Atami

⭐⭐⭐

🇺🇸 Hamburger / 📍 Akasaka

📓 Visits: 1 (2024)

The newest contender for best burger in Tokyo, Akami is Makoto Suetomi's latest project.  If you know the name you've probably got the shtick: wood-fired food, price increase not long after opening, usual reservation racket.

There's no menu.  The meal comprises several starters, the burger, dessert and tea.

As you would expect from a restaurant that operates as Jigendo (review to come) at night and which shares a back kitchen with Makitori Shinkobe (review here), the starters and dessert are all very good.  The best of these is the fried potato.  No erroneous use of the singular there, you literally get one, no half a potato.  If you've ever had potato (not sweet potato) in a top tempura restaurant then it's as good as that.  The best fried potato you'll ever have.

After that the burger finally comes out.  The bun is outstanding.  Toasted low and slow over coals (not wood) for over 10 minutes, the top has a texture like glass (and be careful as you really can cut yourself).  The burger contains a fried egg, tomato, wood-fired lettuce, teriyaki sauce and 170g of smoked wagyu.  I'm of the school where you put as little into a burger as you can rather than as much as you can and if you eat the meat on its own it's outstanding.  But with all that other "stuff" the cow gets a bit lost.

Earl Grey tea and milk gelato to finish.

For a hamburger lunch it's pretty substantial and I wouldn't recommend making it part of a double header.  The chef is a lovely guy.  If he opened his own place where the experience of the customer was prioritized instead of the retirement fund of the owner and you could just walk in and have a plain burger and half a dozen of those fried potatoes I would go again.  But you can't have it your way here.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1308/A130801/13292684/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.7 (burger 3.7, others 4.1, reservation policy: 0)

📱 Booking: 🟥 Omakase only.  If you dine at Makitori Shinkobe or Jigendo you can ask for a reservation at Atami but they absolutely won't take reservations for lone diners and as you can't transfer or reschedule once you've booked (which at current time of writing is over a year ahead) the owner pockets ¥8000 if you need to cancel, for doing nothing.  Cancelations may be announced on the chef's Instagram.

📍 Location: 3-9-2 Akasaka. 

1 min from Akasaka Mitsuke station Exit 10 (Bic Camera).  Same address as Makitori Shinkobe but the entrance is on the other side of the block (i.e. the same street as the station).  Same restaurant as Jigendo.
Map data ©2025 Google

📶 Free WiFi? ✅ Yes

📅 Visit 2024

Kabocha soup
Mizu daco carpaccio
Fried potato
Shira-ae, Shine Muscat
Burger
Milk gelato
Earl Grey

💴 Damage: 8,790 (6.8k + 1 drink @1,210 +780 2x Omakase reservation fee)

⏱️ Time taken: 45m