Tokyo Burger Chain goes Meatless | Wayback Burgers Japan

all right how you doing everybody welcome to the uh for foreign correspondence club here in japan this is in tokyo i'm here for a press conference for a chain that opened up called called way back burger actually the pictures here are pretty amazing as we look at all the guests have been here at the foreign correspondence club but i wanted to just come here with peter and just explore what exactly is a strategy for a company here that's uh making burgers in japan and they've been pretty transparent about this um peter's inside and i wanted to take you in there sorry we had a um a quite a long powerpoint presentation i didn't think that was so interesting but now the chef is here ah we're getting a chance to try some of the burgers and then talk a little bit more about it let's get let's go inside and meet up with pvg and maybe even ask some questions of the chef based on the cheese that's what means cheese is actually foreign ear right down because there are four slices of cheese inside that chef wow really tasty one and it's unique because also the presentation is different from normal burgers because the bread is upside down it's toasted really toasted with the butter oil so it's very taste of the butter and it's very nice so i brought it to you and the next one is the original one that i made for the next meets is the next week's bravo parker is with a green mushroom and onions and one about the next mix burger is that that the taste the smell from so oh they do okay i can instagram this specifically ahead of time please let us know i would like to welcome each and every one of you and we will be sending out the digital coupon for your next visit the other like thank you that ends the final session all right [Applause] this is the opening of the buffet did he say buffet he said buffet right with a capital b all right so pvg is here can we just leave our stuff here we go he said buffet so this is this wasn't exactly what i was expecting uh but i'm glad that there's you held true to your word there's burgers over there yeah we're gonna go have some i actually asked a question at the press conference they said uh i said john dobb freelance i should have said only in japan i feel like is it a real major major um i saw a major news media i don't know um over there i saw a couple of people that i know tokyo's foreign community is pretty tight and small yeah so you can see a bunch of people that what's that over there yeah let's go head over there we'll just leave our stuff here oh let's go get some burgers yeah have you ever tried the connection hey how you doing patrick have you tried the next meats like this alternative oh no that's one of the things that fascinated me about this because next meat is a um a plant-based company so they've altered the menu a little bit to add more um like vegan friendly stuff and that's really unique like i wonder how much more that they they make it different like like japanified these look like pretty good size chunks of burgers do you want me to grab you one uh yeah hey if you can i think there's a queue i guess we're in line we're kind of cut we're in the back of the line you got to move faster yeah have you have you had way back burger before no well just opened like nothing back home in the us i hadn't heard of it before neither have i um i guess we've been in japan for so long it was like at the time that they'd expanded i'm surprised when you said it's been around for 30 years i know i know yeah i'm going to try one of each those girls got those girls got burgers notice the burger bun is inverted why do they do that i don't know they have their own style they got fries it's all you can eat fries that's like a child-sized burger though so did you tell them where we are yeah we're at the foreign correspondence club which is a a really prestigious place they've been um i guess they've been around since after world war ii right now too it's something we were thinking of of uh joining up the dues or yeah i think 100 a month or something yeah about 13 13 000 or something hey if you're getting i can pay that off with burgers actually but a lot of prestigious people have come here to talk and it's if you are a club member that opens up lots of really interesting things uh lots of interesting people who come here to japan to a show tasting here oh really among other things yeah yeah so there's lots of really cool events going on and as a member you can join for free okay there's also a restaurant here with a great view of the palace the field palace right through here oh you bring it into your home get a whole tray of burgers whoa chef carla my new best friend here so they've invited us to go to the multisando uh restaurant their their new main restaurant it looks pretty big i think it's on the site of where that moss cafe was right next to montesando hills um there used to be a moss burger had a like a moss cafe up there but the inside of it looks really nice but it's i don't know if it was on the first floor was it i'm not sure but i haven't been on multi-sonde in a long long time as we look at fast food being served with on on beautiful plates like this i'm kind of digging it oh it's all you could eat so they have this they've got a cheesy burger which is four slices of cheese that is cheesy like is it the same size same kind of cheese are they different different cheeses let's find out let's ask the chef i know i can't we're it feels like we're so far away and yet we're so close [Music] so i purposely held off i did not have lunch oh wow i had a smoothie [Music] all right hold our place in line i'm gonna go over here and see if i can well so you can see here it's really beautiful here a whole platter of different kinds of burgers cut into pieces so you just get a nice try get it try it i see that they have smiley potatoes that's a win hey nice to see you all right so i guess the green is the the alternative the plant-based oh i think you can get an extra one if you want yeah so are you gonna do the uh plant-based one yeah i'm gonna try both actually okay so i'm going to see if i can snake one of these here too just going to i'm just going to try to take one of these here all right so peter where'd you go all right we're in the back of the room here yeah how do we use what do we use for a table put it on put it behind here all right let's put it behind the projector oh this is so cool this is so cool all right check it out here yeah we have um three different kinds of burgers we're gonna try this plant one here let me put this on a tripod [Music] can you hold this for a second my hands are greasy i left the tripod in my jacket all right give me 30 seconds you can watch me run it's how y'all doing i just tried one of these smiley tater tots and you can see the smiley face on it um not too shabby pretty good this is the cheesy this is the four slices of cheeseburger right there we're going to dig into that and they have inverted the bun i'm trying to be real snazzy i'm not sure what what that strategy is other than be different from other burger places oh you're giving them an uh inside look here yeah but there's some uh there's some doers and movers here besides john and myself yeah movers and shakers i was hoping for uh the hand-dipped milkshake that they've mentioned like a couple times oh they don't have it here all right here let's i can put this right here that's good yep we try those the same burger at the same time and we can give a uh give some feedback that's a good idea what do you want to do first let's try it with the potatoes i already did that oh you did come on do they have these in the u.s french fries are french fries are these in the u.s too those are good right they are good aren't they um we put a smile on your face like a muchy muchy kind of a a really good chew to it what are we gonna do this one oh okay look over the burger here and we're going to rub it in ready yeah that's good pretty good um pretty good tomato in there i love it when they have the there's big cuts of tomato these chunks it's very fresh hey laurence here remember him yeah uh lori how are you um but also this way back burger is that they promote that it's fresh never frozen and john asked the question and kind of stumped the jocks totally brought the energy down to the plate i mean i don't have the answer but i mean you're curious about that right it's never frozen beef but uh it where's it being sourced from for it not to be frozen is it japanese beef because that would be quite expensive if it's frozen then it would be you can't ship that by airplane so i'm not sure if i got a satisfactory answer to it but um they were pretty insistent that the meat is fresh which is you know it does taste like it is fresh i can't argue with it it's a really good burger we're getting photobombed oh okay let's use the burger between our buns really all right here we go we'll eat that one i'm already ahead of you because you're looking at the burger between our buns weird it's good right but i was hungry i don't know i think you have to have a medium level of hungriness in order to be unbiased because i was so hungry that that's true everything would be good that's true but it's a good burger i'm curious about this this is a vegan burger meaning they use no meat whatsoever one of the great things about this collaboration that we found while watching a powerpoint presentation of of this company which is fascinating history they're using um meatless based plant-based burgers meaning there's no meat at all in them this is one of them uh which is vegetarian friendly and one of the things a lot of travelers coming to japan have a hard time finding vegan restaurants vegan restaurants and this would be one of the places that would have vegan-friendly menus without further ado further ado before that just take a very close look yeah it tig writes in here vegan burgers is an oxymoron maybe take a look really closely at this so you get an idea i like the green bun yeah it's beautiful all right is that a smell did you smell it before you bought it no i didn't i'm so hungry okay it has a meaty smell to it is this your first time trying a plant-based meal it might be i can't recall when i might have tried it before me too oh yeah i like that mushroom i actually didn't even taste it maybe i got your mushroom okay that one i got a little more in there a little more of them it's really interesting and i've heard this from other people talking about this um like alternative meat um is it has the texture of a burger it's textured it's juicy supposedly when you grill it it actually has a the aromas of grilled meat i get a feeling this is like a new item something that's really new i think it's only going to get better and better over time sure one of the things that was interesting uh listening from the feedback from some of the executives at the panel up here so they're willing to experiment they're willing to try new things and there was a question by one of the other media people here who said that are you gonna have it like japan only items i don't know like a teriyaki burger or wasabi burger or something that might be just japan based and they said yeah we're very flexible they like to hear the feedback so they open up the first restaurant they get the feedback and maybe they innovate right from it i'm not sure sure um take a look can you see michael cestano thank you we will grab something afterwards let's get around for a second let's show them what this looks like oh wow okay so the coloring the texture the consistency when you bite into it is like me it's really interesting right well show us your your pleasure it's a symphonic face this brings me way back yeah oh yeah that's i i do like the name wave macberger they got me with the name because i'm a nostalgic person it happens when you hit 40. you start to think about this years ago was that well the 1980s were really really awesome you know i started thinking like this and i like the name i like the philosophy like us we'll see you on the way back meaning instead of like mataki mas right here see you on the way back that's good we have to go try that they're giving us a digital coupon to go try the restaurant so we're gonna let's go there when we go there to uh oh would you stop i can do that too items may appear closer than they actually are fries are good i think it's really hard to get them right out of the fryer but what is this supposed to be it's supposed to be like a tater tot i guess so i'm really impressed by these there's a like a little bit of a fluff between them but when you bite into it it's almost like a mashed potato with a kind of a slight crunchy con crunchy consistency around the edges of it yeah it's got it it's very happy it's flappy batter dipped fries or something it's got some sort of coating right essentially this is comfort food this is american comfort food um i was i was curious they talked about franchising this would just be something you would invest your hard-earned cash and franchising see for me burger chains are very competitive though you know oh my god well in japan so many burger places um yeah franchise that's hard work i don't like hard work you just like to eat it well that's the that's the four slices of cheese this is the cheesy burger i believe look at it it's like it's your inverted bun that's this is bugging me oh you don't like that it's got a little bit of butter toasting on there rainier is getting hungry all right why is yours bigger you just squished it oh wow butter cheese beef bread in that order there's nothing else on there's no like tomato no lettuce no onions no special sauce i want my money back didn't pay for this did we it's a plain cheeseburger very cheesy [Music] it's a taste that we all know like from the barbecue back at home right yeah yeah you don't put like all these special stuff you just want a burger cheese and a bun and and a lot of people would would butter up the buns before they put it on the grill remember you put the buns on the grill to toast them little toasted bun action that's sort of what this is so i can kind of understand why they might invert it you can certainly the the glistening of the butter it leaves an impact on there absolutely yeah having that flipped around you get the butter on your lips you taste it you get your butter on your fingers too now they gave me a shibori but it's on my my bag hold on i think i i think got some over here i'll go get it but yeah it's it's a it's a very cheesy cheeseburger like john said kind of like a fourth fourth of july barbecued type burger here you go oh thank you all right yeah it was really good come over and say hello chef carlo nice to meet you everybody you're really good thank you very much so we were we were wondering about the the inverted bun the top bun is flipped around exactly that's a crazy idea from way back america really and it's really unique and funny and they also the teeth is really cool look like different stuff you know so that's a really nice catch really right yeah we're saying it's it's kind of similar to when we barbecue in america for our fourth of july way back they want to go back how it was before so the idea is really to get the traditional one and get the real one so the taste really how it was before many people forget i was really before right back how was it and keep it as much as possible yeah i have nostalgia from the 1980s when i was having backyard barbecues right with that cheesy burgers really uh respectable yeah so as a chef at way back burger what's your favorite this one is it yeah yeah because actually it's a different from there okay just to eat the cheeseburger everywhere there is okay also prepared with the ketchup master the onions and because of whatever the result is normal but this one you don't find so it's really okay you got this one you're full you're great right right right you're really full of the water yeah and this is american cheese right it's cheddar cheddar cheese okay it's hard to find it oh the cheese is very hard to find the in japan they got so top quality so you got very precious french cheese but the cheese for the embargo so like the cheddar and now i found out also other cheese that i'm working for departing i don't want to use a mozzarella italian and another one is very impressive they would like to use the pepper jack oh yeah that would be nice and i found about this only block and not i need a slice so i'm working on you're still sourcing but really want to open as quickly as possible because you really just everything's ready not open it's not so for the few things just the last uh stuff to check it out about it really this is the whole thing's only to wow so the menu is still kind of evolving there might be some exactly that's exciting so you're doing lots of experimenting lots of eating nice what a great job yeah i actually i'm a chef head chef for 30 years i was working in japan as already 20 years in the hotel restaurant and after when i started to do my own business they asked me to join them so but it was some new different interesting so why not yeah it's great timing right yeah everything situation was really you know the motivation was down because the okay you got job but they are not business before customers are really nice timing is very short so it's very strange many things strange change okay so it was really not but really motivation was done when they asked me to do this he knew it was okay well i think the timing is probably very good because things are starting to get back to some normalcy and yeah yeah yeah so yeah we're excited to come and check out the uh yeah one last thing those smiley face potatoes yeah what are those it's got like a mochi mochi it's like okay the customers are japanese mostly so i have to find something funny because the japanese love them and many ladies many women come so when you see oh smelly potato so that's a really good catch for them so those sorry the smiley face they're not sold in in the other markets like in america or well is it in america now we started here because also okay there was a problem [Music] there is the problem with the potatoes we hear about the also mcdonald's cut the potato because they can't provide it for all that's right we had a potato shortage here so if we do some research with the mccain because the bikini was provided on the potato for the us and we found this style much easy and that was pleasure just something that was the best solution perfect perfect yeah they're really tasty yeah yeah nice nice consistency different from a french fry yeah different from a tater tot something something different people can enjoy need something so for example they got also in i think brunei or pakistan don't remember i think brunei they also have some ice that's one because everybody asked for rice so they prepared well that's the only occasional country they use right that's right oh good good thank you so much for your time and explaining exciting time so do you work at motesando at the yeah i'm still in the shop because i want to see how the thing goes actually [Music] now there is a project for the second one before the end of the year so as far as they asked me to looking for it i would be the other side very good very good all right thanks carlo appreciate it we'll see you again thanks wow that was really awesome to get the inside information from the executive chef he's actually he's actually working at the omotesando uh shop first shop there so you have the guy who's the executive chef cooking at the fest i don't know is this fast food that's my other question that i wanted to ask one of the executives where does this fit in the market is this moss burger is this i guess this is definitely ahead of mars mossberger in terms of quality well yeah and fast food generally is stuff that's there's a certain element that's already been prepared right yeah so that when you order it they have three steps of the way to completing your order but here i think it's it's cooked after you order it yeah so i wouldn't really say it's fast food yeah it's not exactly fast food but it's certainly i don't know i guess it's like like on the same level as a shakes shack or or it's different though right i don't it's hard it's hard to place it and i think it's going to be interesting to get the people's feedback normal people not like us who are we're journalists correspondents but it would be interesting to get to get your feedback if it has anybody who's watching have you had way back burger in connecticut which is where they were born have you ever had them in different areas because i'm very curious to hear people's feedback on on the burger chain because we've been here in japan so long we've never tried it anywhere else i guess it'd be like like five guys or gourmet oh yeah sure like five guys or or um something like in and out burger i've i've never had internet burger how would this compare i've never had are you haven't either you're a west coast guy you know i don't think they don't have in-n-outs in portland yeah um that i remember no we didn't have that so okay jack in the box interesting so patrick over there he's somebody that i worked with in the past patrick newell was here at the press conference and i'm gonna pan around here you can see a couple of other faces that maybe you've seen in the past i don't know if you if you watch the media there's some media people here it's pretty interesting oh yeah if you see something strong get one for me too i better clean up here never frozen i would get a milk and a double double what i don't think that's this burger here i am very impressed here just to take one more one more look now these here these smiley potatoes they're only available here in japan i thought that that was that was really interesting chef carla told us that it's very much part of this market that's very interesting and they still have lots of burgers left i'm not i'm not really that hungry can i send the bring or something back maybe i've lost the camera oh there he is oh there he is yeah hey what did you get me oh i just got some water oh yeah that's all right i'll go hey hello yeah thank you nice to see it listen there you live i think so hello carrie [Laughter] yeah i better go i better go get some water too looks like we're going to be in some photos as well i can grab you one if you want oh yeah that's nice is it i know something low calorie i'm on a diet would have never known hey guys hi hello i watch your videos i always see you on there so i just want to say thanks oh you're welcome oh it's so weird seeing you here in person seeing celebrities can i get a shot of you guys oh sure sure yeah can i get in on the shot too of course yeah i hope so just get a shout out what's your name my name is ken peter nice to meet you ken that's really good [Music] [Laughter] thank you yeah i hope you take it i'm sure you're taking a lot of videos right more than you know all in 8k too yeah that's pretty crazy yeah i should have brought him the way he's eating too thanks nice to meet you ken what was your favorite burger here the cheese one um you know what i like the regular one yeah that was pretty good yeah it was so yeah and i know you like your burgers i like i like them all actually i like them all hey wwxrx turbo is in the house it's always nice to see you buddy even if you're not here you are here you're one of our family dolly's are out of drinks nobody nobody over there i'm not gonna gargle yours so we'll get something afterwards maybe yeah it's always hot near here which has uh they've got beverages oh that's true that's true all right i've not had uh any alcohol for over a month yeah i haven't been drinking much at all either i've been at home editing and working in fact i just had a wagyu video just released uh a couple days ago did you see that i did yonezawa did you see that baby hey i i'm the only one who has guts to do that i don't think any of the other youtubers would do that but that looked like some really good that's lori lauria uh what what's his name again lauren yeah he's he's a reporter on tokyo eye with me oh really yeah let's go say okay say hi [Music] [Laughter] this is one of my tokyo eye buddies were you here to report you know this is the last episode erin last episode aaron today right oh wow hi 2020. now this is uh only in japan it's a report okay yeah i know i let everybody else go first because my notorious childhood i don't eat anything in front of me so while we're eating you would play something for us i wish you'd brought his guitar he plays really good guitar great singer aeko was actually speaking to mr amanda he's the ceo of uh way back yeah and she was saying that we're a big fan of the hard rock establishment and we've played the hard drive here and then around the world and she was wondering if he might bring that concept of live music to the way i would go i would i would go more often like i would go yeah are you members of the poor correspondence club no ironically enough we used to play here as musicians when you said michael jordan is here no no no alex jordan is right i like jordan he's one of the best narrators in tokyo he's probably getting all the jobs the voice of their voice of the olympics he did the uh narration for the olympics at the stadium and the ana safety videos brace for impact with a smile on your face he did that yeah [Music] like traveling around i took you okay do you remember what you did what did you i don't know i've done like 50 reports i can't remember the stuff that i did i don't know what typically you're reporting by yourself are you always with a partner on tokyo eye sometimes or in the studio we'd have other people that did different aspects different segments of the show when they'd be on their reporting about it and i'm um sure if i was ever a director but sometimes i kind of had a lot of creative input on the episode but it was different there yeah well it's nice to see you here yeah yeah you're staying busy yeah where are you playing these days are you not we played like one or two shows right um we basically long story short when the pandemic hit we were booked for a big festival lithuania as well as an eastern european tour connected to it wow the promoter was looking for us and then when the pandemics forget it all got cancelled that was for august of 2020. and and aiko and i kind of got really shell-shocked and we were like you know what let's just put everything on hold so we've played maybe two shows since dynamics started because we don't want to be the people who have people get infected at their shows we don't want to fill a room and then find out that two people got infected yeah i feel like an long story short we're actually launching nature airliner's new album may 6th on all the digital uh retailers uh and uh we're actually also taking uh one song clips individual song clips from our uk tour in 2018 and uploading that once a week to kind of get people you know fresh people yeah awesome when is the album released may 6th cool we have an album release party are you going to have an album release party i was actually just thinking of having a live streaming party oh there you go yeah because probably the covid stuff won't be completely lifted by then anything so yeah maybe something small live streaming that'd be good today's the end of the state of emergency which is maybe the one reason why that it's being held today this press conference you know we couldn't hold any events until today this is the day it ended end of the quasi i forgot how tall you were i'm six seven it's so good to see it likewise luckily keep in touch all right good to see you again you're getting all the jobs i'm glad you confirmed that because that's why i'm getting so many recently because you're getting all the jobs let me buy a glass of [Laughter] oh water god talk to you yeah you too man talk to you all right let's go outside here peter we'll wrap this up here because i think they're out of burgers but they're out of water yeah the water guide has disappeared oh no it would be cool did it gingery isn't that gingery on the back there yeah that's that's wilkins milk it's a ginger ale i'm gonna drink them in the bottle you can probably just open one you want to grab it i'll open it you want me to get through it yeah you'd have to do it and we'd have to run away can you do that i'm going to go outside so i'm not associated with you because i'm a coward me [Music] [Music] so much for your waistline yeah some heavy hitters here you know the biggest heavy hitter is right here pineapple banana okay he's the biggest heavy hitter right there p-p-a-p yeah so let's let's uh wrap this up here peter what did you think of the burgers give us a final comment on uh well i would like to they're really delicious um i would absolutely like to try the the shop in monte sando and uh because that's as fresh as they come oh yeah um but i was really intrigued and impressed with the next meat burger um and i think i'd probably try that um it's if he said it has double the protein and like half the calories of a normal burger so uh double the protein yes double the protein that is interesting yeah it's coming over here i will i'll be back i'll be way back oh we stopped it that was a good very good uh segue in there yeah so yeah i thought it was impressive i like just the normal burger though the tomatoes but that cheesy burger a little bit too cheesy for me but the thing is they seem to have something for everybody yeah and that's kind of uh you know they have a vegan menu they have uh your burgers with lots of vegetables i kind of like that and they have the uh yeah i prefer a burger with with lettuce and tomato yeah full meal deal but yeah i wonder can you customize the birds take care he's so tall he's a really good too a musician nice guy yeah um yeah so i guess we're gonna get a chance to go over there maybe one of these days but we can live stream just about anywhere and i'm sure you're gonna have a lot of fun what do you guys think here you can leave in the comments below if you're still with us after 42 minutes of this i would love to hear some of your feedback on on the menu and show them my doppelganger by the way are you here everybody says sometimes it's like oh hey i'm sorry no problem i have to take a picture because they're a friend of mine oh yeah oh really please i always watch your stuff on youtube oh that's nice and a friend of mine is also youtube by inspiring youtube and if i say i met you today i don't think you'll believe anything so oh really oh yeah come on you're peter get in you don't want me in there please get in i don't know how to take selfies anymore this is the right way do you need to be in there i haven't if i'm not there you won't believe it okay one last one all right thank you guys you're welcome thank you what's your name spencer peter and john thank you spencer yeah so i get i get compared to this guy often really yeah well it's weird because like he's one of the most famous kabuki actors in the history of kabuki in the history of kabuki well that's he's the only one that i know he keeps good company yeah um but it's funny sometimes like in the summer time or he'll be on tv wearing something and if by chance i'm wearing something similar more people say oh my god you look like uh ebizzo and that's true i can see that very noble looking face he's got a few more hairs than his that's what you look like 10 years ago when i met you and there's john's that's oh that's um carl reiner rob brainer wow that's so cool i remember when he came here and gave his speech it was in the news and the dalai lama has been here and so has uh donald trump is up there wow there's a whole crisscross of of different kinds of people have been here karzai afghanistan army karzai angela merkel interesting yeah there's a lot of a lot of people all right our bags are actually in here kumamon's been here yeah carlos calling this here says boris yeltsin how cool is that yeah it's fun we should seriously i got questions for this guy i got questions for kumamon and miyazaki this guy was just in the space station oh yeah he's the uh zozo town yeah i remember his face yeah i'd love to i'd love to ask questions i guess you have to be a member all right let's go back in here all right you can't leave there sanitizing hands that is not for are you going to smell like an alcohol pump now it's a good idea impress impress the ladies now watch they're just going to flock it on me everyone's going to want to wipe their hands on you and sanitize themselves all right everybody have a good day have a good night thanks for joining us and uh watching this press conference and trial of way back burger which is opened up here in japan and it's going to be interesting to see how they innovate and stay competitive in this really competitive market in a in a culture that doesn't eat a lot of burgers maybe that's about to change perhaps yeah so yeah thank you and be sure and check out the homicide inc web or podcast that's my true crime podcast yeah homicide inc don't miss it if you like the sound of his voice you can live in it yeah you can you'll be all consumed yeah my parents listen they're your biggest fans if they're listening to it you gotta listen to it but john will put it in the description maybe i will see you guys

Channel: ONLY in JAPAN * GO

Views: 18,064

Keywords: Only in Japan, Japan, John Daub, Japanese, Tokyo, travel

Id: 3MNBXxpvi6M

Length: 46min 10sec (2770 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 23 2022