Burger Cafe Minomino — Smash Burgers & Girl Pop

Burger Cafe minomino is a burger shop near Hondori that specializes in customizable smash burgers paired with fries and onion rings.

The paper wrapper around the tower cheese burger helps contain the mess while you eat. (Joy Photo / Michael Farrell)

Quality Smash Burgers in Hiroshima with Secret Sauce

At the western end of Hondori covered shopping street in Hiroshima, hidden from casual view above a bag shop, sits Burger Cafe minomino. Minomino is one of a growing number of quality hamburger joints in the city and a strong competitor for the top burger spot. 

Fully encrusted in the flavorful Maillard reactions that smash burgers are known for, minomino’s burgers have an outer crunch and tender insides. Domestic ingredients are in the spotlight with 100% Japanese beef and buns made with Japanese grown whole wheat.

A variety of 11 potential toppings and minomino’s original secret sauce tie everything together into a flavorful, juicy package that automatically comes with fries and onion rings. 

The Menu

The menu at minomino has ten varieties of burgers. These range from the basic burger (ベーシックバーガー),  topped with sautéed onions, lettuce, pickles, whole grain mustard, and their sweet and tangy secret sauce, to the roughly 18 cm (7 inches) high, quadruple patty tower cheese burger (タワーチーズバーガー) with the same toppings plus tomatoes, bacon and cheese. 

The à la carte burgers automatically come with fries and two onion rings, so when you order one of these side dishes you end up with even more fries and onion rings. 

There are set meals too, but their main benefit is a ¥20 to ¥30 discount on a drink vs. ordering a drink with a burger. 

This burger was customized with jalapeños and a hash brown. (Joy Photo / Michael Farrell)

11 Customizable Burger Toppings

Depending on whether you go to an American-style restaurant or a specialty burger shop in Japan, you may or may not be able to customize your burger. Many restaurants in Hiroshima have burgers on their menu, but typically only shops that specialize in burgers, like minomino, will let you customize your burger as part of their business model. 

Minomino has 11 toppings you can choose from. 

You can find the usual tomatoes, pickles, and bacon as well as avocados and jalapeños. Onions are there too but not raw, only sautéed. 

Unique toppings include hashbrowns and fried eggs with mayo. You can even add another beef patty and pour melted cheese sauce over the bun. 

So if you’re really hungry and want to build an epic burger, you could expand the tower cheese burger to five patties, top it with jalapeños, avocado, and a fried egg and then drown it from bun to bottom in cheese sauce.  

American Atmosphere in Hiroshima

Minomino’s interior is long and narrow with mostly table seating and bar seating behind the curtain next to the register. The clean concrete interior with wooden accents, open light fixtures, and Americana would not feel out of place in most U.S. cities. This mood is reinforced by a constant stream of Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift playing in the background. 

The alignment with American culture, however, is serendipitous, rather than intentional. Misako Ijiri, the owner, said she wasn’t trying to recreate an American feeling. She just enjoyed girl pop and decorated as she liked, which includes a large collection of her son’s One Piece figurines under the front window. 

Responsive Service

While minomino has outstanding hamburgers, their ratings on Google suffer from service complaints. Currently they are tied with America’s famed Shake Shack (in Hiroshima Station) at 3.8. While it is inevitable that issues arise, it is more important how staff handle them when they come up. Perhaps it was bad luck, but the first time Joy in Hiroshima’s editorial staff visited there was a mistake on the bill. The second time we were told an ingredient was missing to complete one of our orders. However, to minomino’s credit, they handled both situations with grace and politeness. The bill was corrected without issue and the owner personally ran out and got the missing ingredient. We only waited ten more minutes for our order to be completed.

The tower cheese burger comes with four domestic Japanese beef patties, two slices of cheese, lettuce, bacon, sautéed onions, pickles, whole grain mustard and minomino’s original sauce. (Joy Photo / Michael Farrell)

Culture and “How Would You Like Your Burger Cooked?”

Regarding service at hamburger restaurants in Japan, Americans in particular should take note that customizing the doneness of a burger is not standard practice in Japan. It is almost always cooked well done. The reason for this is that Japanese food safety regulations don’t address the middle ground between well done and raw ground beef. Whole meat, though, is treated differently since ground beef is at higher risk of contamination. Health guidance emphasises cooking ground beef thoroughly. Meanwhile raw beef has to have a negative test for certain pathogens before it can be served. As a result, you can find raw steak tartare and well done burgers, but rarely something in the middle.

Consequently, the American norm of choosing how well burger patties are cooked is not normal in Japan. So if you enjoy your burgers rare to medium-well, and ask for your burger medium-rare, your server will likely not know what you’re talking about. And if you explain the idea, they will likely say they can’t do it for food safety reasons.

Getting There

Burger Cafe minomino is a 3-minute walk west from Hiroden Hatchobori Station. If you are coming from Hiroshima Station, take Hiroden No. 6, 2, or 1. Hatchobori is three stops away. 

Minomino is also a 14 minute walk from Peace Memorial Park. The route takes you through the length of Hiroshima’s famed Hondori covered shopping street. 

More Great Hiroshima Burgers

Good burgers are becoming more common in Hiroshima. Find a Japan Burger Championship 2025 contestant at 29laB Burger in the reDine Hiroshima food court in Pacela, a shopping mall near Peace Park. Or try the burgers at KeMBY’s Brew Pub, a time-honored standby in Hiroshima for American fare among expats, U.S. soldiers and Japanese locals.