Tasty Burgers

Jack Astor’s

Published on February 10, 2013 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

jack
Location: 1900 The Queensway, Etobicoke
Website: http://www.jackastors.com/

This is going to be a short one. It’s hard to write all that much about a burger that so conclusively straddles that middle ground between good and bad, and that is exactly where this burger falls. “Meh” is pretty much the perfect word to describe it.

Jack Astor’s is a casual chain restaurant, and as expected from a restaurant such as this, there are burgers on the menu. I wasn’t expecting much, and I got pretty much exactly what I expected: a perfectly edible hamburger that is almost instantly forgettable.

I ordered “The Classic,” which is their no-frills burger topped with lettuce, tomato, red onion (which I removed), and mayo.

The burger was fine. This being a chain place, I had feared that they might serve a frozen burger or a meatloaf burger, but this was thankfully not the case.

There are a couple of fairly significant issues that keep this burger firmly in the “meh” category. First, and most predictably, the burger is too dry. I know I sound like a broken record here; apparently wanting a hamburger to be juicy in Toronto is an unreasonable request, which is actually kind of maddening. But no, I’m not going to get into another rant about overcooking and acceptable fat percentages. Not for you, Jack Astor’s. Not for you.

And yes, the burger is overcooked, which just compounds the dryness issue. The grilled patty is a bit over-charred, resulting in a burger that is a bit too crunchy in spots. It’s also a little bit too tightly packed and dense, which makes it a tough chew.

The second issue is that it’s a bit bland. The beef is obviously not the greatest, and while it tastes okay, it doesn’t taste like much. Add in the fact that if it was seasoned with salt and pepper, I couldn’t taste it, and you’ve got a pretty bland burger.

Otherwise, the toppings were fine, and the fresh brioche bun, though slightly over-toasted, suited the burger well.

All in all, it’s not a bad hamburger — it’s just aggressively unmemorable.

As for the fries, though a tad on the soggy side, they were otherwise quite good.

Allen’s

Published on January 27, 2013 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

allens
Location: 143 Danforth Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://www.allens.to/

There are a handful places that I’ve been meaning to review since I started this blog, that for one reason or another, I just haven’t gotten around to yet. Until today, Allen’s was on top of that list. Widely regarded as one of the heavyweights in Toronto’s burger landscape, no Toronto burger blog is complete without a visit to this particular pub.

Allen’s has been around since the late ’80s, and thus predates the recent burger craze by many, many years. Allen’s has been pumping out burgers since the chefs at a place like Burger’s Priest were still reading Nintendo Power and learning their ABCs. Unlike most old-school burger joints in this city, however, Allen’s serves fantastic hamburgers. Better than fantastic. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

It’s clear just looking at the menu that Allen’s is serious about their hamburgers. There’s a whole paragraph in the menu dedicated to the provenance of the beef and the care they take in making their hamburgers (their use of high quality beef, butchered on site is why they are allowed to circumvent Toronto’s so-called law requiring hamburgers to be cooked to well done). Of course, anyone can put a bunch of superlatives in their menu and still serve a crappy burger. Deeds, as they say, speak louder than words.

When I ordered, I was asked how I wanted the burger cooked, which always delights me: I’m partial to hamburgers cooked to medium rare, so I find the endless parade of well-done-and-beyond patties served by Toronto’s burger joints to be a bit wearisome. I’m okay with burgers cooked to well done (I couldn’t run this blog if I weren’t), but in my opinion the flavour of beef begins to diminish when it’s cooked much beyond medium. That’s not to mention, of course, the dryness issue.

The burgers served here are pub style: grilled, and much larger and more substantial than the griddled, fast food style burgers of a place like Burger’s Priest.

It’s a fantastic burger. Juicy, nicely seasoned with just salt and pepper and with a richly complex beefy flavour that easy rivals any hamburger I’ve eaten in this city (or anywhere else, for that matter), it is dangerously close to burger perfection. It’s the type of burger that surprises you with every bite, because it’s so damn tasty. It’s the type of burger that makes you more and more sad as you eat it, because you know it will eventually be finished. It’s the type of burger that you wish all burgers could be.

I do have some small quibbles, which are mostly cosmetic. Grilled burgers tend to bulge in the middle, a phenomenon that is easily combated by placing a small dimple in the centre of the uncooked patty (go here for a detailed analysis on why this happens). They are clearly not doing that here. A burger like this also needs to be shaped a bit wider than the bun to compensate for shrinkage, another small oversight that could improve this burger. As it stands, there was a decent amount of bun overhang, which left me with some bread left on my plate after the patty itself was finished.

These are small issues that won’t prevent me from proclaiming this to be one of the best burgers in the city, but they are issues nonetheless.

The aforementioned sesame seed bun, aside from being a little bit too wide for the burger, was fresh and suited the patty well. The burger comes with mustard, relish, pickles, tomato, lettuce, and onion — all on the side. Which is good, because this is a burger that really doesn’t need a whole lot of condimenting. My recommendation would be to leave most of that stuff on the side; a hamburger this tasty doesn’t need much else.

It doesn’t come with fries (or any other sides, for that matter), so I ordered some. Like the burger, they’re pretty damn good. Thick cut fries like the ones they serve here are tougher to pull off; they wind up, more often than not, a little undercooked and dense in the middle. These fries, however, were perfectly crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. They’re unsalted, but a salt grinder is provided.

Did I mention that the hamburger they serve at Allen’s is a very strong contender for the best burger in the city? I did? Well let me say it again: this is a very strong contender for the best burger in the city. Eat it. And if you already have, eat it again, because it is awesome, and you deserve more awesomeness in your life.

Barque Smokehouse

Published on January 13, 2013February 28, 2013 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

Location: 299 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto
Website: http://barque.ca/

I’ve eaten a lot of bad burgers for this blog, but I don’t think any has disappointed me as much as the one from Barque. Though I hadn’t heard a whole lot about their burger, I’ve heard pretty much nothing but good things about the restaurant itself, and certainly went in with high hopes for their hamburger. One of the best burgers I’ve had recently has been from Stack, another Southern-style BBQ place with a burger on the menu. I had hoped for similar greatness from Barque.

Spoiler alert: this wasn’t a great burger. Heck, I would have settled for good. But this wasn’t even that.

Before I get to the hamburger, let me talk about the service, which was surprisingly poor. I showed up at around one on a Sunday afternoon and the place was packed, so they are clearly doing okay, despite the lacklustre service and food. We wound up sitting at the bar, which wouldn’t have been my choice, but was fine.

Less fine was the way we were completely ignored after our order was taken for the entire 45 minutes it took for our food to come. Even less fine was the fact that I received a beef brisket sandwich with a salad on the side, despite the fact that I ordered a burger and fries. So my dining companion and I wound up taking turns watching each other eat.

But this is a burger review, so let me talk about the burger. As horrible as the experience was up to that point, I was completely ready for it to be redeemed by an amazing burger. Sadly, no such redemption was in the cards that day.

I came during Barque’s brunch service, so I ordered the Brunch Burger, which is described as being topped with “Caramelized onions, gruyere, pickles, onion ring.” It’s a bit more topping-heavy than I typically like for a burger that I’m reviewing, but I’m okay with making an exception every now and then.

It’s a meatloaf burger, and though the seasoning wasn’t particularly strong, it was still enough to completely wipe out whatever beefy flavour the (presumably low quality) beef might have once had.

Much, much more problematic was the burger’s downright repulsive texture, which was puzzlingly and off-puttingly mushy despite being cooked to well done and fully gray throughout. I have no idea what was going on there — perhaps the meat had been ground too finely, or perhaps it was the stuff they mixed in, but the hamburger was inarguably a textural disaster.

As for the toppings: though I typically like caramelized onions on a burger, here their soft texture only emphasized the patty’s mushiness, and was highly unwelcome. Same goes for the melty gruyere cheese. The onion ring was fine, as was the fresh brioche bun, but there isn’t much that would have been able to save that weird, squishy patty.

The fries, too, were kind of puzzling. They were completely dried out and crunchy, and bore a striking resemblance to a larger version of Hickory Sticks. I’m honestly not sure if this was intentional or if they were simply overcooked. They weren’t awful, but I didn’t have any particular desire to eat more than a handful.

I should probably note that when the bill came the hamburger had been comped, so at least they were willing to acknowledge that the service was fairly disastrous.

(Image of the sign in the header photo courtesy of alanosaur on flickr. I was going to take the photo on my way out, but I guess I was in such a rush to get out of there that it completely slipped my mind.)

South St. Burger Co.

Published on December 30, 2012January 1, 2013 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

south
Location: 1020 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke
Website: http://www.southstburger.com/

South St. Burger Co. is a fast casual burger chain (“fast casual” denoting a fast food restaurant with — supposedly — better food than a place like McDonald’s or Burger King, and prices to match). I want to like South St. — I really do. I can appreciate that they’re a chain with loftier goals than, say, Hero Certified Burgers, who use the absolute cheapest, most odious frozen patties they can find.

South St. proudly proclaim that they use only fresh beef, and kudos to them for that. Sadly, although this is a step in the right direction, there is more to making a good burger than simply using fresh beef.

The restaurant has a pretty standard set up — you order your burger, wait for it to be ready, then pick from the toppings behind the glass.

Actually, those toppings warrant mention: though I went simple with just mayo, tomato, and pickles, they have a fairly impressive selection, including different types of mayo (garlic, wasabi, or curry), relishes, and chutney.

I actually remember liking this place a lot more when it first opened — I think the quality used to be higher. On top of this, South St. came to Toronto slightly before the burger trend hit this city hard, when a place serving fresh, non-frozen, non-meatloaf burgers was much more of a novelty.

The grilled, well done burger is very, very dry. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’ll note that they’re clearly using beef that is way too lean. The patty is very tightly packed and very dense, making the whole thing a bit of a jaw workout.

It’s also clear that the beef just isn’t that great, as it has that vaguely unpleasant taste that you associate with lower quality beef.

The bun was nothing too special, but it was fine, and the pickles, tomato, and mayo were pretty standard. I suspect to make a South St. burger worth eating, you need to be really aggressive with their more unique condiments. My dining companion got a variety of toppings on his burger, and he enjoyed it.

As for the fries, they’re made by New York Fries, and are expectedly good. I asked for the curry mayo and the garlic mayo on the side for dipping, which I would strongly recommend. The curry mayo in particular was quite delicious, and really kicked up the already tasty fries.

Peter’s on Eglinton

Published on December 16, 2012 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

peter
Location: 1035 Eglinton Avenue East, Mississauga
Website: http://www.petersoneglinton.com/

Peter’s on Eglinton kind of saddens me. Unpretentious to a fault, serving generous portions of unassuming diner fare, with clientele who look like they’ve been frequenting the place for years, it’s the kind of place that you really want to like. Sadly, I’ve been here a few times now, and I’ve yet to have a meal that was particularly good.

The varied menu ranges from breakfast fare to stuff like souvlaki and pasta to (of course) hamburgers. I ordered the standard burger, and asked for it topped with tomato, pickles, and mayo.

I was concerned that with such a variety on their menu they’d go the frozen patty route, but thankfully this is not the case.

It is, however, a meatloaf burger, and they certainly aren’t shy with the seasonings. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that it’s the meatloafiest meatloaf burger that I’ve ever had. The flavour of the beef is absolutely annihilated by all the spices and miscellanea in the burger. It also has a somewhat mushy texture — perhaps from all the stuff that’s been mixed in.

It’s actually kind of absurd how strongly-spiced this “hamburger” is, but if you’re in the mood for a meatloaf sandwich, you could do worse, I suppose.

Aside from the prodigious spicing, the grilled burger is cooked to well done but not overcooked, and it’s actually reasonably juicy. The bun is a bit too bready, but basically fine, and the toppings are okay (though the pickles are sliced a bit too thick). Like I said, as a meatloaf sandwich it’s not horrible, but as a hamburger it’s almost hilariously misguided.

The burger also comes with a generous portion of fries (which are frozen and fairly mediocre), and a baseball-sized mound of tasty, vinegary coleslaw. It’s a pretty good deal for just about ten bucks.