Burger Friday

Uncle Joe's (Perth)

2016-06-28T17:32:00.000+10:00

Today’s burger adventure saw a rag tag crew of burger lovers venture down to Uncle Joe’s Mess Hall in Perth’s CBD. Uncle Joe’s also doubles as a barber and is responsible for some of the freshest (and most expensive) salads that Perth has ever seen (the irony of this is explained below). The burger of choice was Uncle Joe’s Angus Beef Burger.

(not our photo - hence, the chips)

The patty was a bit like Steph Curry in the NBA Finals – it had all the talent to put the series away but came up short when it needed to be the MVP. How about you take a unanimous seat over there Steph and have a good hard unanimous look at yourself. But I digress. The burger struck me as something which was not hand made in that it had that hockey puck shape which is typically indicative of a burger straight from the packet. But the flavour was reasonable (a bit of extra herbage may have helped) and was cooked perfectly.

The bun was the highlight of the show for mine. When it came out I instantly thought I was in for an uber sweet brioche but it was actually a pretzel style bread and had the perfect amount of crust on the outside whilst maintaining the fluffy inside. The size of the bun in proportion to the patty was spot on such that burger management was never an issue. Although it does say a little something about the burger that the side kick, being the bun, was the star of the show – call it Draymond.

The salads on the burger were virtually none existent apart from a few sprigs of rocket – call them Harrison Barnes. Whilst the salads are not the main guy on the team, you notice their lack of presence if they go missing (2 for 20 from the field in games 5 and 6 – good luck in free agency young fella). I must admit that I was slightly disappointing that the most prevalent salads at Uncle Joe’s were situated on the scalps of the customers of Uncle Joe’s Barbers. Also of note, Uncle Joe’s employed the recently favoured technique of deconstructing the burger by serving a dollop of mayo, a pickle and a teaspoon of salsa on the side. This doesn’t do much for me. Just plonk this stuff on the burger and get on with it.

The sauce combination was actually very effective – with the aforementioned mayo and a delightful seeded mustard. The use of seeded mustard is quite seldom but given it goes smashingly well with a steak then it makes sense that it would go well with a burger. The benefit of the seeded mustard is the vinegar content and its ability to cut through and neutralise the char on the burger which can be overpowering if not done well – call the sauce combo Iggy.

There is not much I can write about the chips because there weren’t any. Just a small section of grilled corn which played a role but not what was needed in the circumstances – call the lack of chips the “King Flopper” Anderson Varejao.

Overall, the burger worked quite well as a whole but was missing a piece or two to get the job done. The burger has been talked up big time and to add to this, every hipster and his dog is now on the Uncle Joe’s fresh-cut salad bandwagon (just like everyone is on the Steph Curry bandwagon – although a few people have unanimously left that train of recent times).

In light of the above, I am coining this burger the 2016 Golden State Warriors burger. Ironically, the architect of the Golden State Warriors is a guy by the name of Joe Lacob. Perhaps he owns Uncle Joe’s. Illuminati shit right there.

Score - 36

The Reveley (Perth)

2016-06-28T17:24:00.000+10:00

Much like Sam Smith’s feeble attempt at a “Bond song” the writing was well and truly on the wall well before we ventured down to The Reveley located at Perth’s new Elizabeth Quay.

To start with, it was the first day of 2016 where it actually rained in Perth. Given this typically occurs only 10 times a year over in the West, it was an early sign that it was going to be a tough day out there for this young player. (For those Melbournians reading this review, the writer appreciates that just surviving New Years Day without rain is cause for celebration over East, nonetheless we weren’t happy with the rain in our parade even if it was the end of April).

The Reveley opened to much fanfare down at Betty’s Jetty and being the second CBD establishment of the owners of Stables Bar, this burger enthusiast had high hopes. The three storey venue is a great addition to the Perth foreshore and when the deserted Quay finally has a tenant or two it is sure to attract regular crowds on a Friday night for a cheeky frothy.

The burger served was a Wagyu Beef burger with bacon and a side of chips for the not so poultry sum of $26.

Unlike the writer of our previous review, this writer is not going to indulge in a selfish ego boosting monologue about whether or not bacon belongs on a burger. This writer acknowledges that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and those who are of the opinion that a burger requires bacon are simply wrong.

With that out of the way our attention is turned to the burger itself, initially the rating received was slightly higher than that which was landed on as some members of the voting panel made revisions to their scoring when the burger had failed to properly digest a number of hours later.

Starting with the biggest gripe of the reviewers – the patty. Advertising a Wagyu Beef patty is a sure fire way to get this lad salivating at the prospect of a big, juicy and fresh meat patty. The false advertising here was much like Coles’ attempt at “Fresh Baked Bread”. It may have contained some form of Wagyu beef but sourcing the patty from the Coles frozen food section and then serving it up at a fine establishment like this saw the ratings heading “down down” right from the start.

The bun was of sound size and freshness, and while the Bun should never steal the limelight in “The Burger Show” when the Melbourne Stars take the field, it certainly would help if there was a little bit of Cameron White excitement (e.g. some charcoal toasting) to add some flavour to the match. (A shout out to the hipster of hipster’s – The Big Show, who was kind enough to make time in his schedule to join us for this review).

The salads were a bit of a non-event – staying with the cricket theme here they were a bit like Luke Ronchi, promising so much on paper with the suggestion of some dill pickle and caramelised onions but falling for a duck with a forward defence that leaves a mighty big gap between bun and patty. Some advice is offered at this point: wash and dry the lettuce (especially if its iceberg). I guess the expensive fitout left the owners short of enough cash to invest in a salad spinner. Or maybe it was all invested in maintaining a fresh salad atop James Faulkner’s mug.

The caramelised onion was however a great addition, and the pickles good (although lacking in quantity). Those reviewers who appreciate bacon in the burger did comment that the maple smoked bacon was a good addition and could be great if given a little more love.

Finally, it was the lack of sauces which resulted in an expensive last 5 overs for The Reveley. It was always going to be an uphill battle when you’re taken out of the attack after starting the over with 3 full bungas from Dirk Nannes and forget the Mustard. But to replace it with Michael Beer who without any discernible turn (or in this case mayo or tomato sauce) meant it was going to be a very boring finish to the match.

The saving grace for this burger was the chips. Coming in at the end of a long batting line-up to save the day like David Hussey, the fries were crispy and well coated in salt with solid aioli and tomato dipping sauces. They simply did the job in terms of quantity and got enough runs on the board to put forward a competitive total.

Overall, this burger was a big let-down for a venue that promises so much. I should note that before signing off there were some members at the table who were very satisfied with their crumbed whiting fish and chips – a dish that this reviewer is known to get just a tad excited about from time to time.

Given the good looks, significant hype and advertising one cannot help but be reminded of Jack Watts when reflecting on this burger. Like the Melbourne coaching staff we are torn by the promise of the talent displayed by the owners at Stables Bar in the reserves (e.g. the 2008 Under 18s) but since making it onto the big stage the pressure seems to have become too much to handle. Let’s hope that The Reveley doesn’t take 8 years to find its way like our mate Jack who has only now decided in 2016 to get those fingernails dirty and win his own ball every now and again.

Score - 29.4

Howling's Bar (Hood Burger)

2016-04-27T22:40:00.000+10:00

In the immortal words of Michael Jordan from March 18, 1995:

“I’m back.”

After a hiatus of almost two years, we are delighted to announce that the Burger Friday crew have enlisted some help defence and are back bigger and better than ever. Such a glorious return to the spotlight needed to be accompanied by a burger to match (MJ played his first game back in Indiana for those playing at home) – so we wandered up the terrace to Howling’s Bar to sample the pop-up Hood Burger which has set up shop at Howling’s Bar.

Howling’s Bar is located on the busy Hay Street in the Perth CBD and was opened after a rather expensive renovation of the facilities. The first few months for Howling’s Bar were tough as they copped some heavy criticism on the interweb for their menu. To their credit, they took all of this feedback on board and enlisted the help of the pop-up stall – Hood Burger – to offer patrons an array of burger treats (and pretty much nothing else). The end result is a dude mecca which satiates the need for quality affordable burgers in the Perth CBD.

The venue itself isn’t going to knock your socks off. It feels a lot like a University nightclub which gets opened up during the day. Although it appeared that no one told the DJ – the music choice was reminiscent of the R&B room at Room 99 in Geelong – Bump, Bump, Bump…. Baby If You Give It To Me…. Independent Women. First class tunes.

The best part was that we appeared to be served by Boobarella from The Simpsons.

But enough about the venue, we are here to talk about the burger which came in at $14 with bacon plus $5 for chips.

The burger itself was in the upper echelon of Perth burgers (not an overly great achievement) in that it did the simple things right.

The patty was one of the best we have tried – it was clearly hand-made and the chef achieved the perfect balance of the Maillard Reaction and keeping the inside of the patty to a juicy medium. Pretty much full marks for the patty.

In addition to this, the bacon was cooked perfectly and the cheese was cooked on the patty whilst it was on the grill.

The sauce combination was a simple yet very effective mustard and tomato sauce. This was perfectly balance and left us thinking whether we had wandered into a fancier version of Hungry Jack’s by mistake.

As for the salads – salads on a burger are a lot like Sacremento Kings point guard Rajon Rondo, when he focuses on facilitation and making his teammates around him better then he is an asset to any team. When he lets his ego get in the way and tries to go outside of his role – he is detrimental to the locker room. Luckily, the salads on the Hood Burger knew their role and complimented the other ingredients by cutting through the richness.

Now it is at this point that I feel I need to raise what is probably the most pressing issue in burger society at the moment – does avocado belong on a burger? Or maybe a better way to phrase that question is why would anyone in their right mind believe that avocado belongs on a burger? When I think about these people I am drawn to a quote from the Dark Knight:

“Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

For some reason, one of the top-up players we enlisted the help of was on the side of avocado. I am without words.

The chips were the subject of great debate. A number of the crew were disappointed that the chips were dry. My response to this is two-fold:

1. Who the hell wants a moist chip? Have you ever heard anyone say – “Oh yeah man those chips were so moist! I was in heaven. I love it when my chips are moist”.

2. Dry chips are more conducive to sauce – the jalapeno mayo offered with the chips copped some flack as well.

So the chips were marked down very heavily by one member which diminished the overall rating. But we welcome a diverse range of opinions to give you the most complete picture possible.

Overall, this burger is well and truly worth the short stroll to the venue. Given the criticism that Howling’s Bar has copped, it is hard not to draw similarities with Richmond Captain Trent Cotchin. Clearly he has a few things to work out in terms of his performance but some of his attributes are league leading and it is just a matter of time before he finds his groove and is a force to be reckoned with.

Score – 38.8

Kermond's Hamburgers

2014-05-07T18:00:00.000+10:00

Burger reviewed: Burger with the lot with extra cheese

Venue: Kermond's Hamburgers (Warrnambool)

Date: 22/4/2014

Today's burger adventure saw the Fellows venture down to God's Country - South-Western Victoria - to sample the burger treats at Kermond's Hamburgers. A local institution, Kermond's has been operating since 1949 and specialises in an honest-to-goodness fish and chip shop style burger which has served as the savior of many an inebriated man. Kermond's is your typical country fast food establishment with its retro coke memorabilia and large selection of spiders and thick shakes to choose from (how good are spiders?!). But we were here to sample the burger so we promptly ordered the burger with the lot with extra cheese and got ready to nosh.

The burger came out in a flash and was piping hot - in a Burger Friday first, we actually had to let this burger cool a bit before tucking into it. But I am happy to cop the second degree burns to my mouth, lips and feet (I was wearing thongs and some of the juice squirted down onto my feet when I took the first bite - I was a tad unlucky to burn myself there I thought) to know that the burger was not sitting on a bench for 15 minutes getting cold and wilted prior to delivery.

Let's break the burger down into its parts.

The patty was thinner than a lot of the burgers we have tried in the past but it was tender, juicy and cooked well. Kermond's employ a technique used by fish and chip shop owners for generations which is to fry some brown onion into the patty during the cooking process. The sweetness of the caramelised onion shards complemented the bitterness of the charred burger patty for an opening partnership which would rival Davey Warner and Bucky Rogers - despite being on opposite ends of the flavour spectrum, somehow it just works.

The toppings were plentiful and all played their part. The bacon was crisp, the egg was creamy and cooked to a point where the yolk still maintained its glorious ooze, and the Aussie slice of beetroot provided a hint of acidity and tang which cut through the richness of the other ingredients. I have never understood what is so quintessentially Australian about putting beetroot on a burger. The only people that harp on about beetroot on a burger being Australian seems to be the McDonald's advertising team when they reintroduce the McOz burger every six months despite it still being on the menu the entire time. Anyways.

To be honest I imagine that not all burger enthusiasts would enjoy this burger for what it is - which is the holy grail of late night pissed food - as there were a couple of minor drawbacks that are not everyone's cup of tea. The first being the structural integrity. As the patty and the toppings were so plentiful, the bun was not big enough to contain everything meaning that the paper bag that the burger was served in was required to do the heavy lifting from a structural integrity stand point. The second gripe is the aftertaste associated with the chips. I am not sure if it is the type of oil that the chips were fried in but they had an unusual after taste (which was not dissimilar to the flavour of the animal fat on a steak or chop that has not been properly rendered). A good squeeze of Heinz Big Red was required to mask this after taste.

Overall, the Kermond's burger is a glorious mess of comfort food made from quality country ingredients and ripping value at $18.50 with chips (I am convinced that inflation is a principle that has only been applied to Metropolitan areas). As such, we are naming this burger after another South-Western Victorian icon in Jonathan Brown. A brut of a man that is made from all the right stuff (JB's old man Brian played league footy for Fitzroy) who all 17 other AFL clubs would love to have on their list. Not to mention Jonathan Brown's known love of a beer - a Kermond's and tinny would be a match made in heaven.

If you are in the area and are looking for a good burger, look no further than Kermond's. But if you are looking for more of a foodies getaway, head down the coast to Timboon for some of the finest produce in the district.

Score - 40/50

Burger Bistro

2014-03-12T12:55:00.000+11:00

Burger reviewed: The beef big smoke

Venue: Burger Bistro (Perth)

Date: 7/3/2014

The Burger Friday fellows begun their 2014 campaign by venturing to Shafto Lane in Perth's CBD to try out Burger Bistro - another one of Perth's pseudo burger chains. We promptly ordered the beef big smoke burger and hoped that the big smoke would be as flamboyant as the "big show" Glenn Maxwell, but without the annoying persona. The burger arrived in quicker than a Mitchell Johnson short ball and had the overall performance to match. But to explain the big smoke, we need to break it down into its parts.

The patty was made from quality Western Australian ground beef and was cooked to a perfect medium. What was most pleasing was that the grill plate in the kitchen was clearly set at the appropriate temperature as the outside of the patty was charred to perfection which provided a nice bitter undertone to the burger.

The bun was made of San Franciscan sourdough and was of high quality. Much like former San Francisco Giants Pitcher Brian Wilson, this bun had a somewhat hardened exterior but was softer on the inside. Structural integrity and burger management was a non-issue as this bun provided a structurally sound base while also adding the extra flare of that lightly sour flavour of a quality sourdough.

The highlight of the toppings came from the perfectly crispy slice of pancetta. It provided a different texture and was a tad saltier than your traditional bacon rasher but not so much that it left you feeling thirsty. My only gripe was that there was only one slice of pancetta on the burger meaning that the gloriousness it provided was not in every bite. Some would liken the pancetta to that of Scott Gumbleton - you saw enough of it to know that it has talent but it just hasn't stayed on the park for long enough.

The big smoke used a perfectly melted slice of emmental cheese. The downfall of using emmental cheese (a variety of Swiss cheese) is that it is known as a fairly savoury cheese with very little sharpness. This meant that the subtle flavours of the cheese were overpowered by the stronger flavours of the other elements of the burger.

The sauce of choice was a fairly run-of-the-mill BBQ sauce. Whilst this sauce did not detract from the burger, it lacked the typical smokiness of a BBQ sauce which really would have complimented the other flavours. I recommend changing to some Masterfoods Smokey BBQ sauce - I love that stuff. I would genuinely spread it on my Weet Bix in the morning if it was socially acceptable.

The chips were crispy and plentiful for only a couple of bucks extra. However, a choice of condiments was lacking and we were forced to resort to using the chips to soak up the burger juices to add moisture.

All in all, this was a solid burger made of the right stuff. As such, an appropriate comparison would be to former South African cricket captain Graeme Smith. A man who despite his technical deficiencies and lack of flare, will go down of one of the better cricketers in his countries history due to his consistency and fighting qualities. Much like Smith, there is elements of this burger that you would change (the sauce, Smith's slightly closed bat face whilst playing straight or his inability to open his mouth without sounding like a complete jouster), this burger is one you would want on your side before a hard days slog.

We recommend this burger if you are after a safe option. But we here at Burger Friday believe that burgers are like Pokemon - gotta eat 'em all! So maybe venture out for some obscurity.

Score - 39/50

Flottes

2013-10-30T15:01:00.000+11:00

Burger reviewed: The "12" burger

Venue: Flottes - Rue Cambon, Paris

Date: 08/09/2103

Today's burger adventure saw the Fellows sample our first burger treat in the "City of Love". Our venue of choice, Flottes (do not ask me how to pronounce it), is a surprisingly large venue with a much larger English influence than many other restaurants about town (this was evidenced by the menu being written in English only). Located next to Pierre Herme's world famous macaron store, Flottes specialises in traditional French cuisine with a slightly modern twist.

The first thing to note is that the service was top notch. When we walked in we were immediately greeted by a waiter. Let that be a lesson to all restaurant staff - all you have to do is simply acknowledge me with a "I'll be with you in a moment" and I will happily wait for 10 minutes to be shown a table. Without acknowledgement I would be lucky to wait 3 minutes. To make things even better we were sat in a private room complete with nice paintings and French books on the walls. It was a truly lovely setting to enjoy our first ever Parisian burger.

Upon glancing over the menu we noticed several burgers but the one that caught our eye was the "12" burger. Unfortunately, after I read the menu and ordered the burger I was expecting a 12 inch burger. Instead of a Man vs Food style giant, what arrived was a modest sized burger put together with high quality ingredients.

The beef patty was exceptional. It was clearly handmade and I think the patty mixture was simply a porterhouse run through a mincer a few times. Due to the quality of the meat used in the mince this beef patty was delicious, covering all parts of the palette like Zizou covering all parts of the soccer field. The inside of the patty was cooked to more of a medium rare (which seems to be the style of French chefs) but the outside of the party was not charred as much as we would have liked. If the chef turned up the temperature of the grill plate a few notches this would have given the best quality patties we have tried a run for their money.

The bun was a real let down. It seemed like your stock standard burger bun that you would pull off the shelf at Coles. I really expected better of a country known for their bread.

The toppings on the burger were unlike any that we have ever had here at Burger Friday - an interesting combination of sauteed mushrooms and foie gras. Foie gras is a French delicacy and is the liver of specially fattened ducks or geese. Foie gras has come under the fire of animal rights enthusiasts who have claimed that using tubes to force-feed the animals in order to fatten them up is inhumane. This initially put me off. But upon consulting our friendly waiter, we were informed that the foei gras used at Flottes was not sourced from farms who employ this tube force-feeding technique. Rather, a different type of feed that is used to fatten up the animals. Knowing this settled my stomach enough to tuck into the burger without feeling like a terrible human being. And what a result! In our opinion, foie gras is in a league of its own in terms of decadence (and not the kind of decadence like on the Inbetweeners movie) - velvety, rich and creamy. It was a pure delight to eat. However, teaming foei gras with sauteed mushrooms was not a good idea. The two had a similar texture which gave the burger a slippery feel/texture. I was kind of hoping that the foie gras would essentially melt and ooze down the burger creating a quasi-sauce. But as you can tell from the picture, the foie gras was quite substantial and basically acted like a second patty rather than fulfilling my saucing needs.

The burger did have some top quality bacon which was cooked crisply enough to partially cut through this slippery texture but the race was run.

This is the part of the blog where I usually talk about the sauce and how adequately it meshed the ingredients of the burger together. Unfortunately, this burger had no sauce to speak of. Meaning that the burger was very rich and left you feeling greasy. Even a cheeky French Hollandaise would have lightened the mood a bit. With the lack of sauce this burger was bit on the dry side meaning that you needed to choke it down (don't get me started on French athletes choking).

All in all, this burger had a number of the highest of quality ingredients, including the ultimate X-factor in foie gras, but lacked a sauce to bring the burger together which ultimately resulted in a burger which underperformed. Seeing something with the X-factor only to underperform reminds me of so many French sportspeople but the one I am choosing today is former French tennis player turned Channel 7 special commentator Henri Leconte. Leconte burst onto the French tennis scene by winning the 1981 French junior championship and spent a number of years at the pointy end of grand slams thanks to his sizzling play. The pinnacle of Leconte's career came in 1998 when he made the final of the French Open, only to be smashed in straight ones by Mats Wilander. Ultimately, Leconte found most of his success playing doubles and actually nabbed a grand slam. My advice to Flottes would be to follow in the footsteps of our dear Henri - team up with a quality sidekick (a tangy sauce for the purposes of this analogy) who can make up for your deficiencies. If that happens, you are onto a real winner.

I would definitely recommend this burger if you find yourself strolling down Rue Cambon. In order to counteract the richness of the burger, I recommend the macarons next door. Or if you would like a more traditional French dessert try the in-house creme brulee - I caused a bit of a disturbance in the restaurant when I cracked the caramelised sugar on top of the creme brulee with my spoon. Seriously, it sounded like glass shattering.

Score: 37.5/50

The Shack

2013-10-09T13:16:00.000+11:00

Burger reviewed: The Western King

Venue: The Shack (Perth)

Date: 26/07/2013

Today's burger adventure saw Burger Friday tackle the first of Perth's many pseudo burger chain restaurants. The venue of choice - The Shack (previously known as The Local Shack. And before that, The Burger Shack). What is particularly perplexing about the name changes of this venue is that The Shack does not give off the feeling of a shack at all. With its high ceilings, big doors and rustic paint work you could be forgiven for thinking you are chowing down in a cafe in inner-city Melbourne. But who cares about the venue? We are here for a burger.

The Shack boasts 18 different burgers ranging from the stock standard beef burger to a chicken burger called the "Thai Cockfight" (whenever I hear the word cockfight I can't help but think of Seinfeld episode where Kramer and Little Jerry Seinfeld take on Marcellino's "dog with glove on its head"). This presents an obvious selection dilemma in that we are spoilt for choice. However, as we have a selection policy of choosing a burger that our rating scale is not prejudicial towards, we ordered the Western King with cheese and bacon and got ready to nosh.

The patty was well put together and had that fibrous texture indicative of a handmade patty. What became obvious from the start was the adventurous use of dried herbs and spices in the patty mixture which created a flavoursome first bite. My only gripe with the patty was that it was cooked to more of a well done than a medium which meant that some of juice from the meat had been cooked out of it. I would recommend that the chef at The Local Shack turn the temperature of the grill plate up slightly - this will allow a slight charring of the outside whilst keeping the inside juicy and medium rather than cooking the patty completely through (we should write a book on grilling burger patties - "A time to grill" or "To grill a mockingbird").

My main gripe with this burger is around the quality of the bun. It didn't seem fresh, was a bit on the crusty side and was quite heavy. And to make things even worse, this was one of the hardest burgers to eat from a structural integrity standpoint. This burger resisted all burger management techniques. Even the universally accepted "cut the burger in half" burger management technique (pictured above) - a technique so proven it has taken its rightful place along side the other game changing techniques such as the famed "bite and suck the filling" pie eating technique and the hair dressing methodology of putting the hair between two fingers and cutting above them. If it wasn't for Clause 7 of our sacred Constitution, I would have reached for the knife and fork.

The salads were fresh and played their part. Salads on a burger is like Snicko in the Decision Review System - while it can add value, it is left out of the decision making process for good reason.

The sauce was the real winner. An eclectic mix of guacamole and seeded mustard which created a tangy and refreshing salsa that cleansed the palette with every bite. Full marks for the sauce.

The chips were a quality side dish. Similar to the burger, they were sprinkled with dried herbs and spices and were accompanied by a quality sauce. Plentiful in supply (a large serving was enough for two people) and cooked to a level that saw them crunchy on the outside but remain fluffy on the inside.

Overall, the herbs and spices used in the patty and chips teamed well with the extravagant sauce combination. However, the cooking of the patty and the poorness of the bun let the team down. This display of flare and extravagance only to be ultimately let down reminded me of Dean Wallis in the 1999 Preliminary Final against Carlton. A rugged defender without an attacking bone in his body, Wallis decided to take the game on in the final minute only to be caught by a Fraser Brown tackle, ultimately costing the Dons a chance of overrunning the Blues and a spot in the Granny.

If you find yourself in the CBD and need a beef injection, check out The Local Shack and the vast array of burger treats it offers.

Score: 33/50

Shake Shack (New York)

2013-09-23T11:06:00.000+10:00

Burger reviewed: The Double Shack

Venue: Shake Shack

Date: 17 August 2013

Continuing on the Burger Friday Fellows journey around America, our next stop on tour is the Shake Shack.

If you like burgers and have not heard of Shake Shack then you might as well have been living under a rock. Nine years ago, New York's, and arguably the world's, hamburger landscape changed forever when an unassuming shack began serving up humanely raised 100% Angus beef.

Started by Danny Meyer in Washington Square Park in NYC, this little roadside burger cart grew into a hospitality group and a cultural phenom, and the rest is history. Since then, Shake Shacks have been popping up worldwide developing a market, alongside companies like Five Guys, into what is now known as the Better Burger market (i.e., above your McDonalds or Burger Kings, but below your gourmet burgers). As the Fellows like to dabble in cult phenoms, as well as food which falls into the Better Burger market, Shake Shack was high on our list of food to try in NYC. This and the fact that almost all of the fellows burger loving friends were continually yabbering about it before we left.

So while in NYC, the Fellows headed to the original Washington Square Park site on what was a glorious summers day to try the most talked about burger in the world to see if the hype lived up to the bite.

Greeted by a line curling around the Parks walkway, the Shack almost blends into the surrounding greenery, with the only give away being the connecting fairy lights and the hundreds of people mingling around in excitement. After about a 30 minute wait to order and another ten whilst it cooked, our food arrived.

In true Burger Friday tradition we ordered the signature Shack burger and decided to do it with a double pattie because, as with beef and beer, two is always better than one. The Shack burger is a 100% Angus beef pattie served with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles and a special Shack Sauce, all squeezed between a marshmallow-like soft bun.

The incredible simplicity of the ingredients listed above, belie the complexity of the flavourings and sensations that exploded in my mouth on that very first bite. While almost everyone I know has talked up this burger as being almost orgasmic, i had found it hard to believe the hype until I could taste it to prove it. So after that first bite, I was a believer. This is a great burger.

The burger literally melted into your mouth with every morsel, dissolving into a beefy and savoury remnant. I would say that this is without doubt the softest burger I have ever eaten. Think of velvety cake like substance that just happens to taste like burger.

While small in size, it was extremely rich in flavour and by the end I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed by choosing the double.

Although it may seem sacrosanct to criticise the burger, and that this act may cause Shack devotees to seek me out for directed acts of revenge, I did have some things I did not like about the burger.

The hero and the villain for me was the Angus beef pattie. Cooked to a perfectly juicy medium from reportedly ground fresh daily beef, it was so buttery soft that it hard to determine where it stood on the liquified to hockey puck pattie cooking ratio. For mine if it had an offsetting somewhat less soft bun, it would have been perfect. Ala the M&M effect. Or, alternativel,y with the bun it had, I would have liked to have seen the pattie charred to give some contrast in texture. (What's soft on the outside and hard on the inside? - maybe avocado?)

The super soft bun, plus the soft pattie meant that there was too much of the sameness, and towards the end of the burger it got a bit blah.

The other thing which I thought it could have also used was slightly more tang. Whilst the Shake Sauce was zesty, I found myself adding American mustard which was freely available from the condiments stand.

The accompanying chocolate shake and crinkle cut fries were both solid and a good addition to the burger, in flavour and at making sure my daily calorie intake was met in a single serving.

In light of the hype, and the overwhelming softness of the burger, I am going to dub this the Wayne Gretsky. Like Shake Shack, Gretsky is universally known as one of the all time greats. While it might be hard to argue that he was truly soft, rumour has it that whilst teams usually have an enforcer who fights your battles on the ice, Gretzky supposedly took it a bit further by having a bodyguard roam the rink just in case things got too out of hand. Regardless it is still a hall of fame burger and I can testify the hype.

If in New York, or a Shake Shack is near you (they are expanding at a rapid rate), definitively go try it out to see what the fuss is about for yourself.

Burger Friday rating: 42/50

Prospect Espresso

2013-09-13T11:05:00.000+10:00

Burger Reviewed: the Prospects Burger

Venue: Prospect Espresso - 2A Prospect Hill Rd, Camberwell

Date: 15 July 2013

On a stereotypical Melbourne day - torrential downpour followed by blue skies and sunshine - we ventured to Prospect Espresso in Camberwell. Espresso is the type of cafe that makes a name for itself through word of mouth; the type of place that you could be forgiven for overlooking on your way past the many shopfronts on Burke Rd, but fortunately for us this place has started to make a name for itself in burger enthusiast circles. Needless to say, we were not disappointed.

In a world where first impressions count more so than ever before, we were greeted promptly by an energetic and bubbly waitress who quickly found us a seat at the large wooden communal table. A growing trend in Melbourne hospitality, the table dominates the décor but is complemented by a mixture of smaller tables. Although space is at a premium, it is a well organized layout which fits nicely with the rustic furniture and fittings. It has somewhat of a refurbished inner-city warehouse apartment feel to it and although quiet loud, it still has a homely and welcoming vibe.

Although Prospect Espresso receives rave reviews for it's coffee, we ventured to this cafe to sample the house burger - house minced beef, bacon, cheese, pickles, lettuce, chips and aioli for the fair price of $18. It came out in good speed for what was a busy Friday afternoon but most impressive was the presentation. While some of us here at Burger Friday prefer the look of a greasy, juicy, American-style burger, I am one who prefers the postcard burger. This would be right at the top of that list (unfortunately my camera work on the iPhone 5 doesn't do this justice). Credit must be given for the use of props; the inclusion of the traditional (albeit miniature) frying basket to hold the chips is a great look.

The burger was smaller than what we're used to, but what it lacked in size it made up for in flavour. The burger was cooked to perfection, it was charred on the outside trapping in the moisture and juices from the gelatinous pattie. The ground and hand pressed pattie was lightly season and while some might have preferred a bigger statement from the pattie (in terms of herbs and spices), the precise cooking makes this pattie a winner. Many outstanding patties have been ruined by the chef (or should i say cook), but this was mastery of a fry pan at its finest.

It didn't stop there though. The bacon was equally impressive as it was crispy and charred, with enough rind left on to provide a salty crunch. While no one wants a pork belly rasher of bacon (i.e., 90% fat), the burger does benefit from having some of the natural fat stay on the bacon. This was evident here as the saltiness of the bacon balanced tang from the aioli. This rivals the Trunk Diner for best use of bacon on a burger - a real pleasure.

When you have two genuine stars like the pattie and the bacon, you can be forgiven for overlooking the other accompaniments. There was nothing to fault with these, the lettuce was crisp and the pickles provided a nice savoury touch. They were able contributors to a two starred attack, not too dissimilar to Jack Gunston or Pau Puopolo to the Hawthorn attack.

I have already touched on the presentation of the chips, but it is one thing to look impressive, it is another thing altogether to meet (and exceed) those expectations. These chips were top-notch. Golden brown, crunchy, seasoned yet fluffy and light in the middle. They were perfectly suited to the aioli which was fresh and light.

My only real gripe with this burger was the absence of a boutique beer, or any beer for that matter, to wash it down with. Hardly relevant in our culinary quest to find Melbourne's best burger, particularly given the number of licensed venues in close proximity, but there is something extra special about a soothing ale to accompany a delicious meal.

I had some difficulty, and agonised long and hard, as to who I would liken this burger to. Ultimately, I settled on Daniel Geale. The little known Australian boxer (which is changing quickly) is a no-nonsense, honest and rugged fighter. Where the likes of Mundine have polarised the Australian boxing public, Geale is a contemporary gentleman in a sport that is characterised by ego, salesmanship and bravado. Although he recently lost his IBF world title, he retained his humility and will be back fighting in those ranks before too long. Like Geale, the Espresso burger is understated and unpretentious and also has the potential to be a household name on the burger circuit. A relative unknown; it won't last for long.

Do yourself a favour and go sample this burger now. You will not be disappointed.

Burger Friday Rating: 41/50

The Mitre Tavern

2013-08-28T17:13:00.002+10:00

Burger Reviewed: Mitre Angus Beef Burger

Venue: The Mitre Tavern

Date: 9 August 2013

Resident of the oldest building in Melbourne, the Mitre Tavern (naturally) claims the title of the oldest pub in Melbourne. It is a traditional British-style pub that you would expect to come across in a quiet country town; not in the heart of Melbourne. Out-of-place in sorts; with a mixed clientele of businessmen, tourists and your average Joe; the Tavern does a roaring trade as it traverses social classes and aligns people to the oldest and humblest of origins - the love of beer, hearty food and a yarn.

The venue is split in three. The outdoor beer garden, without a blade of grass in sight, is spacious and offers ample outdoor dining yet seats are hotly contested (particularly on a Friday). The type of place you would enjoy a beer on a Friday afternoon before a short stroll to the MCG. Upstairs is the acclaimed steakhouse, where 'business lunches' run into 'business dinners'. An upper class affair, it's the sit-down-napkin-across-your-lap meal you reserve for special occasions, but we were here to sample the humble burger and such delicacies do not require such grand service.

Given the inclement Melbourne weather we opted for the third alternative - to dine inside. Not a bad choice as we were greeted by a highlights reel of Matthew Burton, the 7ft gangly North and Fremantle ruckman of the nineties. Watching the human praying mantis ply his craft before a feast was a real pleasure. My nostalgia of Spider Burton was overshadowed by the history that adorns the walls inside. An unpretentious and classic interior, you could only begin to imagine the number of embellished yarns that have been shared inside these walls. An authentic pub in the truest sense of the term.

We ordered the house burger at the bar and it felt like before we had sat back down that our meal had arrived at our table. This got me thinking of the speed continuum. At one end of the spectrum, which frustrates all patrons, is the painfully slow, hunger-wrenching burger that feels as though the cow was slaughtered in the kitchen before being cooked. A worry for any patron as you start to fear the incompetence of those in the kitchen. Equally as worrying is the other end of the spectrum, which the Mitre Tavern finds itself, is the super quick, bain marie burger. Fortunately, this burger didn't have the 'pie-warmer' feel to it; rather, a rigorous application of Henry Ford's supply change principles.

Not surprisingly, the speed at which the burger arrived did nothing to assist in the presentation. As the photo attests, do not expect to see this on the front cover of the epicure magazine. But lets be honest, you come to a pub with an expectation of a hearty and wholesome meal, not a dainty image you can post on instagram. In accordance with our expectations, this burger was simple pub food - seasoned prime Angus beef, tomato, lettuce, cheese, caramelized onions, homemade tomato relish on a toasted bun for the reasonable price of $18.

The first bite into the burger left a sweet aftertaste in my mouth. Too sweet. While I am ordinarily a big supporter of caramelized onions, the caramelization coupled with the tanginess of the relish was too much for my liking. Both were in generous supply, which meant that they overpowered the other flavors. Perhaps some mustard on the base of the bun might help to offset these strong flavors.

The bun was thick and fresh, but was not toasted as the menu suggests. It lacked that crunch and contrast in textures that a golden brown bun can provide.

In contrast, the chips were crisp and crunchy. Traditionally cut without any herbs or spices; a little salt wouldn't have gone astray though. We compensated for this with some tomato sauce from the bar; alternatively, you could have gone for an off-the-shelf mayonnaise. Neither were glamorous but were hard to fault.

There was no side salad. Hardly a problem with that. The salad that was on the burger was fresh and met our expectations. As is the key with any salad on a burger, it did enough to be noticed without being noticed - if you've ever had to pick out wilted lettuce or a rotten tomato from a burger, you'll know that going relatively unnoticed can be a good thing.

What you do notice when you sit down to eat this burger, however, is the thickness of the pattie. Albeit this was not as thick as previous visits, the burger takes on an almost rissole like consistency. It is cooked through which can lend itself to being too dry - if you're going to use such a dense piece of meat, it should be seared and retain some pink in the middle. Unfortunately, for mine, this was overcooked and meant that any flavors or seasoning were overpowered. A simple fix would be to cook this on a high heat for a shorter period of time to make the pattie the star of the show it should be.

When working out who to name this burger after, I was inspired by watching the highlights of the North Melbourne dynasty of the 90s on the big screen. In particular, the man colloquially known as 'the Fridge' - Mark Roberts. Although he had stints at Sydney and Brisbane, the Fridge is best remembered for his time at the Kangaroos. The Fridge, like the Mitre Burger, is not the prettiest thing to look at; both are keg-like in their appearance and would look misshapen next to many of their counterparts. But the way Roberts approached his football - rugged, robust and honest - is quite similar to the Mitre Burger. Nothing flashy, just honest. Moreover, were you to combine the Mitre Tavern with the Fridge, I reckon you would happily settle in for a long lunch cum dinner as he would have some ripping stories to share about his career and there would be few better venues to hear it.

If you are in the CBD and in need of something to quench your thirst, I definitely recommend stopping at the Mitre Tavern. It's a great pub, in a fantastic location and should you be hungry, try the burger.

Burger Friday Rating: 31.5/50

Five Guys Burgers and Fries (New York)

2013-08-25T18:16:00.000+10:00

Burger reviewed: The Bacon Cheeseburger All The Way

Venue: Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Date: 13 August 2013

Currently in New York City, the Burger Friday fellows decided to make a quick stop at the chain restaurant Five Guys Burgers and Fries (Five Guys), on route to catch a ball game at the house that Ruth built.

Having originally opened in 1986 in Washington DC by the entrepreneurial Murrell brothers, the business exploded like an Alfonso Soriano home run when it decided to franchise in 2003. With over 1000 stores in North America and a further 1500 in the pipeline, it is the fastest growing fast food chain getting around.

Perhaps the most important indicator of its influence is that it holds the enviable mantel of being one of the most talked about burgers on the internet. With a focus on quality food and good service, it has gained a cult like status with celebrity endorsements even ringing all the way up to Barack Obama, which is exactly why it was on our list of venues to try.

An example of its commitment to quality is its shunning of twentieth century technology by refusing to have freezers in its stores. The end result is that all meat, potatoes and other produce are fresh. This attitude somewhat reminds me of the Olympic runner Abebe Bikila who just said screw you to footwear and won a gold medal in the marathon barefoot. While I am definitively not averse to technology, it is nice to know that the food is fresh.

The burger reviewed today was the bacon cheeseburger served all the way, which I was reliably informed by the guy behind the counter was in his opinion "the only way". At Five Guys, they give you the option to add whatever toppings you want – for free. With as many as 15 free toppings there is literally 262,143 combinations of burgers available, if you ‘do the math’.

When you go all the way, you get almost all of them. The all the way bacon cheeseburger consisted of a soft sesame seed bun topped with a double beef pattie, crispy bacon, cheese, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, ketchup, mayo, and mustard.

And lets just say all the way was almost better than the first time you got past first base. The pattie, which was clearly handmade, was cooked to a very good medium well, with a nice bit of char on the outside, giving it bite and flavour. The bacon was crunchy and complemented well by the sauce combination of ketchup, mayo and mustard. Every bite of the burger was mouth-wateringly good, with seemingly different flavours and textures between the current bite and the one previous.

Ably accompanied by handcut chips with the skin on and endless soda refills, it is easy to see why Five Guys is cult worthy. While your waist line might not thank you, your wallet definitely will. Total cost for the meal came in at under $14USD for what is a very good quality burger.

While a distinction exists for burger purveyors between gourmet burgers (served on a plate, and generally neater in appearance) and fast good burgers (served wrapped and delivered in a bag), of which the Five Guys clearly falls into the latter category, the flavours and quality of their offerings can be held up against any of the gourmet burgers we have tried.

In light of its punch above its weight stakes and not necessarily good looks, this is the Phil Mickelson of Burgers. Mickelson is an unabashed fan of Five Guys who once in a press conference, unprompted, told a roomful of reporters that Five Guys served “hands down the best burger he has ever had.” It was revealed a week later that Mickelson was an investor in Five Guys franchises. Regardless, who doesn't mind a little bit of self promotion when the burgers can back it up?

This is one burger chain I would love to see come to Australia. If in North America skip the Clown (McDonald's) and the Crown (Burger King) and definitively get to Five Guys!

Burger Friday rating: 42.5/50

The Angry Moose

2013-08-20T14:59:00.000+10:00

Burger reviewed: The BELT The Moose

Venue: The Angry Moose

Date: 04/08/2013

Is there a better way to spend a Sunday than by taking a leisurely stroll down street to smash a burger? Maybe a "Silly Sunday" session with your footy mates after your season has just come to a end? Although the Burger Friday crew were a part of the former, we still got to sit there and witness the antics of the footy team (let's call them the Bankstown Foaklies) who were drowning their sorrows along side us. Most enjoyably, in true Silly Sunday fashion - one bloke brought his missus.

In light of the rather rowdy crowd making up the patronage of The Angry Moose, a venue known for manly style burger combinations, we calmly sat a safe distance away from the Foaklies and ordered the "BELT The Moose" burger. Settle down Nick Maxwell, this isn't cruelty to animals. It is simply the code name for the regular burger with bacon, egg, lettuce and tomato. Despite the backlog of orders, our burgers came out in reasonable time and the mere sight of burger had me salivating.

The patty was a real winner and provided the centerpiece for the rest of the elements of the burger to work around. It was of the ideal size and thickness, was cooked to perfection and had the crumbly and fibrous texture indicative of a handmade beef patty. Not to mention a nice sprinkling of dried herbage which was worked into the patty mixture. Some burger makers endeavour to impart the majority of flavour through a flamboyant patty mixture whereas others focus more on sauce combinations. We don't have a preference as long as the end result is quality (much the same as our opinion on Josh Kennedy's kicking action).

The bun was one of the better ones we have tried in the great state of Western Australia. A lightly toasted Turkish style bun which was solid enough to hold the burger together but light enough to soak up all of the juices. It was the type of breadage you would happily dunk in a container of hommus for a light Sunday snack.

The burger was complemented by a simple yet very effective sauce combination of Heinz Big Red and mayo. The two seemingly plain ingredients combined into what can only be described as "fancy sauce". And like Dale in Step Brothers, "I like it".

The remaining ingredients for which this burger gets its name added to the already solid set of flavours while not overpowering the stars of the show. The runny yolk of the egg added a creaminess which was complemented by the saltiness of the bacon and the sweetness of the grilled onions. In my opinion, the lettuce and tomato are out of place on a manly burger - which would leave bacon and egg as the additional ingredients in what would be called the "BE The Moose" burger. Just food for thought.

Some additional food for thought - Tiger Woods' ex-wife, Elin Nordegren, currently sits fifth on the PGA tour money list for the 2013 season behind Brandt Snedeker - this automatically qualifies her for all four major championships in 2014. I thought this was worth a mention.

The chips were the highlight. An extremely generous serving of well sized chips accompanied by some garlic Aioli. The most enjoyable facet of these chips was the superb crunchiness you got from the outer chip while maintaining the appropriate level of fluffiness inside. The outside of each chip was slightly blistered and when consumed, these blistered spots seemed to burst with crunch and flavour. Anyone in our readership know how this is accomplished? Perhaps someone whose parents owned a fish and chip shop?

Overall, this burger hit all of the right notes. The flavours were all there - the bitterness from the patty, saltiness from the bacon and sweetness from the grilled onions were complemented by a texturally complete burger.

One warning I will give in relation to this burger is the dreaded "food baby" you have to deal with afterwards. Both times I have had the Angry Moose burger for lunch, I have felt so full for the rest of the day that I have not eaten dinner. Therefore, I imagine that this burger would not be one you would prefer to consume before or during a big afternoon on the sherberts. This phenomenon left me feeling sorry for the Foaklies.

I enjoyed everything about this burger but left a bit full. So the sportsperson this burger will draw comparisons to is the much maligned English offspinner Monty Panesar. A man known for his passion for the game and extravagant wicket celebrations, Monty recently landed himself in hot water for relieving himself on a nightclub bouncer when he too found himself a little full. A revenge a number of people would like to inflict on a power tripping bouncer I would imagine.

Honourable mentions for people who have landed in hot water for relieving themselves in public - Brendan Fevola, Mark Williams (during a VFL game), Nate Robinson and R Kelly.

If you find yourself on Beaufort Street, don't think twice about stepping in for a quality burger.

Score: 38/50

In-N-Out Burger

2013-08-12T17:21:00.003+10:00

Burger reviewed: Double Double Burger Animal Style

Venue: In-N-Out Burger; Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco

Date: 5 August 2013

Continuing Burger Friday’s American burger adventure, our next stop was the famous In-N-Out Burger.

Originating as a drive-thru some 60 years ago, it is now one of the most iconic of burger chain restaurants on the west coast of the USA. As the chain expanded over the years, it, unlike many other stores, has avoided adding products such as chicken or salads to its menu. Neither has it changed its preparation methods. This is, simply, good old-fashioned food.

The fact that it is only available on the west coast had eluded us until we realised that we were about to leave the state of California and this burger opportunity could be gone for a significant amount of time. With FOMO striking (fear of missing out), it was a somewhat frantic state that we raced to the Fisherman's Wharf store in San Francisco to see if the burger was going to be the best thing since sliced bread or just over-hyped like Michael Hurley.

Located right on the bay of San Fran, the hype was evident from the big line streaming out the door. Having done some solid research while in the queue (i.e., five minutes of googling on the iPhone), we stepped up to the counter and duly ordered the double double burger and asked to turn it animal style. While turning it animal style sounds like we were asking to go all Grant Hackett and start flipping grand pianos, it is actually referring to the cooking style and toppings of one of the most popular ways to have an In-N-Out burger off the Secret Menu.

This Secret Menu is actually not so secret afterall because they advertise it on their website. Instead of a broad menu like other competitors, In-N-Out just has a real simple menu with maybe ten items, but also has unadvertised variations of its burgers that are based on customer preferences. These include: double meat, 4 x 4, grilled cheese, protein style and animal style.

The Double Double burger animal style is two mustard cooked beef patties, double American cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, ketchup, grilled onions and a spread sauce (somewhat similar to a thousand island dressing or perhaps more literally, like the sauce you get on a Big Mac).

The burger came out presented in a cardboard container and unlike every other chain restaurant burger actually looked like the pictures you see of it. Its presentation was flawless. The burger was cooked to a medium well and was very very tasty. The bun was soft, in an almost velvet-sledge-hammer-style, and with the addition of pickles, tomatoes and onion this was a full flavoured and well balanced burger. The combination of ketchup and the spread was spot on.

My criticisms would be that the double double American cheese just overwhelmed the burger taste a little bit too much. While the cooking methods haven't changed in 60 years, I think you could tell that this burger was not going to be good for the cholesterol levels.

We accompanied our burger with some excellent homemade fries which you can actually see still have the potato skin on to evidence they may have really originated from real the vegetable. Coming in with an endless soft drink refills at a total of sub-$8USD, this clearly gets full marks for value.

In honour of In-N-Out originating in 1948, I will dub this burger after NBA hall of famer Nate Archibald who was also born in that fabled year. Archibald was a willing passer and an adequate midrange shooter. It was his speed and agility, however, that made him difficult to guard in the open court. Like Nate, the In-N-Out burger franchise is a very good burger by itself, but the speed of service, consistency, presentation and price make this burger great.

If on the West Coast of USA make sure you stop by In-N-Out Burger and see what the hype is all about.

Burger Friday rating: 39.5/50

BurgerMeister

2013-08-06T10:51:00.001+10:00

Burger reviewed: The Meisterburger

Venue: BurgerMeister, San Francisco, CA

Date: 2 August 2013

One of the first stops on this American burger tour of joy is the city of San Francisco, famous for its hills, food and home of the 49ers and San Francisco Giants.

The venue of choice for our first burger review in San Francisco is BurgerMeister in North Beach.

As a fan of both food and sports, it certainly feels like at the moment, being organic in this way would put BurgerMeister in rare company. Whilst the Windy Pills saga has raged on in Melbourne, doping scandals in US sports are part and parcel of every sport it seems. So it is fantastic to see a restaurant who wants to buck this trend and give people real food.

Set out in a classic American style diner, serving up as they put it, "real American classic comfort food". BurgerMeister has an astonishing 18 burgers on the menu, and, if that’s not enough, you even have the additional option to make your own. This means the combinations are virtually endless and definitely not for the indecisive.

While Australia has undergone a burger revolution of sorts in recent years, the Burger Friday fellows are continuing our mission to sample burgers far and wide. This means going beyond the land girt by sea, to visit the home of the burger - The United States of America.

Currently spanning six stores, this Bay Area burger chain specialises in burgers made with meat sourced from Niman Ranch; meaning that they are guaranteed to be all natural and free of hormones, steroids or antibiotics.

The burger reviewed by the Fellows was the signature MeisterBurger, awarded as the best Burger in San Francisco an astonishing 6 times in a row. An admirable dynasty, but still quite a way from arguably Australia’s greatest ever female athlete, Heather McKay, who went unbeaten in competitive squash matches from 1962 to 1981 and only lost two matches for her career. Only 15 more burger titles to go…

The MeisterBurger is a 1/5lb Niman Ranch beef pattie cooked to choice, topped with crispy Niman Ranch Applewood smoked bacon, sautéed mushrooms, sautéed onions, fresh avocado and cheese on a traditional sesame hamburger bun. Served with crispy cooked fries and your choice of ketchup, mustard or Dijon mustard condiments at your table, this burger is an absolute winner.

While perhaps the sloppiest burger I have ever tried to eat, meaning structural integrity was an issue for even the top burger management experts, this critic was over shadowed by the exceptional flavours.

The toppings on this burger were first class. The crispy bacon was cooked perfectly and provided beautiful crunch to offset the softness of the burger bun and the sautéed mushrooms and onions. I was a little hestitant about the addition of fresh avocado (which was literally a whole avocado) on the burger, but was pleasantly surprised with how well it worked with the juiciness of the mushrooms and onions and the mustard sauce.

The star of the show was the beef pattie, which was cooked perfectly to a medium and was undoubtedly one of the best tasting patties I have experienced on my burger Friday journeys. Large in size, organic, perfectly seasoned, it just ticked all the right boxes and was simply excellent.

Given the sheer number of ingredients going on in this burger full marks must be given for the synergies that they have managed to create. A fantastic combination of sweet, savoury, crispy, soft, and tangy make this burger an absolute ripper.

In honour of the local San Francisco NFL team the 49ers, I am going to dub this burger after its quarterback Colin Kaepernick. After being drafted in 2011, Kaepernick lead the 49ers in 2012, breaking various individual post season records, all the way to the Super Bowl, only to be defeated narrowly by the Baltimore Ravens. Just strolling the streets of San Francisco and seeing the sheer number of people wearing clothing with his name can tell you he is the people's champ. And I am going to bet by the time his career is over, he will have an awards listing similar to that of BurgerMeister.

If in San Francisco I highly recommend you get around this burger now.

Burger Friday score: 42.5/50

Alfred's Kitchen

2013-07-20T12:57:00.000+10:00

Burger reviewed: The Hamburger with Bacon, Egg and Cheese

Venue: Alfred's Kitchen (Perth)

Date: 19/07/2013

Today's burger adventure marks a significant milestone for the Burger Friday fraternity with this Burview being our 50th. Hazzah!

When the Fellow's first came together in February 2011, we believed we had what it takes to complete multiple burger reviews. Not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, not 5, not 6, not 7. Like the Miami Heat and the recently crowned King James, we at Burger Friday find it necessary to surround ourselves with talented people in order to put ourselves in the best position to succeed. As such, the lure of the 50th Burview saw Burger Friday introduce a number of high priced recruits - including All-Australian Ruckmen Nic Naitanui, a trio of Australian Diamonds netballers and Collingwood Premiership player Nathan Brown's brother Mitchell. Honestly, I haven't seen a team recruit this well since the Adelaide Crows gave up Chris Groom for Andrew McLeod in 1994.

50 is a number whose significance is reflected in many sports. From a bullseye on a dart board to the quick raise of the bat and tweak of the box associated with a half ton in cricket. But most enjoyably, the number 50 is reserved a special place in the annals of basketball history. It was the number worn by Hall of Famer, "The Admiral" David Robinson. And it is the number retired by the University of North Carolina Tarheels for "Psycho T" Tyler Hansborough - a man whose idiotic persona on the basketball court has paved the way for other A-grade jousters such as Lance Stephenson, whose disappearing act in this years Eastern Conference Finals was made all the more enjoyable by the fact that he sledged LeBron for being a choker last year. Oh how I love watching people's comments come back to bite them on the arse! But it could be worse, Lance could have acted like former UFC Middleweight Champion Andersen Silva in his recent world title fight - where Andersen copped a glancing hook from Chris Weidman, acted like he was knocked out, only to be knocked out cold one second later.

But enough clowning around, let's get to the aforementioned milestone review.

Alfred's Kitchen is a quaint truck stop style burger kiosk located just across the road from Perth's Bassendean Oval, the home of the Swan Districts Football Club and WAFL sensation Murray Newman. Alfred's kitchen has specialised in serving fish 'n' chip style burger treats since 1946. One of the more enjoyable facets of Alfred's service was the open fire roaring out the front, which signals that Alfred's is open for business. With my inner pyro chomping at the bid, I had a look at the menu (or the "Graham Manou" as I like to call it) and Alfred's boasts over 40 burgers ranging from the coronary option double hamburger with egg, bacon and cheese to the lighter option of the lentil. We promptly ordered the single hamburger with bacon egg and cheese and got ready to chow down.

The patty was, as it should always be, the star of the show. The subtle bitterness from the slightly charred outside of the patty mingled seductively with the coagulated meat fibres in a way that only a perfectly cooked handmade meat patty can. The juice and flavours covered and excited all parts of the palette like they were Igors Vihrovs dutch winking and flat bagging his way to the gold medal in the floor exercise at the Sydney Olympics (just wanted to send a shout out to our Latvian readership (almost 150 views from the great country). Anyone remember this bloke from Roy and H.G.'s "The Dream"?). I cannot say enough for how well this patty hit the spot.

The bun was exquisite. Like a sesame freckled breast of an angel lightly toasted to perfection. There is so much to be said for the simple act of lightly toasting a burger bun. Actually, from this day forward I am going to declare a war on untoasted burger buns - these should be outlawed from burger production the way centre circle bounced pads were outlawed from the AFL in 1999 when they caused Shaun Rehn's leg to snap in half.

The salads played their part - crisp and refreshing. Salads on a burger are like the guys making up the bench on an NBA team - slapping a towel on the ground is as flamboyant as they should get (Patty Mills - if there was a ring for towel waving, you'd be the finals MVP), but their main job is to hold back the other bench sitters when the stars of the show heat up, so that nobody gets a technical foul.
The condiment of choice for Alfred's was a simple dollop of Heinz Big Red. Whilst some may gripe at the lack of a gourmet sauce, I applaud it. This is after all a burger aiming to do all of the simple things right, to become a whole that is more than the sum of it's parts. What you get when you have a "simple" burger try to be something else with an extravagant sauce combo is an unmitigated disaster - a Tony Romo if you will. Romo is one of the more talented QB's in the NFL but tries to do some extremely extravagant things on a football field (19 picks in the 2012 season alone). Stick to doing the fundamentals well instead champ.

The chips were a perfect accompaniment to the burger and stayed true to the brief. They were crunchy, light on the inside and adequately dressed due to the selection of condiments. One of which was chicken salt. Nuff said.

The overall rating of this burger suggests that there are some aspects for improvement, but if you start adding extravagant ingredients you take away the burger's identity. We here at Burger Friday encourage burger diversity and can find enjoyment out of all styles of burger. So I would not change a thing here.

The sports person who I will compare this burger to is fast bowling icon turned breast cancer ambassador Glenn McGrath. As a result, I am dubbing the Alfred's Kitchen burger - "The line and length" burger. This burger hit all the right notes with its simplistic design and ingredients. It is a burger that would be successful all year round and in all kinds of conditions. As for Glenn McGrath's association with the number 50 - he scored arguably the most loved half century in all of cricket against our rivals from across the ditch. I cannot help but laugh at the look on Pidgeon's face after he slog sweeps Vettori for six. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo89Fh25a9w

What is next for Burger Friday you ask? Well our fellow 50, Curtis Jackson, got shot nine times and "he ain't going no where". So buckle in an enjoy the ride to 100.

Score: 41/50

Grill Station

2013-07-16T10:44:00.001+10:00

Burger Reviewed: Beef burger with the lot

Venue: Grill Station - Fairfield

Date: 28 June 2013

On the burger continuum – with the contemporary, knife and fork, dare-not-pick-it-up style burger at one end – the Grill Station in Fairfield happily bucks the modern trend and parks itself as an ambassador of the humble and rustic burger. There is something particularly enjoyable about eating an unpretentious burger that doesn’t try to sell itself with ingredients that would not look out of place on a Jacques Reymond menu. A throw back to the good old days, we sampled the beef burger with the lot – lettuce, tomato, egg, bacon, onion and tomato sauce – which was a steal at $12.50 with chips and a can of soft drink.

As you would probably expect, the décor of the Grill Station was befitting the burger. Located a stones throw away from the train station, it was modest, down-to-earth and clean. You felt that the focus of the budget for the fit-out was selectively used to purchase the large screen plasma which was throwing out live images of the footy – no complaints here.

Being old-fashioned and understated is hardly a criticism. On the contrary – and this was never more evident than by the service we received at the venue; some of the best I have received from any on our burger journey. While speed is one thing, and Grill Station cannot be faulted there, as first time visitors to the Grill Station we all left feeling as though we had known the staff for years. Where your inner city venue might define the quality of service by the fancy jug they use to pour you a glass of water, the staff at Grill Station make you feel right at home. A real pleasure in a time where you are more accustom to dealing with a machine or an offshore service centre.

To the burger. The first thing you should notice about this is the size. It is a rare occasion, and perhaps I was having an off day, that I struggle to finish a burger (and I am proud to say that I am still undefeated) but this was one satisfying meal. The type of burger you crave when you’ve had a few too many sherbets the night before.

While the burger might have been enormous, my main gripe with this burger was the thickness of the pattie. On a burger that cries out for the prima donna of patties, it was unfortunately overshadowed by the myriad of ingredients that accompanied it. It must be noted that there is the option for additional patties, and maybe we’d consider upsizing in the future, but the robust flavours of the pattie seemed to get lost in the strength of the other flavours. What there was of the pattie was tender, handmade, juicy and expertly cooked and seasoned.

Although the pattie was more than capable of being the star of the show, there was a bit of Lance Picioane about the other accompaniments to the burger. For those of you not versed in Triple M’s football commentary team’s use of this man’s surname as a verb – a quick history lesson. Picioane, an honest but not great footballer, was renowned for making a concerted effort at the end of the match to spend as much time as possible speaking to the opposition star players with a view to getting a bit of airtime for himself. In burger circles, a Picioane is an ingredient that tries to dominate the wholesome flavor of the beef. In this instance, the egg and the bacon. Both were perfectly cooked, the bacon charred and the egg fried so that the yolk wouldn’t run, but their perfection overshadowed the pattie.

The lettuce, tomato and onion were all fresh and well-seasoned as you would expect. My preference would be for the onion to be sautéed slightly long, but lets not allow personal bias get in the way. The cheese was of the simple tasty variety, which did well to cover the entire length of the bun. While on the topic of the bun, this was fresh, toasted to a crunchy golden brown and big enough to wrap your mittens around. It was the type of roll you would expect from a bakery rather than the fancy brioche number – a safe option that is hard to fault.

The chips were thick and well cooked. They came out hot and crispy, but could’ve done with a pinch more salt – this wasn’t so noticeable as we were given a full bottle of refrigerated (let’s not go there again!) tomato sauce to use. While your amateur burger blogger may have read the label and taken the Heinz tomato ketchup on the label as gospel, this was clearly a refilled bottle of plain tomato sauce. Ketchup/tomato sauce? Six of one, half a dozen of the other – there is a difference though. Ketchup any day of the week for mine but when you consider that similar venues are charging you twenty cents for a sachet of sauce that is majority air, you’re not going to be to upset when you get to give the bottle a generous squirt.

To the favourite part of our blog – I am going to tag this as the Geoff Huegill burger. The man who prematurely retired from the Australian swimming team only to return two years later looking as if a couple of airbags had blown up inside him. While he was never quite able to make it to the elite category of swimmers, a 140kg bloke doing butterfly stroke when others of similar size would be happy to just float certainly endeared him to the Australian sporting public. Like Huegill, the Grill Station burger is massive, and while not quite at the top of our list, it is the type of place that you cannot help but warm to. George and his team, like Huegill, are certainly the type of blokes you would love to sit down and have a beer with.

A great rustic burger with top-notch service and outstanding value – you won’t be disappointed.

Burger Friday Score: 37/50

Sea Salt

2013-07-16T10:39:00.000+10:00

Burger reviewed: The Beef Burger

Venue: Sea Salt

Date: 4 July 2013

Nestled in the hustling and bustling hip avenue of Degraves street, the Burger Friday fraternity located it's next burger adventure, Sea Salt. As far as locations go, Degraves street showcases just what the real Melbourne ambience is about – cobble stoned streets, narrow laneways, Banksy-esque graffiti (art) adoring the neighbouring walls, and surrounded by mixture of boutique and eclectic shops. Uniquely Melbourne, it is the type of place you don’t mind your burger taking a bit of time to come out as there is so much to absorb.

Sea Salt unashamedly fits within this diverse shopping strip, it is unassuming yet deceptive at the same time. At first glance you could be mislead by the large variety of homemade sushi rolls displayed in the front window to think this is just a sushi bar; should you enter, the perpetuating shout of fish and chips orders might give you a different impression, or were you to take a seat at the neat tables at the front of the store, you are likely to get the cafe-style lunch vibe. It is the Swiss army knife of venues, or to use a contemporary football term – the ‘swing man’ of venues (ala Jake Carlisle, Michael Hurley and Ben Reid this year, or even your Adam Hunter who held the mantle for a while around '05/06).

Before we get into the ratings, a little background of how we stumbled across this gem. Sea Salt is known around Melbourne (CBD) for its fish & chips, namely, its $8.90 Salmon Burgers & chips combo. However, due to beef being the BF meat of choice, we have steered clear of Sea Salt – until now. It was with great enthusiasm that we heard whisper that this Melbourne institution was to debut it’s Gippsland Angus beef burger (for a limited time only). Coincidence or fate... we think fate. Kudos to Sea Sat for branching out in the competitive burger market.

The burger came out in good time despite the peak hour time slot. The the waiters were friendly and unassuming, in many instances this has been a rare occurrence to us, it is however a very important reflection on the eatery. The presentation could not be faulted, the burger came out on a wooden board, with an aluminium mini deep fryer basket - although we've seen this presentation on a few occasions, it is a delight to the eye and very impressive.

The burger consisted of lettuce and tomato, tasty cheese, beetroot, mayo, tomato relish together with the pattie. The Gippsland beef pattie was well cooked, slightly pink in the middle, and lived up to all expectations. The beetroot was an absolute winner, an uncommon ingredient in the upper market burger industry; together with the tomato it was highly refreshing. The one let down of the burger was the oversupply of mayonnaise which filtered through to the pattie and provided an unpleasant creaminess which overpowered the charcoal finish and the texture of the pattie. There is an obvious solution to that – tell Popeye in the kitchen to lay off the spinach – or, better yet, include a slice of crispy bacon, the saltiness of which would help to offset the creaminess of the burger.

Having said that, credit must be given for the chips. Golden, crispy throughout, well drained and generously seasoned. These chips were a craftsmanship to be proud of and must have taken years to master. Hats off guys!

After much deliberation, we have decided to dub this burger the Paul "Big Fish" Salmon. After an illustrious career as one of the best tap ruckman in the business with Essendon and Hawthorn, the Big Fish was poached out of retirement by the old fox Kevin Sheedy, where he was primarily used as a forward in order to prolong his career. Similarly, Sea Salt has forged its way successfully in the fish & chip market, and is now making strong strides into the beef burger industry. With a little improvement, Sea Salt Angus Burgers will be a mainstay of DeGraves St.

We can only hope that this limited edition burger becomes a permanent fixture on the Sea Salt menu.

Burger Friday Rating: 36/50

Ribs & Burgers

2013-06-28T17:50:00.001+10:00

Burger reviewed: The Original

Venue: Ribs & Burgers

Date: 9 June 2013

An acclaimed restaurant in Sydney, with stores in Neutral Bay and Star City Casino, Ribs & Burgers (R&B) made its foray into Melbourne in 2012 at the rear of the Northcote Shopping Plaza. Adjacent to the entrance of the carpark and opposite the local skate park, it was the type of location that you would expect to see a Nandos or a Grill’d franchise and not your flagship Melbourne store. While we might have had our reservations as to the choice of locations, the abundance of young professionals in the apartments above and in the neighbouring townhouses provided a steady flow of patrons to the venue and showed that management have found a niche location.

We settled down at an old wooden table to sample the original burger, which came with a primal cut beef mince patty, grilled, basted and served on a freshly baked sesame seed bun with iceberg lettuce, tomato, Spanish onion, dill pickles and special pink and BBQ sauce. While we waited for our burger (which came at good speed), it was hard to ignore the fitout of a vintage butcher shop. Meat mincers adorned the walls, staff wore a traditional blue aprons and the traditional blue & white butchers paper was in plentiful supply. In discussing the décor, it would be remiss of us to not mention the table number which rivals the Jus Burger toy dinosaur for best table adornment. The half-pot half-kettle, or pottle for short, was an interesting take on the famous idiom, ‘the pot calling the kettle black’.

It is important if you’re going to put yourself out there to be a butcher, with all the connotations that naturally follow, that you get the core ingredient of the burger – the patty – down pat. This is where you would ordinarily expect to read: ‘to our disappointment’, but on the contrary. The flame grilled burger provided a perfectly charred and smokey exterior, yet maintained the tender juiceness that comes when meat is cooked to an ideal medium. Handmade and cooked to perfection, this pattie is a bona fide contender to rival Rockpool (in my opinion) for the best pattie in the business. A real pleasure.

We were equally delighted when we read the menu to see that this fantastic specimen of meat was to be accompanied by special pink and BBQ sauce. Credit to R&B for making the decision to take the path less trodden and shy away from the typical tomato sauce number. The risk in doing so, however, is that if the alternative is not up to the standard of the generic variety then you open yourself to criticism. To our disappointment, this was the case. One of our guests likened the ‘pink’ sauce to an off-the-shelf seafood variety, it was hard to argue with. It has no place on a burger and was bereft of any real flavor. The BBQ sauce was more of the sweet variety and while nothing ostensibly wrong with it, a smokier BBQ sauce would’ve complemented the charred burger. The problem here was the combination of sauces just didn’t work. Perhaps refine the BBQ sauce and that should be more than enough.

While on the topic of improvements, I am going to touch on one of the culinary faux pas’ that has previously gone undocumented in this blog. The eye of the tomato. Although its namesake may bring back fond memories of Rocky Balboa in training before going on to triumph against Apollo Creed, there is nothing to celebrate here. The tomato is staple ingredient of any burger and goes without the plaudits that it probably deserves. While it won’t get recognition for what it does right, it certainly draws attention when it goes wrong. There is nothing worse than when a kitchen tries to stretch a tomato that little bit too far and you’re left munching on the wooden eye which attaches to the vine. It is the type of cost cutting exercise you would expect to see at Subway. An innocent mistake in this instance, but a mistake that the best restaurants in town are not going to make.

In contrast, the beer battered chips were an excellent example of the industry wide improvement we have witnessed as to the overall quality of chips. The standard of ‘chippery’ – the art of frying a chip – has improved remarkably in recent times. Gone are the days of playing Russian roulette in a McDonald’s queue hoping that you might strike gold with some freshly cooked fries. Standards have improved for the better and the R&B chips can proudly carry the baton on this front. The R&B chippery was hard to fault; the chips were freshly cooked, crisp, crunchy and generously seasoned. If I was to have one criticism, it would be to reiterate that the condiments were lacking.

To digress for a moment and to take a look at something that surfaced on one of the plates of our guests – the old onion ring. We are creatures of habit at Burger Friday and will not deviate from Burger + Chips, unless out of necessity, so an onion ring is somewhat of a delicacy. Like the chips, the B&G onions rings were expertly cooked to the point where I fouind myself hovering like a seagull to try and get a second tasting. It got me thinking, on the lines of process improvement, that the original burger could really benefit from the inclusion of these outstanding onion rings. The texture, saltiness and bite of the onion ring would just take this burger to a new level.

In light of the patches of brilliance that this burger demonstrated, we are going to christen this burger the Jeffrey Gartlett. Few players polarize their own supporter base more than Gartlett. His highlights package is elite, but he has tendencies to go missing for large patches of time and against quality opposition. If he can iron out the inconsistencies in his performance, he has the potential to be one of the best small forwards in the game. Equally, the R&B burger has amazing potential but is brought down by a few minor flaws.

A few tweaks to the accompaniments to the patty – some of the aforementioned onion rings, refine the BBQ sauce and ensure fresh salad – and it will only be a matter of time before patrons visit Northcote Plaza for the sole purpose of sampling the R&B burger. Don’t let our focus on the areas of improvement curb your enthusiasm for this burger, it is our enthusiasm for the potential of the R&B to compete with Melbourne’s best burgers that drives our constructive criticism. All things being equal, you will struggle to find a better burger in a shopping centre. Good value at $18 for burger, chips and a coke – would happily go back.

Burger Friday Rating: 39/50

Lord of the Fries

2013-06-24T13:12:00.001+10:00

Burger Reviewed: The Original Melbourne

Venue: Lord of the Fries

Date: 14/6/2013

Today the Burger Friday fellows ventured to the hustle and bustle of the corner of Elizabeth St and Flinders St to visit arguably the flagship store of Lord of the Fries (LOTF).

Having started in 2004, on the back of a group of friends mutual love of fries, LOTF should perhaps be credited with kick starting the food truck revolution in Melbourne. It was LOTF that started in a van driving around the country selling fries, until they eventually graduated to get a permanent spot in the Melbourne city, expanded their menu to include burgers, onion rings and hot dogs, and the rest as they say in the classics is history.

Since starting, LOTF has crafted itself a nice niche in the Melbourne food industry in that it serves not only vegetarian food, but also Kosher and Halal; which, in the fast food business, is as rare as trying to find a Melbourne supporter during the opening weekend of the ski season. Having eaten our way through pounds of meat on our journey to find burger nirvana, it was nice to be able to change it up by trying a vegetarian burger.

As is the Burger Friday tradition where possible, the fellows had the signature burger, being the Original Melbourne. The Original Melbourne burger comes with a special LOTF burger patty, grated cheese, pickles, onions, lettuce, Belgian mayo, mustard and ketchup on a freshly baked bun. Being a vegetarian burger, we were as clueless as a camel that had inexplicable found itself at the North Pole, but the combination of flavors was what really surprised.

While The triumvirate of sauces on the beautifully crunchy bun was a winner. There is something to be said for the commitment to bake the buns daily, as this really elevated this burger. And the inclusion of mayo, mustard and ketchup went as well together as well as Bob, Jack and Lou used to in the old days on Wide World of Sport. The pickles on the burger were provided a bit of tang to the burger. The grated cheese was plentiful and provided some bite and texture, but I think the burger would have benefitted had the cheese been melted on the burger.

Talking about texture, it provides a good segue to talk about the patty. Made from a textured vegetable protein, the patty was surprisingly good and a more than reasonable substitute for meat. Undeniably the best judge of any substitute is the blindfold test – would you notice the difference if you were blindfolded – and I would have to imagine there are many late night patrons who have purchased a burger from LOTF with their beer goggles on and have left fully satisfied not knowing that they have actually been dining on a meat substitute.

If I was to have one gripe, it would be that the pattie was perhaps just a little too soft in that it melted into the rest of the burger. I would have liked to have seen something with a little more crispiness/chargrill to it to emphasize its substance and prove that it should be the star of the show.

Talking about stars, the real ones of this show were the ones which the store was named after. Crispy, double fried, and presented with an array of sauces – these were fantastic. Kudos to the Lord on these glorious things.

Overall this was a very tasty burger and would gladly give a few more of the burgers on the menu a crack. While it is the first vegetarian burger we have tried, we were pleasantly surprised (particularly in light of our known carnivorous bias).

In honour of its vegetarian status, I am going to dub the LOTF Burger – the David Zabriskie. Zabriskie is a professional cyclist and also a vegan. He is known for his quirky nature, including singing before stages and the interviews he does with fellow riders in the peloton. Besides all that, he is a very good rider, and practically the Lord of the US time trials, winning the US national title 7 times. The fact that he is a little bit different resonates well with Lord of the Fries and its originality.

If you are a vegetarian, or if you are not, it is worth giving this burger a go as it will definitively open your eyes to some new horizons. Although we advocate burgers are made for a Friday afternoon, we are also fans of a bargain – so why not head down on a Monday afternoon for a LOTF two-for-one special (all Mondays in July – subscribe to their twitter account for other deals) and try something a little different.

Burger Friday rating: 32/50

Mr Burger

2013-06-21T09:47:00.001+10:00

Burger Reviewed: Mr Meat

Venue: Mr Burger CBD - 428 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne

Date: 7/6/2013

Today the Burger Friday fellows ventured to Little Bourke St to visit the new permanent home of the infamous food truck Mr Burger. Whilst the food truck market in Melbourne has blossomed like a colt on spell in a good paddock, Mr Burger has now set up permanent digs to complement its growing fleet of burger kitchens on wheels.

If you haven’t heard about the array of food trucks proliferating Melbourne’s northern suburbs in a new location each evening, you might have as well been living under a rock. Serving various cuisines, the Fellows have sampled a few of the burgers served up by a couple of these trucks and not once been disappointed. The Mr Burger truck is no exception and it was with great excitement when we learnt that they had decided to stop permanently in one spot.

Located outside the famed Queen Street legal chambers, in what was previously the Chaplin bar, the venue chosen by Mr Burger is barely larger than what would be found in a food truck. But that certainly did stop a long line of eager burger lovers queuing out the door when we had arrived on a brisk Melbourne Friday.

Whilst the size of the menu, with just 3 burgers on it (the aptly named Mr Burger, Mr Meat and Mr Veg burgers), chips and drinks, echoed the diminutive venue, it would be easy to write off this place as being a one trick pony. And to be honest you should. BUT, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The ability to serve a simple menu and do it damn well is a primary reason for why food trucks are making a killing. Let’s call this the Ray Allen principle in honour of the famed three point shooter. When you can be a master of one, you do not need to be a jack of all.

The burger we had today was the Mr Meat. Whilst our usual preference is to have the signature burger of the venue which in this case would be the Mr Burger, we thought that it would only be fair in light of our burger rating system which scores points for the inclusion of bacon to sample the Mr Meat burger. While the Mr Meat may be the second burger listed on the menu, it has a fair case to argue that it is the superior. One fellow likened it the Scott Pendlebury to the Mr Burgers Nick Maxwell. Whilst this probably undersells the quality of the Mr Burger, as both burgers are exceptional, its hard to argue on paper with the pedigree.

The Mr Meat comes with a hand made juicy meat pattie, butter lettuce, crispy bacon, caramelised onions, pickles, bbq sauce, mayonnaise and topped with a whole heap of oozing American cheese on a soft bun. As can be seen from the photo, the burger literally oozes. This burger was juicy, almost to its fault. Fortunately the foil wrapping of the burger was able to assist in keeping the juiciness of this burger in control.

The pattie was cooked to a beautiful medium rare, but the real star for me was the cheese. Melted onto the pattie as part of the cooking process, this American jack cheese provided both saltiness and savoury. Melting the cheese on the pattie just binds together the burger and ensures each bite combines all the various flavours. All in all the Mr Meat was a delightful burger, deceptively simple and mouth wateringly tasty.

If one criticism was to be forthcoming, it wouldn’t be the burger, but just the periphery, being the lack of any where to sit, and the lack of beers available on the menu. Being a fan of a froth, the selection of soft drinks did not quite hit the spot. And then trying to find a place to eat the Mr Burger, left the Burger Friday fellows wandering the alleys like Brendan Fevola after a big night out. But when you do find a place to park your kester, boy is it worth it.

At under a tenner for the burger and $2 for a small chips, this unpretentious burger is a serious takeaway front runner. In light of its excellent quality, but lack of support from the periphery we are going to dub this burger the Ryan Griffen. Griffen, the Western Bulldogs midfielder, is a genuine jet, who put in another team may have been able to take his game to another level. Similarly perhaps if Mr Burger had some spots to eat, this would be even better. But let’s be honest that is a relatively minor complaint and is not a knock on the burger. The comparatively inexpensive price of the burger would also be of appeal the cash strapped Bulldogs.

If you can chase down a truck, or find the permanent location, do yourself a massive favour and get to Mr Burger now.

Burger Friday Rating: 40.5

Burger Monster

2013-06-21T09:42:00.001+10:00

Burger Reviewed: Hamburger + Cheese and Bacon

Venue: Burger Monster

Date: 24/5/2013

This week the Burger Friday fraternity journeyed into uncharted waters and made the trek down to the Harbour Town shopping centre. Located in Melbourne's infamous Docklands, where tumbleweeds would not be out of place on the best of days, it is fair to say that the ambience surrounding Harbour Town is far from perfect. Former Victorian Planning Minister, and dual Carlton premiership ruckman, Justin “Harry” Madden has a lot to answer for here. Sadly, he is more likely to be remembered for his role in approving this desolate shopping district rather than his loping two bounces and goal from fifty (while being chased through the centre of Waverley Park by another of the great dinosaur ruckmen, Shaun Rehn) – well worth a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWQ7QhWoOdE.

Despite the adversities of its surrounding, for which the BM can take no blame, the BM franchise remains passionate about rekindling the nostalgic memories of the "Great Australian Burger". It proudly displays its burger mantra (which other venues could learn a thing or two from):

-A Great Australian Burger is a juicy burger that’s cooked on the grill only when you order it.
-The Great Australian Burger originated in the Milk Bar’s and Fish & Chip Shops of the Seventies.
-Australians love a good Burger. And we’re not talking junk food mass produced in a factory.

Against the backdrop (and excitement) of a traditional Aussie burger, we ordered the Hamburger + Cheese & Bacon for a reasonable $7.95; add in small chips and your fish & chip shop-style can of soft drink and the price came to a round $14.

Sure enough, as soon as we ordered the chef threw the pattie on the grill, staying true to the BM values of no pre-made produce. We prayed that this was a sign of things to come.

The burger consisted of a fresh ground beef pattie, tasty cheese, lettuce, tomato, grilled onion, bacon and the BM special sauce.

The bun was a light, thin and pleasantly grilled, with dead horse spread on the bottom and the special sauce on the top. The special sauce was a winner – a somewhat smoky mayonnaise, it provided a nice balance to perfectly charred burger and was in generous supply.

The pattie was all it promised to be, juicy and charred to perfection. Along with its loyal companions of grilled onion and crispy bacon, this was burger was to form and was one of the most Aussie tasting burger we've had so far. It brought back memories of summer days of throwing a pattie on the BBQ while watching the Aussie Open in 30 degree heat.

With this memory in mind, we must dub this Burger the Wayne "Uncle" Arthur Burger.

During a long-spanning career on the international Tennis tour, Wayne Arthurs portrayed everything that Australian sportspersons strive to stand for. With a never give up attitude, the Aussie battler always left all he had on the court, and despite his shortcomings as a player drew unmatched popularity from the Australian public. Sensationally Uncle Arthurs won his first tour title at the ripe age of 33.

Like Arthurs, the Burger Monster burger portrayed everything we love about Australian sportspersons, albeit in cuisine sense. Notwithstanding the fact that it' still a fair way off our top rated Burgers, we are proud to say we loved the Burger for what it was, a good Aussie feed. We believe with more exposure and time the Australian public will fall in love with this Burger franchise as well.

Burger Friday rating: 34.5/50

Maha Restaurant

2013-06-08T12:10:00.000+10:00

Burger Reviewed: The Gus

Venue: Maha

Date: 6/6/2013

Today the Burger Friday fellows ventured on a #spicejourney to once again visit Shane Delia’s Maha Restaurant in Bond St, Melbourne.

After wowing the Burger Friday fellows on our previous journey to Maha with an amazing lamb burger (complete with an olive tapenade, prosciutto, freshly grated cheese and a beer included!) we were very excited to be visiting the mysteriously dark middle eastern basement once again.

After dreaming about the lamb burger for weeks on end and knowing it was only a short term special, there was some minor trepidation that perhaps we had seen a deal that was too good to be true and would fall into our distant memories aka John Georgiades. Georgiades, after kicking eight on debut and seven the following week, disappeared into obscurity, playing only a dozen more games for the Bulldogs, leaving AFL fans scratching their heads forever more about what they had witnessed.

But it was with very great pleasure when we discovered that the burger special was back and there was not a chance that Shane Delia was going to be serving up anything less than spectacular and most certainly not Georgiades style one hit wonder.

This time the burger special was with the Gus, a deliciously tasty angus beef burger with some of the most innovative and interesting flavors the fellows have ever tasted on a burger.

Coming on a buttered, toasted and seeded brioche style bun, the Gus burger is a substantial and glorious angus beef pattie, topped with pickled lettuce, onion, coriander and the piece de résistance, smoked bacon mayonnaise. Far from the traditional, beef, cheese, bacon burgers we often see, this deliberate selection of flavours fused seamlessly to create burger synergy.

The beef pattie was beautifully cooked to a juicy medium rare, and just had a melt in the mouth/butter type consistency. As the key ingredient in a burger, the quality of the meat was outstanding and consistent with the attention to detail expected of a hatted restaurant. The accomplishment of being able to cook a pattie as thick as a clenched fist so well should also be applauded.

The pickled lettuce and onion provided both bite and tang, and special mention needs to be made to the smoked bacon mayonnaise. This gave an oozing richness to the burger and provided a salty offset to the savory of the meat pattie.

The Gus burger comes ably accompanied by a 961 Lager, which is European pale lager originating from Lebanon, and was a perfect partner to round out our #spicejourney. And all for only $18, this felt like we got away with stealing game one of an NBA Finals playoff series away from your home court as the massive underdog.

The bold flavours, the quality of the ingredients, the exceptional price tag all combine to make Gus one hell of a great burger.

In honour of the most famous Gus to make his name in the Australian sporting public, I am going to dub this burger the Guus Hiddink. After being appointed the manager of the Australian Socceroos in 2005, Guus took the Australian public on an epic journey, leading through to the World Cup finals. While Guus was a little bit different, not unlike this Gus, he was a winner and the public loved him, even creating slogans such as "No Guus, No Glory", and "Guus for P.M".

In light of that, we highly recommend you get to Maha and experience this burger now, because all the Burger Friday fellows can say is “In Gus We Trust”.

Burger Friday rating: 42.75/50

Cotta

2013-05-23T15:24:00.003+10:00

Burger reviewed: The Footy Meal Deals Burger

Venue: Cotta at Crown

Date: 17 May 2013

Our weekly sojourn continued this week to Cotta, located on level one at the west end of the Crown casino complex. As is often the way when trying to navigate through the labyrinth that is Packer’s palace, Cotta was about as easy to find as a Melbourne supporter after the three quarter time siren. If you do eventually find Cotta, you will notice that the venue has been furnished in a manner that is consistent with the broader Crown redevelopment. It is a sleek, yet somehow quaint, café with a mixture of contemporary and retro fittings. The type of café that would not look out of place in Carlton or Richmond and quite a pleasant surprise to find in the middle of a gaming floor.

You would expect that a modern café surrounded by the glitz and glamour of the adjacent poker machines and card tables to provide enough noise and excitement, but Cotta was the site of an impromptu and uncharacteristic debate. Our loyal readership might come to expect the topic to be along the lines of who was the better sibling – Anthony or Mark Minichiello, Brendan or Michael Gale, Adrian or Gilbert McAdam – but, surprisingly, our heated discussion (excuse the pun) was whether tomato sauce should be refrigerated. The overwhelming majority voted, contrary to the instructions on the packaging, in favour of keeping the sauce in the pantry. To the sole naysayer, and those that accord to the theory of chilled ketchup, you need to have a good hard look at yourself… there is a reason you don’t see people dipping their hot chips into a bowl of Gazpacho. It’s just not right.

While on the topic of sauce, the burger had both sweet tomato chutney and an off-the-shelf mayonnaise. A bit like the Richmond Football Club’s run of being the bubble boy of the AFL, the sauces, although not demonstrably wrong, seemed to lack that extra bit of spice to move into the next echelon. A plethora of crappy clichés spring to mind – ‘do it right, do it once’, ‘less is more’, ‘quality over quantity’ – but the simple principle is that you’re better off mastering one thing before branching out. If you have to have two sauces, perhaps a lesson can be learned from Trunk Diner which gives you the choice of either of their homemade tomato or BBQ sauces. To their credit though, Cotta didn’t overload the burger with sauce (if anything, it could have done with some more chutney) and they also got the hierarchy right (mayo on the bottom underneath the lettuce and the chutney on top).

The other accompaniments to the burger were your usual lettuce, tomato and cheese combo. Nothing to fault there, the lettuce was crisp and the tomato fresh. The choice of tasty cheese was a safe option but, in continuing with their theme of duplication, I was surprised to see two slices of cheese atop the burger. Heart foundation tick? Unlikely. However, this was one of the bigger burgers you will wrap your mittens around so the extra cheese wasn’t so much of an issue.

When it came to sides, Cotta clearly knew who their target audience for the Footy Meal Deal was and didn’t bother filling up half the plate with salad. Rather, they used this space to provide a generous amount of shoestring fries which were well cooked but could have done with some salt. Alas, some semifreddo tomato sauce had to suffice.

To the star of the show, the pattie. It was handmade, thick and juicy yet it tasted more like a rissole than the type of burger you would expect off the barbeque. It was well cooked but was good without being great. The Brock McLean of patties if you will – heavyset and workman-like. You’re certainly not going to be disappointed with it, but it probably lacks a few of the tricks that puts you into the A-grade level.

This week we have chosen to take a break from routine of likening the burger to a professional athlete and instead we take privilege in labeling the Cotta burger the inaugural Burger Friday ‘cash cow’. The ‘cash cow’ is a term which was popularised by the Boston Consulting Group in its BCG growth-share matrix and has featured in many management textbooks worldwide, but ultimately it has found its home in fantasy football vernacular to denote a player who generates a substantial amount of cash relative to his price tag. A coveted icon on the fanfooty.com.au website, it has proudly been adorned by the likes of Ed Curnow (2010), Jonathon Giles (2012) and more recently by Jaeger O’Meara and Brett Goodes. Clearly these are not the biggest names in the AFL, at least not yet anyway, but in the competitive world of fantasy football, these are the names that are the most treasured. After months spent deliberating which rookies will be included in your supercoach squad come round one, there is no better prize than a player that simply outperforms his pricetag.

The Cotta burger is no different and is a genuine diamond in the rough. At the generous price of just $9.90 for a burger, fries and pot of Carlton Draught, you will struggle to find a burger which provides more value for money. As with Curnow and Giles not being the biggest names in the AFL, this is not to say that this will be the best burger you will ever eat but at that price it is hard to be too disappointed.

Burger Friday Rating: 36.5/50

Melbourne Public Cafe - South Wharf

2013-05-14T10:28:00.000+10:00

Burger reviewed: The Angus Beef Burger

Venue: Melbourne Public

Date: 3/5/13

There is nothing better than looking forward to a burger every Friday morning. Unfortunately, one of our own took this mantra to heart and ended up fainting from anticipation a mere few hours before the scheduled lunch time visit. Sympathy or softness, you can be the judge…

Nevertheless, the Burger Friday crew (minus one) made our way down to South Wharf to sample the wares at Melbourne Public. Nestled in between the Polly Woodside, DFO and the Exhibition Centre, Melbourne Public is “Melbourne’s newest drinking and dining secret set on the banks of the Yarra River” (as highlighted by their website).

Topped with all the usual suspects, shaved bacon, caramelised onions and special sauce (per the menu) the signature Angus beef burger had all the ingredients of a winner. However, unlike the Essendon faithful, we weren’t getting ahead of ourselves as any fan would know, the real test doesn’t begin until September (sorry boys no premierships are won in May, better start getting back on them tides).

After a short wait at the counter (interesting that they would be flying solo at the till during a Friday lunch), we managed to order our burgers and chips for the reasonable price of $21.50. It should also be said that the Melbourne Public has a free drink offer available via the website and needless to say that some of the more thrifty amongst us could not hold back their excitement (starting to sound like a bit of a theme). As we waited patiently for our Friday birthright, Kim and the team were kind enough to put on re-runs of Watson Snr and the team getting thumped by Hawthorn in the 89 semi final. These days, Tim does his best work every morning on the Morning Glory radio show on SEN (a blatant plug for a shout-out to the Burger Friday team wouldn’t go astray).

As the burgers arrived, we were instantly drawn to the simple yet effective setting. Chips a plenty with ample sauce, the signs were looking good. The burger is what you would expect from a pub style beef burger. The trimmings including caramelised onions complimenting the perfectly cooked beef pattie with the slight sweetness of the bun presenting a great combination. We often sample burgers which try to do too much without getting the basics right. This cannot be said for Melbourne Public’s beef burger which absolutely ticks all the base boxes which you are looking for in a burger.

The burger however was not the star of the show. Presented in the deep fryer from which they were cooked, the chips were crispy and slightly seasoned. It’s not often after a Burger Friday that the majority of conversation post meal is devoted to the sidekick to the main course. Like Watson is to Holmes, Clarke was to Ponting and Ricky is to Seal, the quality of the accompaniments although complimentary can sometimes also take over as the star.

In the sporting world, there are multiple examples of solid performers who just get the job done each week, making most of the ability which they have been given. Some, such as Mr Cricket, Luke Donald and Nick Maxwell might have even stretched their abilities levels and could be even considered great. Then there are others who (perhaps fortunately for them), realise the limitations of their ability early and begin to focus other personal traits. Names which come to mind include Mick Malthouse (who was a decent enough player but has become one of best AFL coaches of our time), Liam Pickering (again, an average player who has since benefited significantly from Ricky Nixon’s inability to stick to his age bracket) and James Brayshaw (did any one actually know this guy used to play state cricket?).

Although all worthy nominations, I will need to dub this burger the Caroline Wozniacki. Caro (not to be confused with the award winning and 100% factual reporter) was the first Scandinavian woman to hold the number one world ranking in the world (in 2010) whilst never reaching the peak and winning a grand slam singles title. Woznaicki is a solid performer who cannot be faulted on her tennis technique, however she lacks a spark which has prevented her from becoming elite. Similarly, the Melbourne burger although faultless in its execution, needs a certain BFX (Burger Friday X-factor) to rise up our rankings. Caro has talent written all over her and should really be one (if not the most) marketable players going around. Oh, and her tennis isn’t too bad either…

All in all, congratulations to Kim and team on presenting a cracker of a burger which you would happily drop in for if you were in the area. With a free beer to boot, you can even tell the missus that you got an even better bargain than she did at DFO.

Burger Friday Rating: 38/50

The Rising Sun Hotel

2013-05-02T15:40:00.000+10:00

Burger Reviewed: The Riser Burger

Venue: The Rising Sun Hotel

Date: 28/4/13

Today the Burger Friday Fellows ventured to the inner Melbourne suburb of Richmond to visit the Rising Sun Hotel. Whilst Richmond may have plenty of pubs, from the very snazzy gastro pubs through to the old traditional styles, the Rising Sun Hotel (or the Riser as the locals call it) is what some nowadays might politely call "unique".

Located on the corner of Burnley and Swan Streets, the Riser is a quintessential blokes pub, nothing fancy, but just chock full of all the honest parts of a good old fashioned local. The food is strictly old school pub classics, reasonably priced and set out in a comfortable dining room, replete with TV’s covering all sports. And it may be the only place in Melbourne where you can still play Big Buck Hunter. Yes, that is the kind of unique we are talking about.

That almighty of combinations of sport, beer and food is exactly what brought the Fellows to the Riser. With the UFC Middleweight title fight of Jon Bones Jones v Chael Sonnen on the TV’s, the Fellows were able to indulge in all three elements .

After more trash was thrown around pre fight than you would find at a garbage tip, the fight disappointingly ended in little more than a yelper with Bones Jones easily completing his title defence inside the first round. Fortunately our stomachs were more satisfied with the burger than the preceding “ground and pound” of the UFC fight card.

The burger sampled today was the Riser burger. Coming in at a very reasonable $15 with chips, the Riser is a burger with the lot, comprising a generous house made burger, crispy bacon, fried egg, cos lettuce, tomato, tasty cheese, and topped off with the triply whammy sauce trio of onion jam, aioli and bbq sauce on a soft bun.

The ménage a trois of sauces was a massive tick, as was the handmade meat pattie which was cooked perfectly with just enough juiciness. Also worth giving special mention was the inclusion of tasty cheese in the burger, which I personally think is underrated . Whilst gruyere often gets all the kudos, tasty cheese just continues to perform week in week out and has done so for decades, not unlike the way Dustin Fletcher goes about it.

We have discussed it on a few previous occasions on Burger Friday but its worth reiterating that if you are going to name a meal after the venue, it should be symbolic of the venue itself. And that was certainly achieved here. The Riser is all about just sticking to a tried and true formula of giving the punters what they want. While it won’t be pushing any culinary boundaries, the Riser burger is tasty, satisfying and honest.

In light of the above, I will dub this burger the Roy “Big Country” Nelson. Big Country is an MMA fighter who despite looking like he would have the athleticism of an overweight truckdriver, he is an honest fighter who has a habit for delivering some big old classic hits, including the knockout of the fight card whilst we were at the Riser. Similarly, the Riser despite its looks it just delivers good old pub classic hits and its burger is certainly one of them.

If you are ever looking for a pub that shows sport, you can have a bet, a beer and a feed, then the Riser fits the bill.

Burger Friday Rating: 37/50