Reviews – Page 29 – Tasty Burgers

The Harbord Room

Published on June 22, 2014June 23, 2014 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

Location: 89 Harbord Street, Toronto
Website: http://www.theharbordroom.com/

I was a little bit wary of Toronto Life’s list of the best burgers in Toronto after my most recent experience with one of their choices. The Queen and Beaver served a muddled mess of a burger that was part steak sandwich, part hamburger, and all failure. It was Toronto Life’s 23rd best burger in the city.

The Harbord Room, however, has drawn raves for its burger from all corners, and is the number one pick on Toronto Life’s list. So: a much safer bet. I’m surprised that it’s taken me this long to check it out, honestly.

They sell a lot of burgers. Of the people sitting around me, pretty much everyone got the hamburger. Which pretty much makes it a burger joint at heart; my kind of place.

The menu describes the burger as follows: “Dry Aged ‘West Grey Farms’ Beef Burger – Sharp Cheddar, Caramelized Onions on an Egg Bun with Fries & Slaw.” It’s 17 bucks, which is actually not bad for the amount and value of food you get.

What the menu doesn’t mention, however, is the sharply lemony aioli that cuts through the burger’s other flavours like a laser. My dining companion and I noticed it immediately: why is this burger so lemony? It packs a punch, and I really, really wish I had asked for my burger without it.

The grilled patty came cooked to a perfect medium rare. I guess you could get them to cook it differently, but why would you?

Sadly, the flavour wasn’t quite as knock-me-back beefy as I had hoped; it didn’t have any of the rich, complex flavour you associate with dry-aged beef (or at least if it did, it was completely overpowered by the aioli). Still, there certainly was some beefy flavour there, and it was clear enough that they were using above average meat. Perhaps my expectations were too high.

Though the medium rare parts in the middle were quite juicy, the more well-cooked edges were a bit drier than I’d like. It’s likely that the beef is a little bit too lean, and maybe slightly too tightly packed, but I’ve certainly had worse.

The cheese was creamy and fully melted and the onions were perfectly caramelized, but that aioli aggressively elbowed its way to the front of the line, overpowering everything else and rendering most of the burger’s other flavours moot. The sesame seed bun, however, was perfect: pillowy and super fresh, with the perfect amount of density to hold up to the substantial burger without ever getting in the way.

So no, it’s not exactly the burger of my dreams; I certainly wouldn’t pick it as my personal favourite burger in Toronto, but I don’t begrudge Toronto Life for picking it as theirs. It’s quite good.

As for the fries, they were pretty much perfect. Seriously: they weren’t as hot as they probably should have been, but were otherwise right up there with the best fries I’ve ever had. The aioli, though clearly overpowering as a burger condiment, was outstanding as a dip for fries, as was the tangy house-made ketchup.

Brock Sandwich

Published on June 15, 2014June 15, 2014 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1260 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Website: http://brocksandwich.ca/

Sometimes I wonder if it’s even possible for me to get to every burger in the city that I want to review. The list of burger joints I still need to check out is fairly voluminous, not to mention the new places that open regularly. And of course, there are the non-burger-joint restaurants that serve noteworthy hamburgers. But I’ll keep rolling that rock up the hill, because there are worse things in life than feeling compelled to eat a bunch of hamburgers.

Enter Brock Sandwich. It’s not a burger place, but I’ve been hearing good things about their burger since they opened last year (including mention in blogTO’s list of the best cheeseburgers in the city).

It’s mostly a take-out place. I was lucky enough to snag one of the few tables, but if they’re busy (and they do seem to be busy) eating in will be a challenge.

The burger, as per their menu: “House Ground Beef, Smoked Tomato Jam, Mustard, Mayo, Lettuce, Onion.” The menu doesn’t specify the cheese, which I think is a white cheddar of some sort.

There is a lot of stuff on this burger. I’m a less-is-more guy when it comes to burgers, but I’m not anti-toppings, either. If it tastes good, it tastes good.

Though the toppings here are all fine, they never quite cohere into something special — it just tastes like a burger with a lot of toppings. They get in the way of the beef without really justifying themselves to any meaningful degree. They’re certainly not bad; they’re just nothing particularly special.

The griddled patty is good, but again, not great. It actually has a fairly satisfying flavour (though it’s tough to tell with all that other stuff), and it’s juicy and not overcooked. But the texture is off. It has a slightly chewy, sausagey texture. It’s the type of texture that you typically find in a meatloaf burger — but I’m pretty sure there aren’t any spices or any of the other stuff typical of a meatloaf burger mixed into the patty.

So how to account for that texture? I suspect that they mix salt right into the beef, something that can have a profound impact on a burger’s texture, though it’s hard to be too sure.

It’s not a deal-breaker — it’s still pretty tasty — but it’s a shame that what could otherwise be an above average patty has such a noticeable defect.

As for the fries, they were seasoned with paprika or something similar, and were quite tasty. They were a tad on the soggy side, but were still quite stellar — especially when dipped in the restaurant’s amazing malt vinegar mayo.

I should note that my dining companion had the fried chicken sandwich, and it looked amazing. I wish I had taken a picture because it was maybe the most perfect-looking fried chicken sandwich that I’ve ever seen. And apparently it was as good as it looked, because my dining companion proclaimed it to be the second-best fried chicken sandwich he has ever eaten (the best, apparently, being the Beastwich — it’s tough to top that one).

Fatburger

Published on June 8, 2014July 22, 2014 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

Location: 10 Disera Drive, Unit 120, Thornhill
Website: http://www.fatburgercanada.com/

Fatburger is the latest American burger chain to open their doors in the GTA. Five Guys is pretty well entrenched at this point, we just got Hwy 55, and Carl’s Jr. is right around the corner. I’m still waiting for Steak ‘n Shake, Shake Shack, or In-N-Out (fat chance on that one), but we’re doing pretty well as far as fast food burger choices go.

The setup is somewhat similar to Five Guys, but instead of calling out your number when the food is ready, they bring it to your table.

Unlike Five Guys, they have a bunch of elaborately topped burgers on the menu; I went with the Original Fatburger, which comes with lettuce, tomato, mustard, relish, onion (which I skipped, because nuts to onions) and pickles.

Like pretty much every burger joint opening in the GTA these days, the patty is griddle-cooked. There was some signage on the table proudly proclaiming that they “use the leanest beef around,” which had me concerned that the patty was going to be yet another overly dry burger (just go through the archives if you’d care to read me railing against the tragically common issue of overly lean beef and dried-out burger patties).

Thankfully, the well done burger was actually fairly juicy, so the sign is clearly not particularly accurate — and this is one case where I’m very happy for a restaurant’s claim to be completely untrue. Lean burgers are nothing to be proud of, or to aim for.

The patty actually has a pretty great texture; it’s loosely packed, coarsely ground, and fairly juicy. A more pronounced crust from the griddle would have been nice, but it wasn’t entirely crustless.

My biggest issue is that the flavour of the beef itself was a bit lacking. It definitely wasn’t bad, but it had that distinctively muddled, not-entirely-appealing flavour that you get from so-so quality beef. It was fine, but it is a bit of a shame; with slightly tastier beef, this could have been a top-tier hamburger.

The burger was more busily-topped than I normally like, but since the flavour of the beef wasn’t exactly stellar, I was actually pretty happy to have a handful of condiments to smooth things out. This is not a burger to get plain; in fact if I ever go back I’ll likely opt for cheese as well.

The toppings were all pretty standard, and were fine. The most noteworthy was the lettuce; it’s a round, whole slice of iceberg that gives the burger a satisfying crunch. I’ve had lettuce served like this at burger joints in the States, but I don’t think I’ve ever had it in Toronto. I like it.

The bun was slightly on the dense side, but it was fresh and suited the burger fairly well.

As for the fries, they were pretty bad. They were McCain (the clearly marked boxes were in full view), and tasted like the blandest, frozeniest frozen fries that I’ve ever had.

The Queen and Beaver Public House

Published on June 1, 2014June 14, 2014 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 35 Elm Street, Toronto
Website: http://queenandbeaverpub.ca/

The burger at the Queen and Beaver is… different. My dining companion noted that my brow was furrowed for pretty much the entire time I was eating it, which is true. It’s an odd one. I don’t know how to classify it.

The Queen and Beaver has actually been on my radar for a while now, at least since Toronto Life included it on their list of the best burgers in Toronto back in 2012.

It’s a cozy restaurant with food that’s a bit more ambitious than standard pub fare. This ambition extends to the burger, and sadly, I think their reach exceeds their grasp.

The patty is hand chopped, which means that instead of putting the beef through a grinder like with a traditional hamburger, it’s chopped by hand until the resultant bits are small enough to be formed into a patty.

It’s odd. The waitress informed me that they suggest medium rare, which was fine by me, that being my preference and all. And the grilled patty was cooked to a perfect medium rare, but… it didn’t taste like a hamburger. The hand-chopped patty was formed out of discernibly large chunks of beef, with the effect being that the whole thing tasted like bits of steak that had been mashed into the shape of a hamburger.

Honestly, I’m loathe to even call it a hamburger — it tastes more like a steak sandwich. But if it looks like a burger, is called a burger, and has appeared on a list of the best burgers in Toronto… I guess it’s a hamburger, or at least I should treat it as such.

Sadly, whatever it is, it’s pretty much ruined by an extreme case of over-seasoning. Along with the bits of steak, there are onions, spices, and something else with a very strong flavour added into the mix (Worcestershire sauce? HP? I’m not sure). Whatever it is, it is very, very strong. They are presumably using good quality beef (the steep $18 dollar price tag would certainly indicate this), but thanks to all the junk they’ve got mixed in there, it doesn’t have even one iota of beefy flavour. Maybe it’s a hamburger and maybe it’s a steak sandwich, but either one of those without any beefy flavour is unquestionably a failure.

It comes topped with some thickly sliced bacon which, though it tastes pretty good, is mushy and quite possibly the least crispy bacon I’ve ever had. There wasn’t even a hint of crispiness — it may as well have been boiled. Cheese was proffered, but I elected to go without (and I’m glad I did — there’s already more than enough going on here without adding another flavour to further muddle things).

The fresh sesame seed bun was quite good, I’ll give it that. Kinda sad that the best thing I have to say about this hamburger is that the bun is good, but here we are. Suffice it to say, I disagree with Toronto Life’s assertion that this is one of the best burgers in Toronto. I doubt it would be in my top 100, let alone top 25.

The fries were tasty, however. Thickly cut and maybe a touch underdone, they were otherwise quite good.

Hwy 55

Published on May 18, 2014June 14, 2014 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 548 Trafalgar Road, Oakville
Website: http://hwy55burgers.com/

Though I hadn’t heard of it until recently, Hwy 55 is a fairly widespread American burger chain (they’ve got over a hundred locations) that’s making their first foray into the Canadian market with a restaurant out in Oakville. It’s in a spot formerly occupied by a Lick’s; any restaurant replacing Lick’s is pretty much an upgrade by default. It’s always sad when people lose their jobs, but one less place serving up rubbery frozen burgers can only be a boon for humanity as a whole.

The ’50s-diner-inspired decor is a lot like a Johnny Rockets or a Steak ‘n Shake (an aside: I was at a franchise show a couple of years ago, and, tantalizingly, Steak ‘n Shake was there and had a fairly elaborate booth. So they obviously have vague plans to expand into Canada, though thus far there’s no indication that it’s happening any time soon).

Like those two places, it’s waiter service. The menu highlights the Original Special combo, which is described as their “award winning” daily special (though which awards remain unclear), so obviously that’s what I ordered. I was given the choice of cheese among American, Swiss, Provolone, or Pepper Jack. I went with American, obviously; a classic American cheeseburger requires American cheese. Its creamy consistency when melted is perfect for this style of burger, and it imparts a subtle cheesy flavour without overpowering the beef, as stronger cheeses are prone to do.

There was also the choice of toppings, and as usual I went with mayo, pickles, and tomato.

As you’d expect, the restaurant serves a fast-food-style griddled burger. It came looking pretty much picture perfect: a well proportioned patty, a good amount of crust from the griddle, a fully melted slice of American cheese, and a nice looking bun.

And it was actually pretty tasty, though sadly not quite as perfect as I initially hoped. The good? The beef was clearly of a decent quality, and had a satisfying — if somewhat mild — beefy flavour. It was, as it looked, nicely griddled, with a decent amount of crust on the patty. The toppings were fresh and well-proportioned, and the fresh, squishy bun was the absolute perfect bun for a burger such as this.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of fairly big issues that keep this burger firmly in pretty good territory. Foremost, the beef was clearly too lean, and the well done patty was quite dry. Anyone who has read a few reviews on this blog will know that overly-lean beef and too-dry burgers are pretty much my arch-foe, so I’m not going to get into yet another rant about this. Check the archives.

It was also a bit too tightly packed and finely ground, which only compounds the dryness issue. It all adds up to a patty that requires way more jaw-power than you’d like.

Another, more minor issue: whoever seasoned the burger was a bit heavy-handed with the pepper. But I’d much rather have a slightly peppery patty than one with onions, garlic, and other spices mixed in, so I can give them a pass on that one.

As for the fries, they were standard-issue frozen fries. They were well cooked and perfectly edible, but not much more.

Hwy 55 also serves frozen custard, which was the thing I was probably most excited about this place. For those unaware, frozen custard is basically like ice cream made with a much more custardy base, which gives it that distinctive custard flavour and a very silky, rich creaminess that is unparalleled by regular ice cream. The only place that I know of in Toronto that serves frozen custard is Jedd’s, and the one time I visited I found it to be icy and underwhelming.

I ordered a scoop of the vanilla frozen custard; sadly, even Jedd’s has this place beat. Grainy and not particularly creamy, with only a vague whiff of custard flavour and more of a generic sweetness than anything else, it was disappointingly mediocre. I guess I’ll continue to drive to Buffalo for my frozen custard fix.