Premium Quarter Pounders at McDonald’s Japan

McDonald’s Japan has just released some new premium quarter pounder burgers to its menu. The burgers will have 150% more burger patty than regular burgers on the menu and will come in two types: The Quarter Pounder BLT and the Quarter Pounder Habanero Tomato. The Quarter Pounder BLT combines the famous BLT sandwich with McDonald’s own Quarter Pounder Burger. While the Quarter Pounder Habanero Burger is designed to offer you a harmony of deep flavour and delicious spice.

The burgers went on sale across Japan on June 24th and will be available only for a limited time.

Premium Quarter Pounder BLT and Habanero Poster

McDonald's have also used the famous Japanese soccer player, Keisuke Honda to help promote the new premium quarter pounders, with the slogan "Bite". I guess he can't wait to sink his teeth into one of these new premium burgers.

Keisuke Honda promoting the Premium Quarter Pounder campaign

Bite into the new Premium Quarter Pounder Keisuke

The Quarter Pounder BLT Burger includes a 100% beef patty, smokey crispy bacon, cheese, fresh lettuce and tomato, a lemon flavoured sauce as well as a mustard sauce. It is available for 520 yen (USD$5.20) in Gifu. This makes it the most expensive burger McDonald’s has ever offered here in Japan at over 500 yen.

The Quarter Pounder BLT Burger

The Quarter Pounder Habanero Tomato includes a 100% beef patty, fresh lettuce, onion and tomato, cheese and a spicy sauce made from the habanero chilli pepper. It is available for 480 yen (USD$4.80) in Gifu. This is definitely the fiery partner of the BLT with lots of heat and spice.

The Quarter Pounder Habanero Tomato Burger

These burgers being promoted as premier burgers lead Japan Australia to McDonald’s to give them a try. We do love our premium/gourmet burgers after all.

What did we think?

The Quarter Pounder Habanero Tomato – the spice hits you straight away and is a nice sensation that keeps you coming back for more.

The Quarter Pounder Habanero Tomato Burger even has a fancy box

The Quarter Pounder Habanero Tomato opened up

A close up of the Quarter Pounder Habanero Tomato

The Quarter Pounder BLT – very filling compared to both the regular Quarter Pounder and the Habanero with a lot more ingredients. It comes with lots of sauce and the patty is nice and juicy. Definitely our favourite of the two burgers.

The Quarter Pounder BLT Burger with its fancy box

The Quarter Pounder BLT opened up - you can really see the size of it

A close up the of Quarter Pounder BLT Burger

McDonald’s Japan website 

Check out the other McDonald’s burgers in Japan we have tried in 2013:

• Golden Burger Week – BBQ Beef and BBQ Chicken
• TeriTama Burger
• Texas Burger
• Pork Tatsuta

McDonald’s Japan Summer Menu

I love the seasonal menu items they come out with here in Japan and McDonald’s is no exception. Recently they came out with some new menu items just for summer.

These include such goodies as the Pork Tatsuta, Chicken McNuggets with Wasabi Sauce and Fruit Curry Sauce, Shoyu Butter Shaka Shaka Fries, and Banana Oreo McFlurry.

The Pork Tatsuta

The Pork Tatsuta was released on May 31 and is based on the popular Chicken Tatsuta. The Pork Tatsuta contains a grilled pork patty, onion ginger sauce, shredded cabbage and a slightly spicy sauce all contained within a soft fluffy bun. The burger is really easy to eat and we liked the flavour combination of pork and ginger, which reminded us of the popular Japanese dish shogayaki. The soft bun is a nice touch as well and sets this burger apart from the regular burgers on the menu.

The Pork Tatsuta in the Box

Opening up the Pork Tatsuta

About to eat the Pork Tatsuta

Chicken McNuggets with Wasabi Sauce

Chicken McNuggets with Wasabi Sauce is now one of my all-time favourites. Why didn’t they think of this flavour before? The combination of wasabi and sweet Japanese mayonnaise is a classic and I could easily dip all of my future food into this awesome combination. The wasabi sauce has a sweet initial taste with the wasabi hitting you later as an after-taste. It wasn’t as hot as we would have liked and is very mild, so don’t be afraid to give it a try. Definitely my favourite of all the summer menu items. A must try if you are in Japan this summer.

Chicken McNuggets with Wasabi Sauce

You can see the creamy Wasabi and Japanese Mayonnaise Sauce

Shoyu Butter Shaka Shaka Fries

Shoyu Butter Shaka Shaka Fries are a limited edition, where your fries come with a paper bag and a special seasoning. You simply put the fries in the bag, sprinkle in the seasoning and shake vigorously. The special seasoning for this one is shoyu butter (soy sauce and butter). The seasoning is quite mild and not too strong, so it adds a nice gentle kick to the flavour of the French fries.

The Bag and Special Seasoning for the Shaka Shaka Fries

The seasoned fries ready to be eaten by one hungry JA

Banana Oreo McFlurry

Banana Oreo McFlurry makes a summer comeback and is always very popular. It is easy to see why as banana and chocolate is such a great combination.

Banana Oreo McFlurry

Chicken McNuggets with Fruit Curry Sauce

A new sauce is available for Chicken McNuggets in Japan called Fruit Curry Sauce. It is a curry sauce that is very fruity and is like a mix of a curry sauce with chutney. I would definitely recommend this one!

Fruit Curry Sauce

A mix of curry sauce with fruit chutney

McDonald’s Japan Website http://www.mcdonalds.co.jp/

Have you tried any of these new summer items from McDonald’s Japan? What would you like to try? Please leave your comments below.

Golden Burger Week in Japan

The end of April through around May 6th is called “Golden Week” in Japan and is based around a period of Japanese national holidays. To celebrate this period, McDonald’s Japan has released a special series of burgers called “Golden Burger Week”.

The burgers are the BBQ Beef Burger and the BBQ Chicken Burger. They are only available for a limited time (April 26 – May 6), so hurry in if you want to give them a try.

BBQ Beef Burger

The BBQ Beef Burger contains fried onions, spicy barbeque sauce, egg, bacon, cheese and a beef patty.

BBQ Chicken Burger

The BBQ Chicken burger contains fried onions, yellow mustard mayonnaise sauce, spicy barbeque sauce, lettuce and a crispy chicken fillet.

Both burgers come in Golden Brown buns coated with sesame seeds.

We tried the BBQ Beef Burger and it was pretty good. Reminded me of the recent Texas Burger but on a smaller scale.

The BBQ Beef Burgers costs 340 yen (USD$3.50) for just the burger, or 640 yen (USD$6.50) for a Medium Set.

The BBQ Chicken Burger costs 330 yen (USD$3.40) for just the burger, or 630 yen (USD$6.40) for a Medium Set.

Note: Prices may vary depending on the region in Japan

McDonald’s Japan also has a special campaign going, where if you purchase a Large value set you can get a FREE French Fries Holder. It is made to fit any cup holder, so you can use it in your car or on your bike.

McDonald’s Japan Website

Check out some of the other McDonald's Burger that have been available in Japan recently.

• TeriTama Burger
• Texas Burger

TeriTama Burger

The TeriTama Burger is back at McDonald’s Japan. TeriTama is short for Teriyaki Tamago. The burger contains a Teriyaki pork patty with Tamago (egg in Japanese), lettuce, and sweet lemon sauce. There is also a TeriTama Cheese Burger, which features the addition of cheese. The burger has been available since March 22nd and costs 310 yen (USD$3.30) for the regular TeriTama or 340 yen (USD$3.60) for the TeriTama Cheese. A Medium set will cost you 620 yen (USD$6.60) for the regular TeriTama and 650 yen (USD$6.90) for a TeriTama Cheese set. Prices vary depending on the region in Japan.

TeriTama Burger

TeriTama with Cheese

How does it taste? Pretty good! The Teriyaki sauce is really sweet and sticky and goes well with the pork, egg and cheese in the burger. I would recommend you give this one a try if you are in Japan around this time of the year. The TeriTama will remain on the menu until the end of April.

A Poster Advertising the TeriTama Burger

The TeriTama Cheese all wrapped up

A Close up of the TeriTama with Cheese Burger

This Friday (April 5th), they also released the Chicken TeriTama, which features a piece of Teriyaki Chicken. They have used the same chicken as the Juicy Chicken Fillet Burger and covered it with sweet Teriyaki sauce. I just tried it and it is definitely my favourite. The chicken is crispy on the outside and juicy in the middle. The Chicken TeriTama is 330 yen (USD$3.40) for just the burger itself, or 640 yen (USD$6.60) for a Medium set.

Chicken TeriTama

The Chicken TeriTama has a better quality wrapper

A close up of the Chicken TeriTama

McDonald’s Japan Website

McDonald’s Texas Burger 2013

McDonald’s Big America ALL STARS Texas Burger is back in 2013. The burger made its original debut in 2010 and now returns to the menu for a limited time. The Texas Burger went on sale from 1 February and will stay on the menu until the end of the month. The burger itself costs 370 yen (USD$3.90) in the Gifu area, or 590 yen for a Small Set (USD$6.20).

The Texas Burger features mustard relish, barbecue sauce, bacon, cheese and fried onions. The burger is unusual because it also has a middle bun aimed to separate the ingredients. It was created to bring the crowds back to McDonald's and offer them a taste of America.

I’m not too sure how authentic the burger is, but it does taste pretty good, and I really like the mustard relish and barbecue sauce combination.

Poster advertising the return of the Texas Burger

The Texas Burger packaging

The Texas Burger in the box

Bacon, fried onions, mustard relish and barbecue sauce feature in the Texas Burger

Close up of the Texas Burger

Check out the video I made of the Texas Burger below

McDonald's Japan website

Tsukimi Burger 2012

My last post was about Tsukimi (月見) or moon viewing and I left a little teaser at the end about how I usually celebrate Tsukimi. Well here it is! I love to celebrate Tsukimi with the Tsukimi Burger.

September in Japan usually brings with it Autumn or Aki (秋) with cooler weather, beautiful fall leaves and Autumn food and drinks. One of my favourite Autumn foods in Japan during this time is the Tsukimi burger. When this starts appearing on The McDonald's menu I know for sure that Autumn has arrived in Japan. The burger is only available for a limited time during the Autumn and will be on the menu again from the 18th of September.