Location: 450 Matheson Boulevard East, Mississauga
Website: None

I was doing some random Google searches for the best burger in Mississauga, and Jessie’s popped up a couple of times.  I really don’t need much more of an excuse to check out a place than that, so… here we are.

Jessie’s is a Greek Deli, with standard deli sandwiches on the menu, along with stuff like souvlaki and Greek salads.  And a burger, of course.  They offer a standard burger, a cheeseburger, and something called Jesse’s Burger.  As usual, I went with the namesake item, which comes topped with Swiss cheese and peameal bacon, along with your choice of toppings.

There’s no point in beating around the bush: it’s a frozen, industrially-produced burger. By their standards, it’s better than average. It actually has some vague beefy flavour, and the texture — though chewy — isn’t quite as rubbery as some of these things tend to be (i.e. it actually tasted somewhat like a hamburger, and not like the flattened hot dog that so many of the lower quality frozen burgers taste like).

It’s not particularly good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not nearly as appalling as a lot of the frozen burgers I’m subjected to.

I will say that Jessie’s do their best to disguise the less-than-stellar patty. It’s nicely grilled, giving it some smokiness without the burnt flavour you sometimes get with grilled burgers, and the swiss cheese is fully melted and satisfyingly gooey.

The thickly-sliced peameal bacon was also above average. Some peameal bacon has the tendency to be so tough that your teeth can’t quite make their way through it, resulting in the entire piece of bacon pulling out of the burger while still attached to your face. Thankfully, that’s not the case here. I actually tried a piece on its own and it was quite tasty: tender, not too salty, and slightly smoky. They sell this in a sandwich by itself, and I’m quite positive that it would be much more satisfying than the burger.

The dense, crusty roll would no doubt be completely overwhelming on a better hamburger; here, where I’m happy to let the sub-par burger be overwhelmed, it was perfectly fine.

This would be where I’d normally talk about the restaurant’s fries, but oddly enough, this place doesn’t serve them.  I ordered a coleslaw instead, which was of the creamy variety and which was actually quite tasty.  I’m not sure if they make it in-house, but I’m assuming they do; if it’s a store-bought brand, it’s probably the best one that I’ve tried.