Freshness Burger

The first Freshness Burger opened in December 1992 in Tomigaya, a quiet corner of Shibuya in Tokyo. It was pitched as the opposite of a noisy fast-food counter: a burger café where adults could sit down and relax over a coffee, which is still how the company describes itself.

The menu mixes American-style burgers with very Japanese touches. The house bun is tinted yellow with Hokkaido kabocha pumpkin, the teriyaki sauce hides a little soy koji, and the premium line uses thick slices of red cheddar. Some branches even sell burgers you cannot get anywhere else, like a gyoza burger in Utsunomiya, Japan’s dumpling capital.

Around two hundred restaurants, almost all in Japan.