cheeseburger – Page 20 – Tasty Burgers

The Lakeview

Published on May 5, 2013 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1132 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: http://thelakeviewrestaurant.ca/

The Lakeview was just featured on the popular Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, which probably explains why it was so packed when I checked it out on a recent Sunday afternoon. Though the burger wasn’t one of the items sampled by Guy Fieri, I figured I’d give it a shot.

This, it turns out, was a blunder. If you go to a restaurant featured on that show, you should probably get what Guy gets. Or, just skip The Lakeview altogether. That’ll work too.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Why should you skip The Lakeview? Read on, friend. Read on.

The Lakeview was originally opened in 1932, and its charmingly retro diner decor is probably the best thing about it. I think it’s likely a big reason for its inclusion in DDD.

They have a few burgers on the menu, but as per my general policy, I went with the namesake item: The Lakeview, topped with “Peameal, Melted Cheddar, Grilled Portobello, Onion Ring + Fixings.”

It took a while to arrive (like I said, the place was packed), but it came looking impressively large and fairly appealing. A big red flag went up when I struggled to cut it in half; my knife was just barely sharp enough to make it through the despairingly tough patty.

Still, I took a bite hoping for the best; the burger quickly took those hopes, smashed them against the wall and stomped on them for good measure. This was not a tasty burger.

The first thing that hit me? Not only is this a meatloaf burger, it’s an especially meatloafy meatloaf burger. The spices and whatever other junk they mix in there completely knock you back. I honestly don’t even think they should be allowed to call this a hamburger. It is a meatloaf sandwich, plain and simple.

If you served this “hamburger” to an American, they’d laugh in your face. Here’s an analogy that I think pretty much sums it up: the Lakeview’s burger is to a real, American-style hamburger what chop suey is to real Chinese food. It is imitation; a photocopy of a photocopy.

That’s not to say that an imitation can’t be tasty. A meatloaf sandwich can be perfectly delicious. This, however, was not.

It was absurdly dry, for one thing. Make sure you’ve got a big glass of water handy when you eat this, because it’ll suck the moisture right out of your mouth. The patty is way too tightly packed, too lean, and overcooked. The grilled burger was also over-charred and blackened in spots. Burger jerky, essentially.

I normally like my burgers sparsely topped, and this is the opposite of that. In this case, however, the myriad of toppings are a godsend; they’re the only things keeping your mouth lubricated against the assault of the mouth-drying patty.

Between the peameal bacon, the cheddar, the onion ring, and the mushroom (not to mention the lettuce, tomato, and pickle) there is a hell of a lot going on here. Unlike the burger at The Samuel J. Moore, however, the toppings are good and the flavours all meld together in a somewhat cohesive fashion, so that was good at least. The toppings didn’t taste bad, I’ll give it that. But they still weren’t enough to save the insipid patty.

The sesame seed bun bun was too wide for the task at hand, resulting in a fair amount of bun remaining after the patty was but a memory. The dry bun was also a bit more on the stale side than I would have liked.

The burger came with a side of fries and a salad. The salad had clearly been dressed far too long in advance, and was vaguely mushy and kind of horrible. The fries, on the other hand, were surprisingly decent and easily the highlight of the meal.

I will note that my dining companion had one of the items featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (the freedom toast — essentially a peameal grilled cheese sandwich with French toast for bread), which he quite enjoyed. So if you absolutely have to go to the Lakeview, stick with what Guy ate; if someone offers you the burger, run screaming in the other direction.

The Drake

Published on April 7, 2013 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1150 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: http://www.thedrakehotel.ca/dining/

It occurred to me recently that, though I’ve mentioned Toronto Life’s semi-recent list of the 25 best burgers in the city on the blog before, I’ve never actually used its suggestions to determine my next review. I guess I have a hard time taking a list of the best hamburgers seriously that features an elk burger and a lamb burger (not to mention at least a couple of meatloaf burgers, and perhaps most egregiously, the mediocre-at-best Apache Burgers).

But I was struggling to figure out the next place I wanted to review, and I thought I may as well give Toronto Life a shot.

So I wound up at The Drake, a boutique hotel with a fairly popular restaurant on its first floor, and (of course) a burger on the menu — number 20 in the city, as per Toronto Life.

The Drake Burger is described as having “cheddar, Perth Bacon, Russian dressing, pickle + hand cut fries.”

Okay, Toronto Life, you win. I guess I should be taking your list a bit more seriously, because this was a pretty damn good burger.

It only takes one bite to realize that they’re clearly using very good quality beef. The patty has that distinctively satisfying beefy flavour that tells you that someone in the kitchen knows where to get the good stuff.

The grilled burger is a little bit too tightly packed, with beef that is slightly too lean. I’ve certainly had juicier burgers — but I can forgive a somewhat dry burger when it tastes this good, and when it at least has a bit of juiciness to it, which this does.

It’s also, sadly, a little bit busier than I’d like. Between the peppery bacon, the tangy thousand island, and the sharp cheddar, there’s a lot of assertive flavours competing for your palate’s attention. It’s a tasty combo, no doubt about it, but with a burger this good, I’m generally of the opinion that less is more. But of course, compared to the failure pile at The Samuel J. Moore, it’s positively heavenly, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.

The fresh sesame seed bun did a good job of holding up to the burger and was quite good. Good too were the crispy, perfectly cooked fries. Actually, no. Like the burger, they were better than good. They were pretty great.

So yes, to quote Seinfeld, The Drake is great. How could you not like The Drake?

Zet’s Restaurant

Published on March 10, 2013 by Michael Nusair2 Comments

Location: 6445 Airport Road, Mississauga
Website: http://www.zets.ca/

Zet’s is in a bit of an odd location (it’s close enough to Pearson to see the planes take off), but having heard a few good things about their burger, I knew that at some point I’d have to check it off the list.

It’s an endearingly run-down Greek diner that serves stuff like soulvaki and gyro, along with burgers and other diner stand-bys.

I walked in at around one on a Saturday afternoon and was happy to note that the place was absolutely packed, with a line going all the way back to the door; crowds this deep are generally a harbinger of good things to come. Generally.

The menu is on the wall above the grill. Noting an eponymous burger on the menu, I ordered that, along with a side of fries. A few minutes later I was asked what I wanted from the toppings behind the glass (I went with tomatoes, pickle, and mayo) and I was ready to go.

The Zet burger is a double with cheese and bacon, and with two fairly large patties, it’s not kidding around. Clearly, it is not for the weak of appetite.

The patties are frozen and industrially produced. If you are seeking a hamburger worth going out of your way for, turn back now. These are not the droids you’re looking for.

It is, however, a better-than-average frozen burger. It wasn’t nearly as rubbery and hot dog-esque as some frozen burgers tend to be, nor was it as funky and off-tasting as some others. Basically, it was pretty much as good as it gets when it comes to freezer-born burgers — but that is a very low water-mark indeed.

It still, of course, had that generically salty “this is meat?” flavour and hot doggy texture, but to a lesser degree than pretty much any other frozen burger that I’ve had. It was also nicely grilled, with the gooey mild cheddar and thickly-cut, smoky bacon doing their best to hide the patty’s deficiencies. It was probably the most I’ve enjoyed a frozen burger in quite a while, so props must go to Zet’s for successfully putting lipstick on a pig.

The other toppings were fine, as was the soft, fresh bun. It’s actually pretty sad that Zet’s isn’t working with better patties; their technique is obviously pretty great, so if they were starting with better quality meat, they could be serving something special. Oh well.

The fries, too, made me want to give Zet’s a pass. Crispy on the outside and pleasingly creamy on the inside, they were absolutely outstanding. Again, you can’t make fries this good unless you really know what you’re doing, so what’s the deal with the frozen burgers, Zet’s? What’s the deal?

On Toronto Life’s List of the 25 Best Burgers in the City

Published on May 29, 2012March 2, 2014 by Michael Nusair12 Comments

Toronto Life posted its list of the 25 best burgers in the city a couple of weeks ago. It’s a so-so list that’s mostly acceptable, though it does have a handful of questionable choices (Apache? Really?). It’s hard to fault the author of the list, however; I think the mediocrity of the list is, to a large degree, a reflection on Toronto’s still-burgeoning burger scene.

Yes, despite my positive outlook in my Slab Burgers review, things are not all wine and roses in Toronto.

Things are probably no better in any other Canadian city. As ubiquitous as they are, I think burgers are ingrained in the American culture in a way that they’re simply not here in Canada. It seems odd, given how simple they are, but hamburgers are an American food, and we just don’t have the same relationship with them here in Canada that they do in the States.

Don’t get me wrong — I think in the last five years or so, Toronto has moved forward by leaps and bounds when it comes to burgers. But if you look at Toronto Life’s list, there is an abundance of fancy-pants burgers, and it saddens me that most of the best hamburgers in Toronto are apparently made by upscale restaurants. Of course a restaurant with the talent and resources (and the pricing) of a Harbord Room or a Nota Bene is going to be able to make a great burger. That should be a given.

What concerns me is how few burger joints of note there are in the GTA. If you wanted to recommend absolute can’t-miss burger joints to a visitor to our city, what would you recommend? Burger’s Priest, Holy Chuck, and… that’s pretty much it. There are a lot of good burger joints in the city these days, but very few that are worth going out of your way to try.

Whereas if you go to pretty much any big American city, there are dozens of unassuming diners and burger joints that, if they were to open in Toronto, would immediately be one of the best places in the city (and that serve up burgers that cost something like half of what burger places in Toronto charge). Even American fast food, setting aside the big guys, outshines something like 95% of the burger joints in Toronto — places like In-N-Out, Steak and Shake, Culver’s, Shake Shack, etc., all consistently put out better burgers than almost anywhere in Toronto.

Not to mention the burger styles that go completely unrepresented here. I’m thinking, most notably, of sliders — real sliders. Though the term has pretty much come to mean a small burger, a slider is a very specific (and delicious) way of cooking a burger that is completely lacking in Toronto.

I do, however, think that things are heading in the right direction, and that Torontonians finally seem to realize that a burger can be more than a flavourless puck of meat or an overseasoned meatloaf sandwich that you cram into your mouth when you need something cheap on the go. I think if things continue the way they’re going, maybe in something like five years, Toronto will be able to compete with cities in the States. But we’re not there yet.

OBQ Burgers

Published on April 20, 2012April 21, 2012 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

Location: 602 Brown’s Line, Toronto
Website: None

OBQ Burgers is one of the sketchier looking places that I’ve visited for this blog; it’s a tiny place in a run-down little plaza that’s basically in the middle of nowhere, and its sign/logo looks like it was designed in about five minutes in MS Paint. But sometimes hole-in-the-wall places like this can have some seriously tasty food, so I’ve learned not to judge a book by its cover.

Though I dined in, it’s pretty much a take-out place only — the seating options are limited to a small counter with four stools, though they do have a couple of tables outside, so if it’s a nice day that’s probably your best bet.

The burgers are listed on a blackboard next to the register; there’s actually a pretty good variety to be had, though as per my policy I zeroed in on the eponymous OBQ Burger. I think I’m going to have to go back to try the Halo Burger, which reminds me of a burger that I read about in Hamburger America, from a place called Shady Glen (and if you’re reading this blog, that’s probably a book that will interest you). It’s a essentially a cheeseburger in which the cheese has been allowed to overflow onto the griddle, creating a ring of crispy cheese surrounding the burger. If I go back and try this I will update this post.

As for my OBQ Burger, I was heartened to see the man behind the counter get out a ball of fresh beef, and then smash it down on the griddle; no frozen burgers here. After searing the burger on the griddle for 30 seconds or so, he transferred the patty to the grill, which struck me as an interesting way to cook a burger.

A few minutes later the burger was ready, and I took my tray, sat down on a stool and dug in. The OBQ Burger is described as being “served with cheddar, lettuce, pickles, onion & GABAGOO!!” I asked the man behind the counter what Gabagoo was, and was informed that it’s their special sauce, and a secret recipe.

The burger was okay. After eating it, I told my dining companion that I wish the burger had either been better, or worse, because writing about an agreeable but generally middling burger like this one can be a bit of a challenge.

It’s a meatloaf burger, though it wasn’t too aggressively-spiced. It didn’t have that sausagey texture that a lot of meatloaf burgers tend to have, which I definitely appreciated. The beef itself had a fairly neutral flavour — it obviously wasn’t bad quality beef, but it wasn’t great, either. It was also too lean and a bit on the dry side, though I have certainly had worse.

The cheddar was shredded and mounded on top of the burger, a questionable choice that resulted in cheese that was melted around the edges and cold and uncooked in the middle. There’s clearly a reason why 99 percent of the cheeseburgers out there use slices. The cheddar was also fairly low quality, and as such I kinda wish they had just gone with good old fashioned American cheese — it melts much more consistently and is a good match for a burger such as this.

The Gabagoo sauce essentially tasted like sweet honey mustard, so I’m not sure what all the “top secret” business was about. I like honey mustard when it leans more toward mustard than honey; this leaned very strongly in the other direction, and I found it to be a bit too sweet and overpowering for my tastes.

I got the burger as a combo with fries, and received a very generous portion of crispy, tasty fries. They were probably better than the burger itself, actually.