MOS Burger

Another day, another while spent wandering in search of a dinner location. Key lesson was probably that while Seven Elevens, Family Marts and other konbinis (コンビニ, i.e. convenience store) make for useful markers on a map once you're close, there are far too many of them to use before that. Although the post code was consistently signed, they were somewhat useful. Anyway, after a relatively short time we successfully found the Shimbashi branch of Mos Burger (モスバーガー) for some Japanese style fast food.



Not every branch has rice burgers, apparently, but we checked the website to make sure before going. We ordered one burger plus onion rings & fries and drink set (¥630), and one burger with salad and drink set (¥630). The burgers and accompanying fries and salad (with Japanese style dressing) were not particularly large to Western standards, but while the sadly non-crunchy fries were not especially to my taste, the burger itself was excellent.



The kanpira (きんぴら) burgers we tried consist of lightly stir-fried vegetables and seaweed for filling with the key point being the delicious tightly packed rice patties, just slightly crunchy on the outside, which could make a good snack on their own (like grilled onigiri) and are more filling than the small size suggested.

Note also the bright green melon soda in the first pic, which was rather tasty by unnaturally coloured drink standards and we may come across again elsewhere!


Mos Burger モスバーガー新橋二丁目店
〒105-0004東京都港区新橋2-12-16明和ビル1階
Phone 03-3507-0065

Norubune

On arriving in Tokyo, and heading for the bright lights of Shibuya, we spent at least a jetlagged hour trying to find Nagi Shokudo (なぎ食堂), only to eventually discover from their neighbours that it was closed for the holidays and had helpfully taken down any sign of its existence.

So our first meal was supplied by an unplanned trip to a Korean restaurant in the basement level (B2F) of Seibu department store - Norubune (ノルブネ).

Korean food is generally a good bet for vegetarian options and the staples of pickled vegetables and bibimbap (big bowl of rice, vegetables, egg and hot sauce) were available as hoped. The pickled vegetables (spinach, bracken leaf, some other things) were nicely arranged and tasty. The bibimbap disappointingly wasn't served in a hot stone bowl but did the trick and the very sour lemon soda was a plus. It all worked out at slightly more expensive than downscale Korean places in London, but not by much (¥4,704).

Less positively we ordered a kimchi pancake with cheese only to find that it came with meat as well - this was the only time this happened on the trip as after our unsuccessful search tiredness had very definitely set in by this point and we didn't go to the effort to gain assurance this wouldn't be the case. A pre-written note explaining that we eat no fish and meat and some enquiries worked out fine everywhere else and didn't seem to get us too many weird looks.






Norubune ノルブネ 渋谷SEIBU店
〒150-0042渋谷区宇田川町21-1 西武百貨店A館B2
Phone & Fax 03-5784-1788