Dom Dom turns over a new leaf.
Japanese fast food chain Dom Dom Burger has long been an innovator in the art of making burgers. Whether it’s putting whole crabs between two buns or including each of the colors of the Power Rangers in the toppings, they’ve never shied away from trying something new.
Now, they’re turning their attention to lettuce. Other chains, like Mos Burger, have come out with lettuce-heavy offerings, often substituting the buns for several leaves, but Dom Dom is going the other way with it, by stuffing a bun with as much lettuce as they can, and not much else.
Our writer Kouhey headed down to his nearest location to try one of these Almost All Lettuce Burgers out for himself for 690 yen (US$4.30). Even though it was basically just lettuce on a bun, it still took a few minutes after ordering for it to arrive.
After unwrapping it, our writer was blown away by the sheer amount of lettuce. He’d wager there was probably one-third of a head of it between those buns. Even after lifting up the top of the bun, all that could be seen was lettuce.
It took some digging around before Kouhey could find anything that wasn’t lettuce. There were five or six boiled shrimp and some sauce, but it didn’t amount to much this deep in a sea of lettuce.
There was also some mayo on the bottom bun. On the bright side, this was probably by far the healthiest burger Dom Dom has ever put out, if you could even call it a burger.
He cut it in half to get a good look at its ridiculous cross-section. He had to hand it to Dom Dom, even after all these years, they still know how to make a shocking burger.
Being shocking is all well and good, but if it still needs to deliver in the taste department. Kouhey prepared himself for a first bite.
And it was just lettuce. He couldn’t even get a significant piece of bun in that first bite and just tasted a mouthful of green leaves. As he got deeper, he eventually caught the slight taste of the bun, shrimp, and mayonnaise, but they were all constantly overwhelmed by the relentless presence of lettuce.
Whether that’s “good” or not really all boils down to how much you like lettuce, but it got our reporter thinking, and he immediately headed over to the cheap family restaurant Saizeriya.
They sell a boiled shrimp salad for 350 yen, so he thought he might be able to recreate his own take on an Almost All Lettuce Burger with it.
However, his plan was thwarted by a misleading menu. Although the Take Out symbol appeared on the menu, it was referring to the dressing rather than the salad itself, which was only available for those dining in.
After expressing his disappointment to the staff, they told him all he needed to do was order it at a table and then ask for a container to take it home in. So, that’s what he did.
He also picked up some buns on the way home and got to work constructing his own Saizeriya-filled lettuce burger.
Putting it next to an Almost All Lettuce Burger, it was clearly the more appetizing of the two, with various colors and other toppings to tempt the palate.
They were completely different when it came to taste as well. The Saizeriya lettuce burger had a more well-rounded flavor, with each bite providing the taste of lettuce along with a menagerie of other foods.
The Almost All Lettuce Burger, however, was almost all lettuce. But in a strange way, eating through the wall of bland lettuce made the flavor of the shrimp and sauce feel that much more exquisite, like getting a drop of water in a desert.
It’s certainly an interesting concept, but probably not one that would appeal to everyone equally. If you’re not completely head over heels about lettuce, then the Saizeriya version might still be for you. Kouhey decided he’d try it again next time with the focaccia they sell there, too.
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