I’m a sucker for food that looks and/or tastes like other food. I can remember as a young boy hearing about “pizza flavored potato chips” and thinking to myself: “Wow, what an amazing world we live in. My favorite food can now be consumed in an even unhealthier medium!” Fortunately Japan has no shortage of such junk food fusions. Most recently – Makiko and I have fallen prey to Mister Donuts and Mos Burger – who – in a sort of alliance – have come up with the most ingenious of marketing ploys….

Take these two seamingly unrelated fast food chains, stir them in a pot – and out comes…?

Donut burgers! No – wait … Burger donuts! No – wait … Both!!

Oh yeah – burgers and donuts – together at last! This isn’t some random experiment on thisiswhyyourefat.com – this is the real deal.

First up – Mos Burger’s Donut Burger. If you think I’m making this up – check out their Web site. The concept is very gimmicky: take one of their regular burgers, cut a whole in the patty and fill it with wasabi mayonnaise. Donut? No, not really – but still they call it a donut burger and one can’t help but give them credit for having a sense of humor.

Looks good on a banner … how about on a serving tray?

The spread: One Double (“W”) Mos Donut Burger with onion rings and fries. Show me that burger!

Looks regular enough – as far as Mos Burgers go. Mos Burgers contain simply a slice of tomato, some onions, tomato based meat sauce and a burger patty… in this case “patties” since I opted for a double. Somewhere buried deep in this mess are the holes (that I paid extra for!) with the promised wasabi mayonnaise …

I guess that’s it? Huh. Hard to tell really – and I don’t want to mess my burger about too much just to find out. Let’s do it the old fashioned way …

It may be a bit hard to tell from this picture – but the holes (and wasabi mayo) are definitely there. The wasabi mayo had a bit of kick to it, but honestly – I could do without.

Were burgers meant to have holes in them only to be filled with sauce? No – I think not. As we’ve seen previously – holes are only meant to add to the cooking process.

OK, family – let’s blow this burger joint. Next stop: Mister Donuts!

At Mister Donuts – unlike Mos Burger – the Burger Donuts are more about presentation than about taste. At first glance, Mos’s Donut Burger bears no resemblance whatsoever to donuts. However at Mister Donut the Burger Donuts look exactly like little burgers! Check out their site for the full marketing gimmick. Awesome.

Do they look as cool in person?

Absolutely! Let’s get in for a closer look at the two:

Strawberry Burger Donut – complete with donut style bun, crispy chocolate patty, strawberry sauce and “whip”.

Macha Burger Donut – complete with donut style bun, crispy chocolate patty, macha (green tea) sauce and “whip”.

They even come as a “set” (combo) with fries (fried “potedo”) and ketchup:

The potedos were horrid. Absolute crap. Think reconstituted potato flakes, shaped into sticks, deep fried and left on the shelf for a week. Cold, stale sticks of instant potatoes. Yuck. We didn’t bother with the ketchup as they were simply unsalvageable.

The Burger Donuts?

Fan factor: high.

Taste factor: so very very low. *sigh*

I so wanted both of these to taste as good as the concept – but the execution just missed the mark.

Good on ya Mos Burger and Mister Donuts – you both got my money – but I’m a one time customer for any future burger / donut fusions you may have planned.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Food, Tokyo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.