A note on the words: a gourmet burger, in Japanese restaurant parlance, means a thick hand-formed patty on a bakery bun, built to order and priced well above a fast-food burger. The crown is the baker’s word for the top half of a bun. Chili beans here means the stewed beans in spiced sauce that top a chili cheese burger. Meshi in this blog’s name simply means a meal.
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SMITH BURGER CLUB on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, Hangover Meshi here. This time I headed to a hamburger place that recently opened in Akasaka: “SMITH BURGER CLUB.” I had walked past at some point and thought, wow, that is quite a line. It was probably right after opening, which is why everyone was lined up. What was the shop that used to be here, again? It was something, and once it was gone this very bright, cheerful burger place had taken its place, so I got curious and decided to go.
When I peeked in the other day the line was enormous, so I used my home-turf advantage and went on a weekday, right about opening time!
At that hour I could get in, sure enough.
Hamburger 1,560 yen
Cheeseburger 1,840 yen
Chili cheese burger 2,040 yen
Pastrami 2,040 yen
Hot dog 880 yen
The menu covers quite a lot of ground. Hot dogs, sandwiches, salads, even soups.
Even if you did not eat a burger, I believe they do takeout, so ordering clam chowder or minestrone and some deep-fried octopus and having a drink at home would do wonders for your quality of life! That is what I was thinking as I looked over the menu — and then the chili cheese burger looked so good that I went with that.
Right, a drink first.
Thinking how nice a beer in the daytime would be, I sipped my coffee instead.
The coffee cup is pretty big, which is deeply satisfying!
When you order, you pick one of three fried-potato sides.
Spice chips, fried chips, and French fries. The chips, apparently, are potatoes cut thin.
The name sounded good, so I went with the spice chips.
The chili cheese burger! It looks great. A thick load of cheese poured over the chili beans!
One bite in: the patty is meaty and good! Freshly grilled and juicy, and with all that cheese and the chili flavor on top of it, it is just plainly delicious. The bun is crisp outside and fluffy inside. The sauce is spread properly across the crown, and the whole thing comes together in balance! Yes, this place is good.
The spice chips are not really chips as such either — they keep a certain plumpness.
A side where you can genuinely taste the spices, and honestly delicious. Taking home just these would be entirely reasonable!
And here is the mushroom mozzarella burger.
This one looked good too. The side is French fries.
Loaded with molten mozzarella clinging to everything — it looks amazing!!!
So, I came to this new burger place in Akasaka, and I think I understand why there was a line right after it opened. The spice chips on the side are delicious, and the burger itself was really good. It is a proper gourmet burger, so the price is a bit steep, but I think it is a burger worth it. Next time I will buy the fried octopus, the spice chips and some clam chowder to take home.
SMITH BURGER CLUB (Hamburger / Akasaka Station, Tameike-sanno Station, Roppongi-itchome Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.6
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
