If you remember a few weeks ago, I posted about the Team Lab event in Mito's Kairakuen garden and how fantastic it was. In that post, I mentioned that the yatais at the event were pretty bare, so the wife and I decided to check out a café after we finished with the Team Lab event. We got in our car and headed into central Mito and came across a small, cozy looking café. The name of that café is Café Arco-Iris.
Café Arco-Iris
Where did I hear about this place you might be wondering. Well, it is thanks to Burger Baka. When I first heard about Burger Baka and checked out the poster, I looked up most of the burger places that would be at the event. A lot of them are from Mito which surprised me. I didn't know that Mito had so many burger places. I knew about Back Packer in Mito and wrote about them a while back. But this was the first time I had heard about Café Arco-Iris.
So after leaving Kairakuen, we went into a side street close to the Keisei department store and found this cozy looking café. The café has only one parking spot and we were lucky we got it.
Very Cozy
When we walked inside, we were greeted by gold fish and the owner of the shop. We told him we were a party of two and he asked if we would like to sit in the couch area. The wife enthusiastically replied that we would.
Nice Couch
The couch area was really nice and comfortable. There was jazzy Japanese music playing in the café and I just felt really relaxed there. I was liking this café more and more by the minute. The owner gave us the menu and it was time to order.
The Menu
First off, I want to say that this is not the whole menu of Café Arco-Iris. The menu is a lot bigger than this and there is also an "おすすめ " osusume or recommendation menu. This menu shows the following from top to bottom and left to right; carpaccio, bacon and egg salad, hamburg steak, American style big burger, special three style pasta, oil, tomato and cream. Right side special; fried shrimp, smoked chicken tacos, macaroni gratin, ungai (eel) quiche, pizza. Drink menu; soft drink and alcohol. Handmade sweets and finally an all you can drink plan. One person is 3,500 yen.
The owner told me a story about the American Style Big Burger. He had to change the name of the burger because some guy from New York visited the café and apparently yelled at him. The guy told him it wasn't an American burger so change the name. After that little incident the burger name was changed to the Big Burger.
The Burger Menu
The Big Burger, as it is stated in the menu, comes in four ways. The grilled burger, the avocado burger, the bacon burger, and the sunny side egg burger . You can also add more toppings to your burger like cheese, bacon, egg and avocado for an extra price. The burger comes with fries but no drink. It looked a bit pricey but the reason I really wanted to try this burger was that the patty was Hitachi Gyu (Beef). If you have never tried Hitachi Gyu, I highly recommend you try it. It is delicious and the best beef Ibaraki has to offer. So I ordered the bacon burger with cheese and a nice cold beer.
Ume Juice
The first thing to come out were the drinks. The wife got her plum juice and told me to take a sip. I am a big fan of umeshu (plum wine) so I was excited to try it even though it did not have alcohol in it. The ume juice was fantastic. It had just the right amount of sourness and sweetness to make it refreshing. The wife tried her ume juice and was very happy with her choice. It also had some fizz to it which was a nice little addition to this drink.
Carbonara Bacon
Next came the wife's order, the bacon carbonara. It looked really good and creamy. I was really interested to try the bacon from this café because the menu stated that the bacon is made and is from the café. The wife got her first fork full of pasta and tried it. Just as I thought, the "おいしいいい" came out. She was really enjoying her pasta. She let me try some carbonara and I have to say that I was impressed. It was very creamy and in my opinion it didn't really need powered parmesan cheese which is what I usually put in my carbonara. The bacon was great too. It was not crispy American bacon but it had a kind of smoky flavor to it which was nice and surprising. I liked this carbonara and was going to ask the wife if I could try more. But then my burger appeared and stopped me in my tracks.
That's a Huge Burger!
Once my order arrived, the wife and I had the same wide eyed, mouth hung open expression of surprise. " やばい" which translates to sort of like "oh my god" in this case, is the first word my wife uttered while looking at this burger. I kept wondering how I was going to fit this huge burger in my mouth. I took the huge pin out of the burger which held everything together and put this behemoth of a burger in the burger bag that was provided. That burger bag would come to be extremely useful while I was eating this burger. I somehow, by the power of my love for burgers, was able to get one huge bite in. So many different flavors, some many ingredients and toppings, it was bliss. But what really astonished me was the Hitachi Gyu patty. That patty was magical. It was so soft and flavorful. It felt like it just melted in your mouth. There were also very small diced onions in the patty which I think was a nice touch. The melted cheese was completely wrapped around the patty which was perfect. This patty is probably one of the best beef patties I have ever had. The burger came with the cafe's homemade bacon, onions (a lot of onions), lettuce, tomato, mayo and ketchup. As I stated before, I added cheese to this spectacular burger and boy, am I happy I did. The bacon was the right decision for this burger and had that same smoky flavor as it did in the pasta. This burger was great but once I got into my second bite, things started to fall apart. The lettuce slid everywhere thanks to the mayo, the onions fell out of the burger and into the burger bag. If you order this burger, prepare to get messy. Towards the end, I had to fish out a lot of the vegetables and whatever was left of the patty out of the burger bag. This was in no way a deal breaker for me, but I did go through five napkins. The wife also took a couple of bites of this big burger and she really enjoyed it as well.
Oh! I forgot to mention the fries! The fries were fantastic. They reminded me of McDonald's fries. They had the right amount of salt and they tasted great. The owner put a generous amount of fries on my plate which made me really happy at first. But towards the end, I was so full that the wife happily helped out with finishing the fries.
When we had finished our meal, we walked up to the cash register and talked to the owner. He is a really nice guy and it was a joy to talk to him. He also does magic tricks and told me next time he would perform some. My visit to this café was before the Burger Baka event. So I asked the owner if the Big Burger would be at the event and he said that it wouldn't be. He would make smaller burgers because his Big Burger would be too much for the customers at the event and they would be too full to try all the other burgers. He then smiled and said "I think you would be Ok though." We all laughed and I told him that I would see him at Burger Baka. The wife and I left that pleasant and delicious café extremely full and satisfied. We both walked around central Mito for a bit to digest our food and then headed back home to Tsuchiura.
I am extremely happy that the wife and I decided to visit this café and I hope we can go back soon. The food was great, the atmosphere was relaxing and the owner was a joy to talk to. So if you are in Mito and are craving a huge burger, why not give Café Arco-Iris a chance. Who knows, you might see me there, enjoying the Big Burger while trying to keep it together as best as I can. Enjoy! For more information on Café Arco-Iris, check out their Twitter account:
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