griddled – Tasty Burgers

Avenue Open Kitchen

Published on January 6, 2020 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 7 Camden Street, Toronto
Website: https://aveopenkitchen.ca/

I probably shouldn’t like the burger at Avenue Open Kitchen quite as much as I did — mostly because it’s a meatloaf burger, which isn’t my favourite style of hamburger, putting it mildly.

Actually, no, that description doesn’t quite cut it; it’s not just a meatloaf burger. It is the meatloafiest of meatloaf burgers. The patty absolutely slaps you in the face with its oddly sweet, heavily-seasoned flavour. The taste of the beef? Completely gone.

So, I hated it, right? Well, about that…

Avenue Open Kitchen

It’s otherwise so well prepared, I couldn’t help but enjoy it.

I had heard that that the banquet burger is the thing to order here, so that’s what I got. And yeah, that’s what you should be getting; the bacon is nice and crispy and the gooey American cheese is perfectly melted. Bonus: their saltiness helps to balance the sweetness of the patty.

Avenue Open Kitchen

That patty is quite sweet, though. It’s so weird. I’m guessing they’ve mixed in some kind of sweet sauce into the beef? It’s not bad, per se, but it’s strange.

Avenue Open Kitchen

Still, everything else about the patty is so right that it almost makes up for the wrongness of the flavour — its got a great crispy crust from the griddle, it’s very juicy, and the texture is on point (it’s slightly too soft, but that’s par for the course for a meatloaf burger).

The toppings are the usual suspects, and the soft, fluffy bun suits the burger perfectly.

Avenue Open Kitchen

As for the fries, they’re nothing to write home about, but they’re solid.

3 out of 4

Top Gun Burgers

Published on November 25, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5955 Latimer Drive, Mississauga
Website: http://www.topgunburgerto.com/

I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to check out Top Gun Burgers. I guess their original Kensington Market location opened shortly after The Burgernator, a nearby burger joint I didn’t care for, and it looked similar enough that I was never particularly motivated to try it.

In the meantime, however, Top Gun Burgers have done well enough to expand to eight locations throughout the GTA, so this review was long overdue.

Top Gun Burgers

Their fighter-plane-inspired menu has over a dozen choices, but I went simple with the Bobcat: “beef patty, fresh onion, lettuce, tomato, pickles and top gun aioli.”

It’s not the best, though it certainly looks impressive. The smashed and griddled patty (of course it’s smashed and griddled, what else would it be?? There’s no other way to cook a burger, right???) looks great, with a picture-perfect amount of crust from the hot griddle.

Top Gun Burgers

Alas, though it’s certainly not bad, it doesn’t taste quite as good as it looks.

The patty is the biggest issue. It’s been cooked to well done and beyond, not to mention the fact that it’s a bit too tightly packed. It’s vaguely juicy, but still dryer than it should be. It all adds up to a patty that’s a bit of a tough chew.

Top Gun Burgers

The burger has a very mild beefy flavour; it’s nice, but not nearly as beefy as you’d like it to be.

The toppings are what you’d expect, other than the Top Gun aioli, which is zippier than the standard burger sauce, with a slightly smoky flavour.

The bun is mostly okay, though it’s a bit too dense.

Top Gun Burgers

As for the fries, they’re absolutely phenomenal. They’re some of the best fries I’ve had in ages; they’re perfectly crispy and creamy, and the flavour is outstanding. It’s worth coming here just for them. Seriously, seriously good.

2.5 out of 4

Queen Street Burger & Taters

Published on July 7, 2019September 1, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 45 Queen Street North, Mississauga
Website: https://www.queenstreetburger.com/

I have a Google phone, and every now and then it’ll pop up with an unsolicited recommendation for a restaurant it thinks I’ll like — I guess based on my search history and places I’ve visited? It is equal parts unnerving and impressive.

Recently, it popped up and said there’s an 87 percent chance I’ll like Queen Street Burger & Taters. Its reasoning: “you seem interested in hamburgers.” I seem interested in hamburgers? It’s like you don’t know me at all, Google.

Anyway, it’s fine. I basically enjoyed it, so I guess Google was correct, but it’s not exactly a place I’d strongly recommend.

I ordered the Premium Burger, which is the bare-bones hamburger topped as you like. I went with tomatoes, pickles, and Queen Sauce.

They serve a griddled patty that’s significantly more substantial than the smashed burgers that are de rigueur throughout the GTA. And for the most part, it’s not bad — specifically, the texture is on point and it’s actually decently juicy, which is particularly impressive considering how well done it is.

But the flavour is lacking. The patty is nicely salted on its exterior, but the flavour of the beef is middling and bland. It’s neither pleasant nor unpleasant. It’s just kinda there. The patty also has almost no colour or crust from the griddle, which is unfortunate.

The Queen Sauce is slightly zesty, but otherwise doesn’t particularly stand out, and the bun is exactly what it looks like.

I ordered taters on the side, mostly because it’s right there in the name of the restaurant. I’d call what they serve here wedges rather than taters (I was expecting something more like this), but they’re tasty regardless, with a crispy seasoned exterior, and a creamy interior. They reminded me of the wedges I used to order from a pizza place near my house when I was a kid, so at the very least, they gave me a nice comforting dose of nostalgia.

2.5 out of 4

Burgers n’ Fries Forever

Published on January 5, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 182 Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://burgersnfriesforever.com/

I mentioned in my last review that smashed-and-griddled burgers are a dime a dozen in Toronto. On one hand, that’s a bummer — there so many other varieties of hamburger, but you’d basically never know it judging by the city’s burger joints.

On the other hand, there are a bunch of really great choices out there for a smashed burger. Which means we no longer have to settle for anything less than great.

Burgers n' Fries Forever

This definitely wasn’t the case a few years ago. If you look at my very first review, for Johnny Rockets back in 2011 (which no longer exists in Ontario outside of a location in Windsor), you’ll notice that I cut it a lot of slack — this style of burger was still something of a rarity in the city.

Today, on the other hand? If you’re serving a smashed-and-griddled burger: be great or GTFO.

Burgers n’ Fries Forever is not great.

Burgers n' Fries Forever

I got the BFF², which is a double cheeseburger that comes topped with lettuce, tomato, red onion, beef bacon, and BFF sauce.

Though the patty actually looks really impressive, with a nice amount of crust, it has a bunch of issues that hold it back from being much better than okay.

The biggest problem is the texture: the grind is way too fine and it’s too tightly packed. You can tell just by looking at it. If the cross-section of a burger patty is a uniform slab of gray, you know you’ve got problems. A burger should have crags and crannies. It should have texture. If it’s basically just one monolithic slab of beef that’s trying its best to re-form into a steak, it’s going to be a bummer to eat. It’s going to be tough.

And yes, it was tough. It was vaguely juicy, but it was still a tough chew.

Burgers n' Fries Forever

The flavour was okay, at least, if nothing particularly special.

The toppings were a bit of an issue, too. The cheese was cheddar rather than American; that’s not my favourite (I find it a bit too overwhelming), but that’s more of a personal preference thing. Your mileage my vary. It was nice and gooey, so no complaints there.

The beef bacon was iffy. I don’t have anything against this variety of bacon (in fact, the best burger I’ve had recently featured beef bacon), but the stuff here was chewy and tough to bite through.

The BFF sauce was lost among the burger’s other flavours. I couldn’t even tell you what it tasted like. Everything else was fine, including the sweet, fluffy bun.

As for the fries, they were the clear highlight. They were perfectly cooked, with an addictive crispy/creamy contrast and a really great flavour. The combo comes with a dipping sauce; I went with the kimchi mayo, which complimented the fries very well.

2 out of 4

Extra Burger

Published on December 23, 2018 by Michael Nusair3 Comments

Location: 1357 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.extraburger.ca/

Another day, another smashed-and-griddled burger in Toronto. At some point, this city’s obsession with the thin, griddled patty (to the exclusion of every other type of burger) will cool down.

We’re not there yet.

Not that I’m complaining — well, not entirely, at least. Though a little more variety would be nice, there’s a reason this style of patty is so popular. It’s damn good.

Extra Burger

But there’s something to be said for the satisfying meatiness of a thicker patty, and for the smokiness that you get from the grill. I love chocolate cake, but other flavours of cake are good too, you know?

But I digress. Extra burger is an especially bare-bones burger joint; the menu consists entirely of a cheeseburger, a double cheeseburger, and fries. They have a few stools where you can sit, but mostly, it’s take-out only.

I ordered the double, which comes topped with lettuce, tomato, pickles, special sauce (well, they call it special sauce, but it looked and tasted like plain mayo to me), and two slices of American cheese.

Extra Burger

The burger certainly looks impressive; their griddling technique is exactly as it should be, with an impressive amount of dark brown crust on the exterior of each patty. And the burger is well proportioned and photogenic.

Alas, though it’s a solid burger, it’s not quite as good as it looks. The well done patties are nicely juicy, but the beef is finely ground and overhandled, resulting in a burger that isn’t nearly as tender as it should be.

It’s also bland; the meat has a very neutral flavour that, while certainly not unpleasant, lacks the beefy punch that you’re looking for in a top shelf hamburger.

Extra Burger

It’s otherwise very good — the gooey American cheese is perfect, the bun is soft and fresh, and the toppings are all on point (particularly the zippy, thickly cut pickle slices that I’m assuming they make in-house).

As for the fries, they’re okay. They’re crinkle-cut, and they’re seasoned with a spice blend that brings them a nice flavour without overwhelming. But they were slightly underdone, with an unpleasantly chalky interior.

3 out of 4