Students seemed to make up a chunk of the clientele at Firehouse when we visited one recent weekday. The American-style restaurant on Kasuga Dori marks ten years in business this year. Its tagline is “Redefining Good Burger,” which is as ambitious as it is ungrammatical. But we must admit that we were impressed.

There are a couple of tables outside the restaurant, but Kasuga Dori is busy so we decided it was best to sit inside, where there are half a dozen wooden tables and a four-person bar counter offering a bird’s eye view of the burger-making process.

The menu starts with the basic hamburger (¥945), plus cheese (¥1,050), plus bacon (¥1,208). Then there are some less common combos, such as the avocado burger (¥1,103), mozzarella mushroom burger (¥1,260) and apple burger, which has a slice of baked apple on top of the patty (¥1,260). The big daddy of the menu is the Mad Burger: three patties with cheese, egg and chili (¥2,048). 

We’re not that mad, so we chose the safer bacon cheese-burger, adding clam chowder and a soft drink as a lunch set (plus ¥420). The burger master slapped a patty onto the metal plate, adding generous amounts of seasoning. He uses only 100-percent beef, he said. The patties he makes are wide, but not too thick, so they cook quickly and are easy to chomp on. With crispy bacon, mustard, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, relish and onion, all inside a super-soft, sesame-topped bun, we couldn’t deny that this juicy burger was one of the best we’ve had in Tokyo—but there is a lot of competition these days.

Some chunky French fries were included, and we added a side order of ranch dressing dip (¥263). In the evening there is a larger food selection, including the chili dog (¥788), tomato and ravioli soup (¥473), Caesar salad (¥840 for large size) and “specialty” fried chicken drum sticks (¥1,418). There is also a larger selection of alcohol, including wine, whiskey and cocktails, as well as the soft drinks and beer available at lunch. The draught beer is Kirin (¥630); Budweiser (¥578) and Corona (¥735) are bottled.