Mississauga – Page 4 – Tasty Burgers

BriSkit Gourmet Slow Cooked Sandwiches

Published on January 11, 2015January 26, 2015 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 160 Wilkinson Road, Unit 40, Brampton
Website: http://www.thebriskit.com/

Most of the time, when I check out a non-burger-joint for this blog, I do so because I’ve heard something about the burger being worth eating. Every now and then, though, I visit a restaurant blind, hoping for a pleasant surprise.

What I’d really like to do is blow the lid off of some place — to find a random restaurant you’d never suspect has an amazing burger and announce their greatness to the world, at which point the burger-eating public would rally around me and we’d all dance and sing and high-five.

In this case, I had been to BriSkit a few months ago and tried one of their brisket sandwiches, which was pretty tasty. I made a mental note to come back later and check out their burger.

There are a few burgers on the menu; I went with the no-frills Classic, which comes topped as you like it. I got my usual pickles, tomato, and mayo.

Trust me, this pains me as much as it does you, but there is no lid to blow off here. There will be no dancing, no singing, and no high-fiving (yet — one day, though. One day).

It’s not awful, at least, though there are a handful of fairly serious problems.

It’s definitely not an all-out meatloaf burger, but there’s some kind of seasoning in the patty that I can’t quite put my finger on, and that really did nothing but get in the way. It’s not particularly strong, but it’s hard to ignore. It hollers at you in the background: “Hey! You like this? You like how this tastes??”

No, random unwelcome flavour. No, I don’t like how this tastes.

The flavour of the patty is otherwise muddled and unmemorable; there’s no real beefy flavour to speak of, but no off flavours either. The word “meh” was almost invented for this very purpose.

The texture’s not great either. The grind of the beef is too fine, it’s too tightly packed, and the well done patty leans pretty far in the direction of dry.

Another problem? The bun. Though it works quite well on their sloppier sandwiches, it’s way too big and substantial for a hamburger. It throws the bun-to-patty ratio way off.

Oh well. Though the burger isn’t particularly worth eating, I wouldn’t write off BriSkit altogether. The aforementioned brisket sandwich is certainly quite good.

The fries were good too. Actually, they were better than good — they were superlative. A perfect combination of crispy exterior and fluffy interior, they were some of the better fries I’ve had in a while.

2 out of 4

Sonny’s Drive-In

Published on August 2, 2014 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

Location: 21 Kennedy Road North, Brampton
Website: http://www.sonnysdrivein1964.com/

Sonny’s Drive-In — a small, rickety old take-out joint — is absolutely dripping with old-school charm. It is lousy with it. Though in other cities that might fill you with a warm fuzzy feeling, visiting an old-school burger joint in the GTA is pretty much a guarantee of two things:

1) The burgers will be grilled. I have no idea why, but prior to the rise of places like Burger’s Priest and Holy Chuck a few years ago, griddled burgers were exceptionally difficult to find in the GTA (aside from fast food chains like McDonald’s and Wendy’s). Everyone grilled their burgers.

2) This is the thing that always makes me hesistant to check out old-school burger joints: the burgers being served will almost certainly be of the frozen, industrially-produced variety. Or if you’re lucky and the burger is freshly made, it’ll inevitably be a meatloaf burger.

Number two is what makes it impossible for me to feel anything but trepidation when I visit an old-school burger joint, and makes me seriously confused as to how these places stay in business. I think it’s safe to say that nostalgia plays a very strong role.

Before I bury the lede much further: yes, Sonny’s serves a frozen burger. No, it is not good.

It’s a tiny little place that does mostly take-out business — there are four picnic tables outside, but aside from that seating is non-existent. The burgers can either be had plain, with cheese, or with bacon and cheese. I went plain and had mine topped with pickles, tomato, and mayo.

Accuse me of snobbery all you want, but cheap frozen burgers like the ones they serve here (and these are seriously bottom of the barrel) barely even taste like a hamburger to me. I’ve mentioned this before, but with their rubbery texture and generically salty flavour, they taste more like a flattened hot dog than like a hamburger. They’re bad.

The toppings were fine, though the mayo was actually Miracle Whip or something similar. The bun was pretty good, though when it’s part of such a shoddy hamburger, who cares?

As for the fries, they were much better than the burger, though that’s not saying much. They were soggy and a bit undercooked, but otherwise pretty good. They were also completely unsalted, which is a bit of a bummer coming from a take-out place.

Jessie’s

Published on May 4, 2014June 14, 2014 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 450 Matheson Boulevard East, Mississauga
Website: None

I was doing some random Google searches for the best burger in Mississauga, and Jessie’s popped up a couple of times. I really don’t need much more of an excuse to check out a place than that, so… here we are.

Jessie’s is a Greek Deli, with standard deli sandwiches on the menu, along with stuff like souvlaki and Greek salads. And a burger, of course. They offer a standard burger, a cheeseburger, and something called Jesse’s Burger. As usual, I went with the namesake item, which comes topped with Swiss cheese and peameal bacon, along with your choice of toppings.

There’s no point in beating around the bush: it’s a frozen, industrially-produced burger. By their standards, it’s better than average. It actually has some vague beefy flavour, and the texture — though chewy — isn’t quite as rubbery as some of these things tend to be (i.e. it actually tasted somewhat like a hamburger, and not like the flattened hot dog that so many of the lower quality frozen burgers taste like).

It’s not particularly good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not nearly as appalling as a lot of the frozen burgers I’m subjected to.

I will say that Jessie’s do their best to disguise the less-than-stellar patty. It’s nicely grilled, giving it some smokiness without the burnt flavour you sometimes get with grilled burgers, and the swiss cheese is fully melted and satisfyingly gooey.

The thickly-sliced peameal bacon was also above average. Some peameal bacon has the tendency to be so tough that your teeth can’t quite make their way through it, resulting in the entire piece of bacon pulling out of the burger while still attached to your face. Thankfully, that’s not the case here. I actually tried a piece on its own and it was quite tasty: tender, not too salty, and slightly smoky. They sell this in a sandwich by itself, and I’m quite positive that it would be much more satisfying than the burger.

The dense, crusty roll would no doubt be completely overwhelming on a better hamburger; here, where I’m happy to let the sub-par burger be overwhelmed, it was perfectly fine.

This would be where I’d normally talk about the restaurant’s fries, but oddly enough, this place doesn’t serve them. I ordered a coleslaw instead, which was of the creamy variety and which was actually quite tasty. I’m not sure if they make it in-house, but I’m assuming they do; if it’s a store-bought brand, it’s probably the best one that I’ve tried.

Burger Legend

Published on April 20, 2014 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 236 Queen Street South, Mississauga
Website: https://www.facebook.com/BurgerLegend

I don’t typically find myself in Streetsville, but when I heard a new burger joint had opened there, I figured I’d head over and give it a shot. Burger Legend apparently started as a food truck, and I guess it did well enough to justify a stand-alone restaurant.

It’s a fairly small place, and kind of oddly laid out (it feels like there’s a lot of empty space where more tables could be put). It’s also weirdly quiet, which is a little bit off-putting.

They have a handful of burger choices on the menu, but The Great One is labeled as their signature item, so that’s what I went with. It’s topped with cheddar cheese, maple smoked bacon, mixed greens, tomato, and Bawss Sauce.

It’s a solid burger. Like with most of the new burger joints opening in the GTA, it’s a smashed/griddled burger. The beef is coarsely ground, it’s not too densely packed, and it has a little bit of crust from the griddle; it definitely has a pretty good texture. It’s not the juiciest burger I’ve ever had, but it certainly isn’t dry, either. It also has a decently beefy flavour. It’s pretty good.

The burger patty came piping hot, which means they probably aren’t giving it any time to rest after cooking. Not sure if that would make a huge difference in this case, but it’s worth noting.

The very thickly cut maple bacon tastes okay, but it’s completely overwhelming as a topping on a hamburger. Aside from its sheer thickness, it has an exceptionally strong maple flavour — it basically tastes like they dunked it in maple syrup immediately prior to serving. On the burger, it’s all you can taste. I removed it almost immediately (and even then, the maple flavour lingered).

The Bawss sauce, on the other hand, isn’t nearly as overwhelming as the bacon — pretty much the opposite, actually. It was so subtle that neither my dining companion nor I could figure out what it actually tasted like, other than that it was mayo-based. I typically like plain mayo on my burger, so this certainly wasn’t an issue for me.

The burger comes with both sides of the bun toasted on the griddle; it almost appears as though they toasted the assembled hamburger whole on the grill, as though it were a grilled cheese sandwich. It’s an interesting touch, though it does lead to a less photogenic (and messier) hamburger.

All in all it’s a pretty tasty hamburger, though if you’re not already in the vicinity of Streetsville, it’s not particularly worth going out of your way for.

As for the chunky fries, they were decent enough — though they were a bit soggy, and a touch undercooked in the middle.

Wally’s Restaurant

Published on March 23, 2014March 23, 2014 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3480 Hurontario Street, Mississauga
Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wallys-Family-Restaurant/223907720231

I recently found myself looking for a burger near my work, and again, I decided to refer to Urbanspoon’s list of the best burgers in Mississauga. This has worked out both well and not-so-well in the past, so I figured I’d give it another shot.

Wally’s is yet another old school diner in the GTA that looks pretty much exactly like every other old school diner in the GTA (I know I’ve mentioned this before, but what’s the deal? Was there just one guy designing every diner in the ’70s and ’80s?).

They’ve got two main burger choices on the menu: the hamburger and the “home made hamburger.” I asked what the difference was and was urged to order the homemade, which seems like the natural choice either way. I’m assuming the regular burger is a standard frozen patty; there’s only a sixty cent difference, so I’m honestly not sure why it’s even a choice. This is completely unfathomable to me, but I guess there must be people out there who prefer frozen? I would love to sit down with these people and tell them why they are completely insane, but I digress.

The combo, with fries and a drink, is less than eight bucks. Expensive it is not. But is it good?

I don’t know. It’s not bad. I have a couple of issues with the grilled, well done patty. There’s definitely stuff mixed into the burger, but whatever it is, it’s fairly subtle. Honestly, aside from the smokiness and the mild bitterness imparted from the grill, there’s not much flavour to the burger at all. Pretty much zero beefy flavour; it could have been made out of ground pork for all the flavour of beef that it had. Who knows — maybe it was.

It also had a soft, vaguely sausagey texture that was a bit off, though nothing I’d get too worked up over.

It’s not terrible. It’s quite juicy, at least, and there’s nothing terribly offensive about it. If you put another one in front of me, I’d probably eat it. But there’s nothing particularly good about it either. The flavour is nonexistent, the texture is slightly off, and the toppings don’t do much to redeem it — the tomatoes were okay, the pickles were fine (but they were wadded in the centre so I got a couple of pickley bites and then nothing for the remainder), and the mayo was actually Miracle Whip. The plain, fresh sesame seed bun was unspectacular and fit right in with the patty.

As for the fries, they were fine, but they tasted like the most generic frozen fries that you’ve ever had.