotten so wrapped up in what the On the Beef isn’t that he’d lost sight of what it is: an all-beef patty cooked on an open flame, something that’s sort of a rarity in the Japanese burger fast food world, where many chain’s patties are a mixture of pork and beef and/or flat-grilled.

With his perspective recalibrated, Daiki kept an open mind as he opened his mouth for a bite, and was immediately rewarded for the mental effort. The On the Beef was delicious, showing off just how high-quality Burger King Japan’s meat is and how expertly it’s cooked. The absence of any distractions from other ingredients means the beefy flavor is transmitted directly and instantly to your taste buds, and Daiki is now convinced that a hamburger patty, at least if it’s as good as this, can be worthy of being a stand-alone dish.

Next it was time to try the Rice On the Beef.

With how much he’d enjoyed the regular On the Beef, he figured this one would be outstanding too, especially since the mixture of white and brown rice is specially selected by rice merchant Hachidaime Gihey, who previously helped Burger King out with its Kyoto Whopper.

And yet, while Daiki liked the Rice On the Beef, he was shocked to find himself thinking “…but this would be even better without the rice.”

It’s not that the rice is bad or anything. Far from it, it complemented the patty quite nicely, and he happily ate the whole thing. It’s just that while he was eating it, he kept thinking about the direct impact of unmitigated meaty sensations he’d gotten from the rice-less On the Beef, and in his heart of hearts, that’s what he was craving again.

▼ In this case, less is more, Daiki says.

So despite both items being exercises in simplicity, Daiki had plenty of psychological surprises here, and after falling in love with the On the Beef, he can hardly believe he initially found it depressing to look at.

Again, at 350 yen, the On the Beef costs as much as the additional charge for ordering a second patty for a Whopper. A regular, one-patty Whopper costs 590 yen, so the On the Beef is significantly cheaper, so there is an economic case for it, but it is more expensive than Burger King’s basic Cheeseburger, which is 300 yen (though with a smaller patty than the On the Beef).

The On the Beef lineup is a limited-time deal, and will be on the menu until October 9. If the customer response is positive enough, though, it should be a snap to bring back for another run, considering that if there’s one ingredient Burger King always has in its kitchens, it’s hamburger patties.

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