Burger Month: A Burger That Brings the Thunder!

Happy Burger Month everyone! I know. I just did Burger Month back in November, but this month is the big Burger Baka event and I have visited a lot of burger places recently. So I decided to move up Burger Month to March this year.

We kick off Burger Month with a new burger place that opened in Tsukuba that serves towering burgers that bring the thunder. The name of this new burger restaurant is Thunder Burger.

Thunder Burger

Thunder Burger is located in the Amakubo area of Tsukuba. It is right across from Tsukuba University. I believe that Thunder Burger just opened fairly recently.

The Ibaraki Eats Duo visited on a late Tuesday night a few weeks ago. We drove to Thunder Burger and could not find parking. The reason is that Thunder Burger is on the second floor of a small building that houses two other restaurants, and one of them is a popular ramen restaurant (which I will be posting about later). There was a huge line at the ramen place and everyone had parked their bikes and cars at the front of the building. If all those spaces are taken, there are a few more parking spaces down the street. If those are taken, you can probably get away with parking at the university. I'm not saying that is what we did, or am I suggesting you should park there, but gthe lot was empty when we were there. Anyway, we parked our car and headed up to the second floor where Thunder Burger was.

Inside

Thunder Burger is a pretty big burger joint. There is a long row of bar stools on the left side, and tables and chairs on the right. The way it works at Thunder Burger is, you go to the register, check out the menu, place your order, and then find your seat. My wife and I sat down at the bar stool area and looked around the restaurant. I liked all the signs on the chain link fence wall but two American flags? Even I'm not that patriotic. I was getting the vibe that this place was for university students by former university students. The staff were pretty young when I saw them. When you order your meal and sit, you don't see the staff again until they bring out your burger, and then they disappear. I wasn't really into the atmosphere there. I just waited for my burger, feeling like an old guy in the middle of a young hip burger joint.

The Menu

Unfortunately, the menu is only in Japanese. Not to worry, I will translate. From top to bottom, the menu has:

The Thunder Burger brings two beef patties, bacon, ham, three slices of cheese, a fried egg, tomato, lettuce, and onion.

The Cheeseburger brings one patty, 4 slices of cheese, lettuce, tomato, and onions.

The Hamburger has a patty, lettuce, tomato, and onions.

The Teriyaki Burger brings one patty, lettuce, onions, and a fried egg.

The Texas Burger brings one patty, bacon, three slices of cheese, and a fried egg.

Avocado Burger has a patty, lettuce, tomato, onions, avocado, and bacon.

The Steak Burger brings a steak, lettuce, tomato, and onions.

The Chicken Burger has chicken, a fried egg, lettuce, and onions.

The Non-standard Recommendation Burger (I think I translated that right), I have no idea what that brings. Please ask the staff.

The Daily Special Burger, again please ask the staff what it brings.

Texas Burger

My wife ordered the Texas Burger. It looked pretty good when I first saw it. The fried egg was huge which I liked and the patty had delicious looking melted cheese all over it. My wife let me have a bite of her burger and I gave it the thumbs up. The BBQ sauce that comes with the burger is a bit tangy but it works well with the cheese and fried egg. What surprised me was the beef patty. I wasn't expecting much when I first saw the patty but it was a pleasant surprise. The patty had this strong beef grilled flavor that reminded me of BBQ grilled burgers whenever I would have a BBQ in the States. I couldn't see the kitchen so I have no idea if they had a flame broiler back there but it sure tasted like they did. All and all, I enjoyed the Texas Burger and so did my wife.

Thunder Burger

Next, we come to the Thunder Burger. Look at that behemoth of a burger. It towers on the plate like a proud monument to all of Burger kind. That is also a problem. I believe in the phrase "Make burgers wider, not taller." We human beings aren't snakes. We can't unhinge our jaws and consume a whole burger. It is going to fall apart. The presentation looks awesome but that's it. That is exactly what happened when I first grabbed the Thunder Burger. I didn't even get my first bite in and it started to fall apart. Even with the burger bag, this burger was incredibly difficult to eat. I don't mind getting my hands dirty or having sauce all over my face, but there has to be a payoff to that. I just ended up eating everything separately. The patties were great just like the Texas burger. The bacon was OK. The ham was pretty good. The fried egg had no seasoning on it whatsoever, so without the patty, it was just a fried egg. The buns were a mess and the cheese was nonexistent. I almost needed another burger bag because all the sauce, ham, and patties were at the back of the bag ready to break it, which in turn made holding the burger bag a test of endurance since it was burning my hands. I looked at my wife and I couldn't believe I was going to say this but I said "I need a fork." Oh, the shame I felt when that phrase left my lips. Towards the end of my burger, I fished everything out with a fork. The sauce was OK, my wife said it tasted like MOS Burger sauce. This burger was not great and it just felt like I was eating a burger that was good-looking but with hardly any flavor. I am sorry to say that I was disappointed.

The other thing I have to point out is the fries. Thunder Burger does wedge fries but, the fries were like playing the lottery. Some of them were golden brown and piping hot, others were undercooked and tasted terrible. All and all, I have to say that my burger and fries were an interesting but not fun experience.

Thunder Burger, I think you have potential. You have a fun college burger vibe and excellent patties, and I did enjoy your Texas Burger. But your fries need work and your Thunder Burger is like trudging through a swamp of ingredients hoping to get specks of good flavor here and there. I think you need to concentrate more on your buns to hold your burger together and possibly think about reworking the Thunder Burger.

If you do want to challenge the towering Thunder Burger and are around Tsukuba University, why not stop by Thunder Burger? Will you see me there? I'm not sure at the moment, but I do want to give them another chance and just order a plain cheeseburger.

Enjoy!

For more information on Thunder Burger, check out their Instagram page:

https://www.instagram.com/thunderbeburger/