Henry's Burger in Jiyugaoka: Japan's Best Burger Joint?

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Jiyugaoka is a well-to-do neighborhood in Tokyo about 10 minutes south of Shibuya by train. Jiyugaoka has a European feel, with small walkable streets (often bisected by big traffic-laden streets) and a popular photo spot that looks like a Venetian canal. It’s filled with good coffee shops, clothing stores, bakeries, and tons of pet stores for the fancy folks who live around there.

As it turns out, Jiyugaoka is also home to one of Tokyo’s best burger spots. We’ve long been on the hunt for Japan’s best burger, having sampled gems in Kobe like Grateful’s and Eighth Beef. Our luck in Tokyo hasn’t been as good - our neighborhood, which is a 20-minute bus ride from Jiyugaoka, has half a dozen burger places, but none of them has been good enough to warrant a post (usually, if we don’t like a place, we don’t bother writing about it because making this little blog requires a surprising amount of effort). But we finally found a solid Tokyo burger restaurant when we weren’t expecting it.

Welcome to Henry’s Burger

If you were just riding past this neighborhood on the bus, you might miss Henry’s Burger, as it’s a short walk up the shopping promenade from the major road or the train station. In fact, you might miss the cool part of Jiyugaoka entirely - we definitely did the first few times we went by there. And in a neighborhood with fancy tea houses and French restaurants, you might be forgiven for not caring about a retro burger stand. But Henry’s is not the average fast food place it might appear to be from the outside.

First of all, look at the sign for that giant burger. We didn’t try it, but… yeah, that thing looks insane. I’ve tried huge burgers before, but I’m getting old and trying not to be such a big fat pig, so I elected not to go for it. If I were 20 years younger, I would absolutely pay the outrageous cost for 1 kg of beef. The staff at Henry’s was friendly, and it wasn’t too crowded since it was after lunchtime on a Thursday. There’s counter seating inside and apparently more seating on the roof, which might be nice in spring and autumn but at this time of year wasn’t something we wanted to try.

The burgers come in three sizes, with the medium (what we got) being somewhere around $10. You can get a combo meal with fries or salad, but we elected to just get two burgers, one of each kind. They handed us a buzzer and we waited, entertaining ourselves with a printed guide to Jiyugaoka that let us know about some of the other interesting places in the neighborhood and its yearly festival in October. Eventually, the buzzer went off, and it proved unnecessary since they brought our food over. Onto the burgers.

The Henry’s smashburger

Confession time: I don’t really care about the smash burger craze. It’s not that I have anything against the technique, just that I don’t really like when everyone does the same thing because I like variety in my life. This burger had a generous helping of smashed meat, cheese, lettuce, and tomato. There’s also an In-N-Out-style sauce that I asked for on the side because it had pickles in it and I don’t do pickles or onions I know don’t @ me I don’t care what you think. The dressing tasted like thousand-island dressing with a little extra mustard thrown in. It tasted fine, and necessary since the burger needed either dressing or ketchup/mustard to make it less dry.

Don’t let that last comment fool you - this meat was plenty juicy. In fact, it was delicious. Perfectly seasoned, nice and crusty on the outside, everything in proportion. There wasn’t too much or too little of any element. I was absolutely smorkified by this thing. We passed it back and forth, quickly taking bites and enjoying the heck out of it. This is exactly what we’d been looking for and couldn’t find in our own neighborhood. The people at Henry’s understand how to make a good burger. A-plus through and through.

But Henry’s doesn’t just make a beef burger. They do something else too!

The pork burger with egg

This second burger contained two patties of ground pork, a runny egg, lettuce, cheese, and some sort of white sauce between a crisp and delicious bun, again with everything in perfect proportion. I’ve had ground pork burgers before, and usually I just wished they were beef. This thing was not an afterthought for people who don’t want to eat cow. It was packed with flavor. The egg worked so well to moisten it up and the pork and cheese were high-quality.

The best part was the seasoning - either the pork meat or the sauce or both had a kick to them that made every bite linger in the mouth in the most satisfying way. This one might have been better than the beef burger. We devoured this thing. Usually I look forward to Eriko giving up and handing me the rest of her food to finish, but she stole the last few bites of this one and didn’t give it back because it was irresistible. We didn’t need fries or fancy gimmicks here - these were definitely two of the best burgers we’ve had in a long time.

Conclusion: does Henry’s have the best burger in Japan?

As of now, the answer to that question is a definite yes. I’ve eaten a lot of burgers in Tokyo, and none has come close to Henry’s. The places we tried in Kobe were good, but not this good. Even Shake Shack can’t compete with it. Henry’s may not look like a cool, trendy spot with its sanitized retro fast food aesthetic, but they do a tremendous job of delivering a gourmet burger.

There are of course some other popular burger spots in Tokyo that we have yet to try, but until we do, Henry’s Burger gets our vote as the best burger in Japan. If you live in Tokyo, you must try it. If you don’t live in Tokyo, you must try it. If you are passing by on your way to my house, you must bring me one. Do it. Now.

Where can I find Henry’s Burger?

Henry’s Burger has three locations, in Jiyugaoka, Harajuku, and Daikanyama. We tried the Jiyugaoka location, which was clean and fast and had great service. They’re also available on Uber Eats if you don’t want anyone to see the disgusting way in which you devour this burger.

Address: 〒152-0035 Tokyo, Meguro City, Jiyugaoka, 2 Chome−8−8 Le ciel bleu 1F

Phone: +1 03-6421-1667

Website: Henry’s Burger

Make Henry’s Burger a part of your next Tokyo outing. You will not regret it.