Yamamoto no Hamburg Shibuya Shokudo

The first is that they use only 100% domestic Japanese beef and pork that is ground freshly every day. By developing a strong relationship with farmers across all regions, Yamamoto no Hamburg buys their meat directly from farmers and it is delivered directly to each shop. By developing these strong relationships, they can have peace of mind that the ingredients being sold are both safe and delicious to eat. Since these relations are all with local farmers, the area of the produce of each branch might differ, but all shops still use domestically produced meat. Every morning, the day's worth of hamburg are prepared by hand, and are later cooked one by one by the chef upon order. Furthermore, there are also seasonal menus that use other unusual ingredients for hamburgs, like minced chicken, horumon (ホルモン, Innards), tofu, vegetables, and many other variations. The idea is to really allow customers to always have new options, and to enjoy their meal

The rice at Yamamoto no Hamburg is from Kurihara city in Miyagi Prefecture (宮城県, Miyagi-ken), and it is called Hitomebore (ひとめぼれ). They have a contract with the local farmers, and as far as possible reduce the amount of artificial fertilisers or insecticide used on their rice. The idea is to harvest rice that is just as healthy as it is delicious, and this rice can only be harvested once a year. Due to that, the way that the rice is stored is extremely important since the taste will change. Thus each shop has a low-temperature and low-humidity warehouse to store the rice in, so as to preserve its freshness. The rice is also refillable, allowing customers to get a fill with the perfect balance of meat and rice.

"When you eat meats, please eat them together with vegetables" (お肉を食べる時は、お野菜も一緒に食べなさい, oniku wo taberu toki wa, o yasai mo issho ni tabenasai), that's what most parents often say to their children. That's exactly what Yamamoto no Hamburg believes in. For them the idea is for people to "gain energy and strength from the food they eat everyday" (毎日の食事からみんなに元気になって頂きたい, mainichi no shokuji kara minna ni genki ni natte itadakitai). That's why together with their hamburg, Yamamoto no Hamburg serves up their own in-house handmade blend of vegetable juice that changes every month. Even those that hate vegetables typically enjoy the deliciousness of the vegetable juice. The vegetables are all obtained directly from farmers, and they even have their own farm, "Ores Farm", that grows organic vegetables. Through trial and error, they develop new mixes of vegetable juice that can attract customers, taste good, while still being healthy for them.

The goal is for Yamamoto no Hamburg to be a "restaurant with a heart" (心のある店, kokoro no aru mise), and to build this up over time. For customers to enjoy having a conversation over some hamburg. Each customer is treated with respect, and each plate of hamburg is treated with care. When customers are hungry, for them to think "should I get Yamamoto no Hamburg?" (山ハンいこうかなぁ, yamahan ikou kanaa), that's a sense of pride and happiness they hope to achieve. To develop a relationship with customers, and reach a quality that meets customer's expectations, that's what they hope to achieve. If there's anywhere that they fall shop, they hope that customers can point it out to them, so that they can evolve over time to meet the expectations of their customers.

Yamamoto no Hamburg is one of those shops that we chanced upon on Google Maps and then just fell in love with. It's a pretty no-frills type of dining experience, but it also just keeps us coming back over and over again. Their hamburg is simple yet delicious, and it really does live up to the idea of it tasting like a home-cooked meal by a traditional Japanese mother.

The vegetable juice is truly one of the most pleasant surprises of the shop. Some of us are vegetable haters, and we would pick out the little veggies in each dish, yet for as unappetising as the vegetable juice might sound, it really does taste pretty delicious. The secret is that, rather than just vegetables, it is also mixed in with some fruits so that it also tastes sweet and delicious like fruit juice. We also love how they always bring over a basket of fruit and vegetables to the table to explain what goes into the juice mix that month.

The base hamburg patty in all their dishes is the same, so it's really a matter of what sauce condiment that you want on top of it. For the first-timer, we recommend getting the Yamamoto no Hamburg that comes with a classic demiglace sauce made with miso (味噌) and dashi (出汁) to really get that classic Japanese taste. For the more adventurous, we personally really like the Karashi (辛子, Mustard) Mayo Cheese Hamburg, that comes with a spicy mustard mayo sauce. The spiciness helps to give a good kick and lighten up the hamburg sauce.

The favourite part of the dish might just be the homemade chili oil that comes on the side. This mixture is just absolutely delicious with the fragrance of the garlic, and the sweetness of the tamanegi (玉ねぎ, Onion) coming through, and we always put dollops of it on our hamburg.

Bonus Tip: We really love the spaghetti that they serve at Yamamoto no Hamburg. Typically each main already comes with a small spaghetti on the side, but since we prefer the spaghetti to the rice. We would order an ala carte order (skipping the rice), and getting an extra topping of spaghetti. Using the spaghetti to absorb up the sauce is one of the best ways to eat it.

For the Shibuya branch, we would warn that there's typically a pretty long queue at lunch for some reason. The queues at dinner are significantly shorter. If possible, we would recommend going over to a different branch at Kichijoji (吉祥寺, Kichijōji) or Jiyugaoka (自由が丘, Jiyūgaoka) where there are less tourists and the queues are much much much shorter.