Michael Nusair

Aloette

Published on February 25, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 163 Spadina Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://aloetterestaurant.com/

I was traveling when Aloette opened, and seeing pictures of the burger made me want to drop everything I was doing and get on the next plane home. I mean, it’s a burger created by one of the best chefs in the city. It’s topped with fried cheese. How could it not be amazing??

How indeed.

It seems I’m fated to continually be disappointed by Toronto’s best chefs. First there was Victor Barry. Then Grant van Gameren. And now, sadly, Alo’s Patrick Kriss.

Of course, there are different levels of disappointment, and this one was much more mild than the other two: I actually enjoyed the burger at Aloette. But I was expecting my socks to be knocked off. I’m looking down, and yep: there are my socks, firmly on my feet.

The Aloette Burger comes topped with shredded lettuce, pickle, onion, mayo, and the aforementioned Beaufort cheese. The toppings are mostly quite good. When you first look at the burger, the big pile of lettuce seems overdone, but I think the fine shredding makes it look poofier than it actually is. It was just right. The soft bun just barely holds up to the messy burger, but it manages. It’s good.

The cheese was, shockingly, the weakest element. It was good in theory — gooey, with a satisfying cheesy brown crust on its exterior. It was actually quite delicious. But just because something’s delicious doesn’t mean it belongs on a hamburger; it was sharp and assertive, and it completely wiped out all of the hamburger’s other flavours. It would be absolutely amazing in a grilled cheese sandwich, but on a burger it’s all wrong.

The patty didn’t seem to have much of a beefy flavour, but then how can you even tell with that cheese? The bulk of the flavour was a mild bitterness from the slightly burned exterior. The patty mostly had an amazing mahogany-brown crust from the griddle, but there were a few spots that were blackened and bitter.

And while the beef was somewhat juicy, the well done patty was kind of dry. It was also a little bit too finely ground and a bit too tightly packed, resulting in a patty that’s tougher than it should be. When you’re eating a burger and thinking “why is this taking so long to chew?” then you know you’ve got problems.

Still, I’m coming off super negative here, so I should make it clear that I actually quite enjoyed the burger: it was tasty. It has way too many issues to be anything better than just good, but it is good. It’s just not even close to the burger perfection I was hoping for.

As for the fries, they were a bit overcooked (most of them were potato-chip-crunchy, which is a bit much), but otherwise quite tasty. They also came with a tangy dipping sauce that was easily the highlight of the meal.

3 out of 4

State & Main Kitchen & Bar

Published on February 12, 2018February 16, 2018 by Michael Nusair2 Comments

Location: 396 The East Mall, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.stateandmain.ca/

I’m not gonna lie: my expectations for the burger at State & Main were quite low. Is there something lower than low? Like, in the basement? My expectations were way down in the basement.

I mean, why wouldn’t they be? Casual chain restaurants like this one typically serve a burger that’s uninspired, to put it kindly, and I really didn’t have any reason to think that State & Main would be any different.

I’m happy to say that I was dead wrong. Not that the burger here was anything to get too excited about, but it was actually pretty good.

I ordered the Main, which is a double cheeseburger made with American cheese, and topped with lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickles, and State sauce.

The patties weren’t bad at all, though I’m honestly not sure if they were griddled or grilled. It was odd; they looked griddled, but tasted grilled, with that slightly smoky, charred flavour that you typically only get from the grill. So… I don’t know (I’ve eaten something like three hamburgers in the last six months, so I guess my burger sense is a bit rusty).

They were solid patties: they had a nice crust from the griddle and/or grill (??), they were slightly juicy, and they had a pleasant flavour. Yes, they were a little densely packed, they could have been beefier and juicier, and it would have been nice if they weren’t so uniformly gray throughout — but they could have been much, much worse.

The toppings were quite good too, particularly the gooey, melty American cheese.

I’d tell you about the State sauce, but I honestly don’t remember what it tasted like (did I mention that I’m a bit rusty at this burger reviewing thing? Because clearly I am). I feel like it’s safe to assume it was just the typical Big Mac-esque sauce that you usually find on burgers like this.

The bun was slightly too dense, but since this was a more substantial hamburger, it worked.

As for the fries, they were perfectly crispy/creamy. You had the choice between gravy or dill sauce for dipping; I went with the dill, which was addictively garlicky. It was pretty great.

3 out of 4

On Hiatus

Published on August 14, 2017February 12, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

In case it wasn’t obvious by the lack of burger reviews over the last month or so, Tasty Burgers is on hiatus. I’m currently travelling; the burger reviews shall resume when I return.

In the meantime, you can follow my travels here:

http://upinthenusair.com/

UPDATE: I’m back!

Kitson and Co.

Published on July 16, 2017 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1205 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: http://www.kitsonandco.com/

Sometimes, you just wanna stop eating your burger, slap your hand on the table, walk back into the kitchen and shake everybody’s hand. Sometimes a burger is so delightfully great that it just makes you want to do something. Especially when you’re in a place that doesn’t even specialize in hamburgers, and the burger’s greatness is all the more improbable. A great burger from a random sandwich shop? That just makes my day.

It’s a pretty simple cheeseburger: “Classic Double Cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, onions and Kitson & Co. secret sauce”

It’s an amazing example of a classic, no-frills fast-food-style burger executed perfectly. You’ve got the gooey American cheese, the crusty griddled patties, the Big-Mac-esque secret sauce, the sesame seed bun, and the classic veggies. It’s all there.

Those patties are top notch; the flavour could have been a bit beefier, but it’s hard to complain too much when all of the other elements are right where they should be. They were also ever-so-slightly too densely packed, but again, it’s hard to complain too much when the overall package is so damn satisfying. The patties are cooked to a perfect medium rare with a nice layer of dark brown crust on the exterior. They’re also super juicy; that alone is reason enough to celebrate.

The melty American cheese adds creaminess and a nice salty tang; I kinda wish that there was only one slice instead of two, as I feel like two slices of cheese on a double cheeseburger starts to overwhelm the meat, but that’s more of a personal preference than anything else. Two slices is the standard, so it’s hard to fault them for that.

The tangy secret sauce is pretty much exactly what you think it’s going to be — it works great with the cheeseburger and, more importantly, it doesn’t get in the way.

Even the bun was surprisingly great: soft, fresh, and perfectly toasted, it somehow manages to stand up to that very juicy, messy burger without ever feeling overly substantial. The beef to bun ratio? On point.

As for the fries, they were crispy, creamy, and flavourful; as great as the burger was, the fries might have been even better.

3.5 out of 4

Jumbo Burgers

Published on July 3, 2017July 3, 2017 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 685 Runnymede Road, Toronto
Website: None

Jumbo Burgers is yet another orange-hued old-school burger joint in Toronto, which means it’s probably lousy. Not to be a pessimist, but these places pretty much all either serve a flat-out terrible frozen burger, or if you’re lucky, a freshly-made hamburger that has so much stuff mixed in it may as well be meatloaf.

Well, good news: Jumbo Burgers falls into the latter category, and it’s actually not too bad. It’s not particularly good, mind you, but when the alternative is a rubbery slab of sadness bound together by pink slime (sorry: lean finely-textured beef), a freshly-made meatloaf burger is a pretty big win.

Like almost every other burger joint of a certain age, you order your hamburger and then pick your toppings from behind the glass. I went with pickles, tomato and mayo (which, again, like most older establishments, was actually Miracle Whip or something similar).

It wasn’t bad. The burger had a good amount of char from the grill without being burnt (like most places that were open before the fall of the Soviet Union, the burgers are grilled rather than griddled. Yeah, these places all followed the same template back then).

The patty had a pretty pronounced meatloafy flavour, I’m assuming from garlic and other spices mixed right in with the beef, but as far as this type of burger goes, I’ve certainly had worse. There was still a vague beefy flavour, even if it was mostly wiped out by the spices.

The well done patty was a little bit dry and a little bit tough, but again, I’ve had worse. Like I said: it’s not particularly good, but it’s not bad, either.

The toppings were fine, aside from the aforementioned mayo substitute. The bun was slightly too big and too dense; the beef-to-bun ratio was off, but it was otherwise a decent bun.

As for the fries, they were a bit undercooked, but aside from that they were pretty good.

2.5 out of 4