8 best burgers in Tokyo

Serving burgers packed with smokey, savoury goodness, The Good Vibes delivers everything its name promises and more. Two combined elements make the burgers here worth a special to Shibaura: dry-aged beef patties and house-made pastrami. 

Before the Yonezawa husband-and-wife team came to Tokyo to open their own business, they were living in the delicatessen city of New York. When thinking about the kind of food they would serve, it seemed only natural to introduce to Tokyo the deli meat that graced many iconic New York movie scenes like ‘When Harry Met Sally’. Made by brining beef ribs in salt over four days and smoking to perfection for six days, the thick slabs of tender meat are as good as any that you’ll find at a Brooklyn deli. 

The house signature, The Good Vibes Burgers, is every meat lover’s fantasy with both beef patty and pastrami. However, there are also burger options where you could choose just one or the other.

Taller than they are wide, the fat stacks at Munch’s Burger Shack might feel awkward to eat at first, but you’ll find yourself wolfing them down at record speed. A cosy-casual joint with red checkered plates, this cheery burger house is usually packed with loyal patrons trying to get their fix on any given night of the week. 

The beef, which is US-imported Angus, isn’t minced but hand-chopped with a top-quality kitchen knife for maximising its juicy flavour. Everything here is made in-house, including the bacon and bean chili, which are among the long list of toppings available to customize your burger as you like it.

Opened in 1996, Fire House has been serving up its homestyle fare to satisfied customers in Bunkyo for 25 years. With a homely interior of books and retro posters, the atmosphere is as comforting as the dishes served here, including classic chilli, hotdogs and of course, burgers. 

Large, freshly cooked patties come with a range of toppings, including cheese, avocado and even apple. If you're feeling especially hungry, though, try the 'Mad Burger', which comprises three large patties smothered in chilli and cheese, and rounded off with a fried egg.

Newly opened beside the Himonya Police Station in Gakugeidaigaku is Burger Police, a recent venture by popular Italian restaurant Tacubo. The signature Sio Burger is made with top-grade wagyu beef that oozes a buttery, umami factor – it’s perfect as is without any additional sauce. 

Rather than offering fizzy soft drinks, Burger Police follows in the footsteps of its sister establishment by serving a selection of natural wines to pair with its gourmet burgers. In addition to the burgers, the restaurant also features a menu of appetisers and side dishes championing fresh, seasonal produce: think provincial minestrone, wild arugula salad and grilled squid with green peas.

While classic recipes might call for 100 percent beef patties, burgers don’t have to be all about (red) meat. The menu at Deli Fu Cious is made up of ingredients you might normally find at a Toyosu Market restaurant, with items like the konbu fish burger and saikyo-yaki (miso-marinated fish) burger.

As unconventional as the burger joint may be, the method of curing fish in layers of konbu to create a light and flaky texture has proved to be a fail-proof one as the shop has branched out to more locations including Toranomon Hills Yokocho and Shibuya Parco. Aside from the fish burgers, there are also new interpretations of hot dogs, where in lieu of frankfurters, you get anago (conger eel) tempura with a sweet-savoury sauce, or fluffy tamagoyaki with honey mayo.

No fancy truffle, foie gras or blue cheese toppings here. This long-standing burger joint in Daikanyama takes the minimal approach with fillings of lettuce, tomato and maybe some cheddar with nothing else to distract you from the patty itself.

It’s a burger that’s perfectly imperfect with slightly uneven ridges and messy drizzle of a sauce reminiscent of Thousand Island dressing, but don’t let its no-frills appearance fool you — the burgers here are far from your standard patties.

Kentaro Nakahara, who went by ‘Henry’ during his years living in California, started his business with the vision of combining authentic American burger culture with Japanese beef. A5-grade wagyu is coarsely ground so that the hand-shaped patties can retain a good amount of texture before they are grilled, flipped, drizzled with a signature sauce and sandwiched in a house-made bun. 

You can choose between one or up to four patties for your burger, depending on how hungry you are – but be prepared to queue as it’s a popular joint with only four seats for eating-in.

Tucked away in the backstreets of Harajuku among cutesy cafés and creperies is the enduring California-style joint, The Great Burger. At this long-time establishment of Harajuku, the laid-back, beachy atmosphere is typically what attracts passing shoppers, but it's the burgers that people are willing to stand in line for. 

With its extensive menu, you can have burgers any way you want, whether it's with the ever-popular combo of bacon and jalapeno, or slightly more eccentric toppings like grilled pineapple or baked apple and gorgonzola. To wash it all down, you can order American beverages that are hard to come by in Tokyo, like Cherry Cola and Rootbeer. However, the restaurant also features a selection of craft beers on the tap for those looking to roll straight from lunch into happy hour.

Venture down the narrow alleyway that houses Tsukiji Masa and you’ll find the best fish burgers in the market. Owner-chef Takahashi took inspiration from the burgers he ate while working in New York and created a distinctive blend of American and Japanese flavours. 

The classic cod burger contains a tender piece of fish in a crispy panko crumb coating, laid on a bed of shaved cabbage, and topped with a slice of melted cheese. The shimesaba burger (seared pickled mackerel), inspired by a mackerel futomaki (thick sushi roll), comes with a slice of tamagoyaki omelette, shiso leaf and crunchy cucumber slices.

Make sure to order your burger with fries (¥300) on the side – that way, you can try one of the shop’s special seasonings: salt with bonito flakes, or salt with aonori (powdered seaweed). There’s also an anago (eel) hot dog, plus seasonal specials.

Keen to challenge the idea of burgers as mass-produced greasy junk food, Takahashi sources his fish fresh from the market each day, the bread is custom-made by a baker in Akita who uses natural wild yeast, and the tomato and tartare sauces are both house-made. These are next-level burgers at street-level prices.