Welcome to another burger month post! Tsukuba is on a roll this burger month. The place that I will discuss this week made me feel nostalgic, excited, and confused. This week, I am going to talk about Tsukuba's own Owl Cafe.
Owl Cafe
Owl Cafe is located right across Doho Park's parking lot (the tennis courts side). You might miss the cafe since it is kind of hidden. If you see a place called Gold Rush, you will find Owl Cafe right next to it.
The Ibaraki Eats Duo decided we were getting burgers one cold night in October. We parked at the Doho Park parking lot (no worries, Owl Cafe validates) and walked up to this new looking shop.
Inside
I had been wanting to go to this place for a while now. Reason being, these are the same people who used to run one of my favorite burger shops in Tsukuba, NON Cafe. NON closed before the pandemic which broke my heart. If anybody remembers NON Cafe, the place had a burger shop vibe to it with a hint of cafe relaxation atmosphere.
Owl Cafe is way, way different. You wouldn't know they served burgers unless you looked at the menu.
The cafe can seat up to 20 people max, so not a big place, but there is also outside dinning by the entrance.
My wife looked around and said "wafuu," which means "it's really Japanese." I kind of had to agree. This place felt more like a tea house instead of a burger shop.
Tea Menu
Speaking of tea, let's look at the tea menu. Sorry everyone, both tea and food menus are only in Japanese.
As you can see, there are a lot of different teas to choose from. The right side of the menu is basically all different green teas that I know nothing about. The left side has tea, tea lattes, soft drinks, coffee, and juice.
Burger Menu
This is where the burgers are at. There is also a rice dish section, a toppings section, a salad section, and a kids section. The backside of the menu has desserts. Let me list all the burgers from top to bottom: hamburger, avocado cheese burger, bacon cheese burger, teriyaki pine burger, Tartar Age Saba (fried mackerel) burger, chicken tatsuta teri mayo burger, mushroom cream chicken cheese burger, mozzarella macrophyll (type of plant or something) cheese burger, Camembert macrophyll cheese burger, roast beef yuzu kosho burger, shrimp avocado mentai mayo burger, spicy nacho cheese burger.
A lot of burgers to choose from.
Green Tea of the Day
This was my drink. I had no idea what tea to order so I went with the tea of the day. It was a cold green tea and it was pretty tasty. It wasn't just any regular old green tea. It had a really strong flavor but also refreshing. I wasn't sure how this tea would pair with my burger, but we were going to find out.
Hojicha Latte
My wife ordered the Hojicha Latte. For those of you who don't know what hojicha is, the best way I can describe it is, it is green tea but the leaves are almost burn to a crisp. It has a real different flavor compared to regular green tea. Some people don't like hojicha. As for me, I am kind of indifferent to it. I did however enjoy this hojicha latte and my wife loved it. It was like having a creamy strong green tea that put you at ease if you are stressed. Like your favorite massage chair.
My wife and I sipped our teas and then our burgers arrived.
Roast Beef Yuzu Kosho Burger
The roast beef burger was my wife's burger. As you can see from the picture, there was a lot of roast beef packed in there. Also, the buns look very different from regular burger buns. The staff explained that the buns are made from hojicha leaves. Biting into that bun took me by surprise. It really did taste like tea and it was very soft, but it held the burger really well.
The roast beef was excellent and the sauce under the roast beef was the yuzu kosho sauce. Yuzu is a citrus fruit and kosho is a chili pepper seasoning. The roast beef with that small kick from the yuzu kosho was a surprise and delight. I enjoyed my wife's burger but half way through, everything did fall apart. No worries, roast beef is easier to pick up than a beef patty.
Mozzarella Macrophyll Cheese Burger
This was my burger. I added bacon as an extra topping. Owl Cafe got the longest piece of bacon they had, cooked it, and slapped it on there which made me laugh. I took a bite of my burger and got some delicious mozzarella cheese with a very tasty meat patty. Tasting that meat patty immediately brought me back to my days of enjoying a burger at NON cafe. Even though the buns had changed, the patty was still the same. I loved my burger but it was a bit dry. I wish it came with some kind of sauce. This might have been my fault though. I took out the tomato and I think that would have gone well with the mozzarella. I didn't really taste the macrophyll, but I'm not sure what macrophyll tastes like. I was very happy with my burger but I think once is enough. I will try a different burger next time.
Tea to take home
The Ibaraki Eats Duo finished our burgers and were very happy. What was weird was I felt full but not "I can't move" full. Like I had a healthy burger or something. Before we left, we decided to take two tea bags home to try, cinnamon flavor and ginger flavor.
We tried the cinnamon flavor which wasn't too bad. Not a strong taste of cinnamon but green tea none the less. As of writing this post, we haven't tried the ginger tea yet. We are waiting on a really cold day to try it.
It was a good day!
Owl Cafe was a great and weird experience. I am not sure I can call it a burger place. The tea seems to be the main attraction. Tea is displayed all around the shop while the burgers seem to be something you might want to order with your tea. Also, having tea with burgers was interesting to say the least. I usually have beer or soda with a burger, just like the rest of the burger eating world. So this was quite the experience. Honestly, my head was in a spin after I left Owl and while writing this post. I think the problem is, I went there with the mind set that it would be something like NON Cafe, and it wasn't. That's on me. Owl Cafe is a completely different place with a hint of NON Cafe's history, which isn't a bad thing. I did enjoy my experience and I do want to go back to try the other burgers and teas. So even though Owl Cafe serves burgers, it is a tea house first and a burger shop second.
So if you are in the Doho Park area and would like to sit down, relax, and have a nice cup of green tea with a burger, why not give Owl Cafe a try. Who knows, you might see me there, sipping a new tea while chowing down on a burger.
Enjoy!
For more information on Owl Cafe, check out their website:
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