MOS Burger

MOS Burger is a Japanese hamburger chain. They have stores in JapanChina and Taiwan among other places. Their prices are decent, but their portions are a little on the small side. I once ate 3 hamburgers, one seving of fries and one bowl of ramen and I still wasn't totally full. In front of me I have a flyer telling me the location of 2 MOS burger restaurants in Ube and Yamaguchi. On the back there is a menu, with the following items:

• hamburgers,
• rice burgers- like hamburgers, except that instead of a roll, the burger is put between two patties of cooked rice
• hot dogs
• fried chicken
• chicken nuggets
• fries
• and ("good old American") apple pie

MOS burger franchises in China also serve ramen.

MOS Burger is anything but your typical "fast-food" restaurant, generally because above all else MOS Burger stresses quality and service, which is really odd if you think about other burger joints like McDonald's or Burger King.

In fact, when Satoshi Sakurada, the brainchild behind MOS Burger, thought of starting his own burger chain he was sitting in a local McDonald's in L.A., where he was staying at the time. As usually McDonald's messed up his order and he was feeling quite angry. That’s when it hit him: he would move back to Tokyo and open a fast-food chain that would place quality and politeness over speed and eighteen year old punk servers.

MOS is an acronym for 'Mountain, Ocean, Sun', or in Japanese it would be 'Yama, Umi, Taiyo'. There is then a corresponding slogan that goes along with the acronym...

as high and noble as a mountain;
a heart as deep and wide as the oceans;
affection as warm as the sun.

A little over the top, but the idea behind the acronym and the slogan is to reveal the true atmosphere of the shop.

So if you ever go to a MOS Burger don’t expect it to be a rushed job. There is a series of motions that you usually follow before you get your food.

1. Order your food.
2. Wash your hands at the nearby sink.
3. Take a complementary newspaper or magazine.
4. Wait for your food.
5. When your food comes expect a lot of bowing to take place.

Now enjoy your Teriyaki Burger or one of other 21 sandwich options you could have chosen.