Location: 1588 Dupont Street, Toronto
Website: http://farmhousehospitality.tumblr.com/

I’ve been hearing good things about the burger at the Farmhouse Tavern.  This is not a review of the Farmhouse Tavern.  I was in the area, and it was lunch, and the Farmhouse Tavern was closed.  Solution: The Daughter, a spinoff restaurant, which is open for lunch, and which also serves a burger.

That burger?  The Franklin Burger, per the menu: “Farmhouse  beef / bun / sauce w/ cheese / lettuce / tomato / onions.”

It’s pretty good.  The sizable patty (probably about six ounces) has a nice crispy crust from the grill, though it is leaning a bit towards over-charred.

It’s also too tightly packed; though the medium rare-ish middle of the burger (it’s somewhere between medium and medium rare) is nice and tender, the more well done edges suffer from over-density, and are a bit too tough.

Still, it’s a fairly juicy burger, which helps make up for some of its deficiencies.  The mild (but nice) beefy flavour is also a firm plus in this burger’s favour.

I wasn’t too crazy about the cheese, however.  The menu doesn’t specify the type of cheese, which turned out to be goat’s cheese.  It’s an unusual choice for a hamburger, and eating it here, it’s pretty clear why.  The strongly salty, sour flavour is way too assertive in this context, completely overwhelming the flavour of the beef.  It’s not bad, but the balance of flavours is off.

The sauce is a tangy, Mac sauce-esque concoction, though again, the flavour here is pretty much all goat’s cheese, all the time.  

The other toppings were fine, and the soft, fluffy sesame seed bun was above average.

As for the fries, they were really crispy and creamy and tasty; complimented with the curry-tinged ketchup, they were pretty stellar.