Tell Me If It’s Different. Japanese First Time Trying A&W in Okinawa Japan.
Did you know we have A&W in Japan?
This is actually my first time ever trying A&W in my life!
Tell me in the comments what’s different between Japanese A&W and the U.S. version!
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15 Comments
US version is also different than Canadian version (canadian version is better)
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Original US A&Ws have a pretty small menu with just 3-4 burgers, a few hot dogs (regular and chili dogs), fries/onion rings and maybe a few other sides/desserts, plus drinks. Canada’s A&W is a different company w/ an expanded menu. A&W root beer is one of my favorite sodas. I know it and Dr. Pepper taste medicinal to Europeans and Asians and I understand that after trying a knockoff Dr. Pepper that tasted very medicinal to me and I couldn’t finish it.
Decent prices there! Us is much higher. I expect Japan is higher quality as well.
Goin to Tokyo / Shibuya in April, gonna try and cop a Magical Trip reservation with you and my crew, good shit man lol
Don’t touch Receipts! They are Toxic. BPA AND BPS chemicals are really bad and are absorbed through the skin. ❤
So I had a girlfriend from Japan when I was in California. I was in the Marine Corps, and was deployed to Okinawa. Her and her family decided to make a vacation trip to Okinawa so she could visit me.
I wasn't allowed off base with MANY restrictions, but we were able to spend a day with me, her, her parents, and a few of my buddies.
While we went to the Okinawa Aquarium (very memorable experience, and I highly recommend), Pineapple World, and some other random locations, the FIRST place she took us was A&W. We were all super confused at even the mere existence of A&W in Japan. A&W was just a brand of root beer that I liked, and that's all I knew of it. I had no clue they even had a restaurant.
Once inside, I very quickly realized what was going on. They had hamburgers, hot dogs, and root beer floats.
It then hit me. This was an AMERICAN restaurant. And of course they were thinking "Where do Americans want to eat? Of course! The American restaurant! A&W!" Which was crazy because none of us even knew A&W had restaurants. I just got a cheeseburger and a root beer float. It was alright.
But is what I thought was the most hilarious was the kid's menu, which was located all the way at the end of the menu board. All I was thinking was the dichotomy of American kids not wanting sushi, and a Japanese kid saying to their mom "Ewwww mom! I don't want weird American food! I want a bento box!"
Funniest part was, my favorite meal we had was some random gas station ramen we had at the end of the day. I still hold that gas station ramen as my measure of what good ramen should be, and so far (other than Ramen Tatsu-Ya in Austin, Texas, which I wouldn't even consider as "Japanese" ramen) no ramen in the US has even met that standard.
I agree root beer is terrible😂😂
Maybe you should try a Root Beer Float,you just may like that better as it has scoops of vanila ice cream in it. Takes the edge off that root beer taste that you don't lioke
Root beer is definitely a traditional drink with a unique flavor, definitely a popular flavor in Canada. I think the slight licorice flavor is not to everybody's taste. I don't know if all of the ingredients translate but Google says: 歴史的にはサッサフラスが重要な香料であったが、サルサパリラ、白樺の樹皮、リコリス、アニスなどの他の天然香料に置き換えられた。
Our son is stationed at Kadena AFB and we spent our Christmas 2024 in Okinawa. Of course we had A&W and it was very good. It’s harder and harder to find A&W’s here in the US, especially on the Central Coast of California. You should have tried the root beer float. I think you may have liked that vs root beer alone.
We will be going back this Christmas and then Kyoto in early January. Too bad you don’t have guided tours there. We would be honored to have you take us on a guided tour.
A&W is definitely unique, I've only encountered them on or near military bases (my husband was in the air force 20 years ago). They're definitely not a commonly found chain restaurant in the US, and the menu is much more simple than what you showed. Free refills are definitely an American thing, and I get why you say that root beer has a medicinal taste, if I remember correctly the "root" in root beer is the root of the sassafras tree, legally they can't use it anymore because it's classified as cancer causing, but they have ways to extract the flavor without the active ingredients now. I've heard that Dr. Pepper isn't popular in Japan for the same reason. It wasn't crazy expensive, tbh with the inflation here lately, even with simple cheeseburgers and fries we'd have paid that much, if not more.
Nowadays in America that would be a good price for everything.
super cool to see a A&W in japan! also have them here in Canada too 😀
Rootbeer is definitely an acquired taste. In the old days, they called it sassafras. You can't really buy it anymore to make your own root beer. It does have a medicinal taste, not gonna lie.