Dave N.’s Review

The Experience

My girlfriend Caryl and I decided to eat vegan for the month of November. That means no dairy, no eggs, and certainly no burgers. Or does it?! Veggie and soy burgers were obviously a possibility, but it’s pretty hard finding ones that a) are completely vegan, and b) don’t taste like a cardboard asshole.

By the end of the month I had eaten one burger at home that was really gross, and I was dying to get out and have something delicious. I found out that South St. Burger Co. — a newish burger chain owned by New York Fries — had a veggie burger, so I gave them a shout via their Twitter account to find out if it was truly vegan. I got a fast, friendly and helpful reply with the information I needed, and made plans with Caryl to eat there (though we did so in different cities).

Now, my vegan diet may not have been as strict as some, and my research into their ingredients was fairly limited. If you are interested in a veggie burger from South Street, I recommend emailing them at info@southstburger.com for a full list of ingredients, to make sure it fits your needs.

So far, my (pre-visit) experience with the company had been super good. I was impressed and happy. Once I got to the clean, modern-looking restaurant, things stayed more or less positive. The ordering procedure is like a Harvey’s or Lick’s: order your burger, shuffle down the line and, once your burger has been grilled up, order your condiments. The staff were fast and friendly, and the whole thing was efficient.

But I did say "more or less", didn’t I? There was something that came close to ruining my whole meal for me: Rush. The restaurant had the radio (Q107 I believe) on really loud. I generally like Q107, but having it on in the restaurant sucks:

1. In addition to really loud music, I have to listen to really loud commercials. I’ve already paid for my meal, I don’t want to also have ads drilled into my brain while I’m eating it.
2. If terrible, terrible music comes on, like fucking Rush, I can’t change the channel. I have to sit and listen to their 14-minute epics about trees, all the while gritting my teeth and wishing that I were deaf. I hate fucking Rush, man.

So yeah, the music situation was not cool. Significant points lost there, but your mileage may vary.

Another problem that I think is actually a bit of a bigger deal: the drink that came with my combo was tiny. The cup itself seemed like a decent size — smaller than I’d like, but decent — but it was packed with ice. Completely full. The amount of actual pre-melting liquid in there was enough to get me through about half my meal, after which I just had to suffer. I know there have been lots of points made about how much pop sizes have grown over the years and how bad it is for you, etc. But I don’t care, man. Give me a drink that’s big enough that I don’t get thirsty while eating. Pop costs practically nothing for these companies; skimping on that is pretty bushleague in my opinion.

A word about the fries: mmmm. I’ve always loved New York Fries, and having them with a burger was a nice treat.

The Burger

South St.’s veggie burger is actually mostly soy-based. Before going to South St. I was very conscious of the fact that I’d never had a soy burger I’ve really liked. And… much to my surprise, I found myself really enjoying this burger.

So I can set the flavour-scene a bit: I got my burger on a white bun (you could also get whole wheat if you like), with Dijon mustard, ketchup, lettuce, guacamole, banana peppers, salt and black pepper. There were lots of toppings to choose from, which was nice. There are some sauces (e.g. garlic aioli and I think a Dijon horseradish or something like that) that I’d like to try if I go back.

I must admit, my tastebuds were pretty confused while eating the burger. At no point did I think it was bad. I did, however, have all of the following thoughts (all of which I wrote down, naturally):

• Smells not burgery.
• Tastes good! Not really like a burger, but good!
• OK, it is pretty burgery. Not exactly like meat, but totally decent.
• Nice seasonings. I can’t exactly place what it tastes like.
• Maybe it does taste like meat, but not like a burger.

In hindsight, I’d say it was like a comedian doing a funny impression of another comedian. The impression will have some of the same characteristics of the original, some exaggerated and some understated. Though the original is good, the impression is also good, albeit in a different way. That’s a bit laboured, but I think you get what I’m trying to say.

All that said, there were aspects of the burger that could have been better. First, the burger seemed a bit small. I’m not sure if this was an illusion caused by a slightly too-large bun, or if it was actually small. I didn’t leave hungry, so that’s something to consider. Second, the toppings were applied skimpily, especially the guacamole. I’d say for more than half my bites, the toppings were more or less undetectable. The only saving grace is that none of them cost extra, which is nice.

Despite my weird ramblings and those two complaints, the bottom line is that South St. delivered a tasty burger in my hour of need, and I left a happy customer. I have no doubt I will return at some point to try their real burgers out, and maybe even give the veggie burger another go.

Bottom Line

Average rating:

3.85/5

 

 

Dave N.’s Review

The Experience

Wendy’s restaurants tend to offer very few surprises.

As is fairly typical, I was in a rush and needed something fast and to-go. I hit up Wendy’s before getting on the subway. This particular Wendy’s was clean and tidy, but unfortunately it was also crazy slow with my order. When I arrived there were no other customers, so I’m not really sure why it took so long.

As my aggravation mounted, a family arrived — including two loud, yelling children. Now, it’s not Wendy’s fault that these kids were annoying, but this kind of thing is not atypical for a fast-food scenario and does impact the experience. So, points lost.

By the time I got my burger I was running late and had a headache. At this point every little minor aggravation was likely to set me off. Minor aggravations like:

• The fries were far too hot, possibly dangerously so.
• The fries were tossed into my paper bag haphazardly, creating greasy spots in the paper and ruining the structural integrity of the bag.
• The service was not unfriendly, but certainly not overly hospitable either.

So anyway, I pretty much had a terrible time of it there.

The Burger

Wendy’s burgers have the potential to be pretty greasy, but they’re also pretty tasty. This one wasn’t an exception. When I was finished eating it, there were somewhat-gross grease puddles left over in the burger’s foil wrapping. Despite this, the burger had a decent, fresh-ish taste for a fast food burger. It was also pretty soft and squishy, which I like in fast food.

Bottom Line

Average rating:

2.4/5

 

 

Dave N.’s Review

The Experience

I’m not sure exactly what this place is called. I’ve seen Caffevolo, Caffe Volo, Cafe Volo, Bar Volo and just plain Volo. I’m sticking with Volo, because it’s easier.

Anyway, this is a really nice Italian beer bar and restaurant on Yonge, near Wellesley. It’s a bit pricey, but it generally has great food and always has an amazing selection of beers. Their normal menu is always good, but it’s often worth checking out what’s on special (for both drinks and food).

The day I was there I was in a bit of a bad mood, as I was meeting a friend to help me resolve some labour/money issues I was having. (Bad mood because of issues, not because of friend helping me.) I offered to buy him drinks if he’d help me talk through it, which he agreed to. Dickhead that I am, I forgot to pay for his share, but I’ll pay him back later, I swear.

We ended up staying for more than just a drink, and we were eventually joined by his girlfriend, and the whole thing turned into quite a nice evening.

I’ve found that the service at Volo can be spotty, but that night I had absolutely no complaints. Our servers were fast, friendly and accurate.

My only complaints about the experience are that, as I said, Volo can be expensive; it can also be fairly dark in there, and I like a well-lit restaurant.

The Burger

The night we were there, Volo’s panini special was a 5oz veal burger with caramelized onions, mushrooms, pancetta bacon, and gorgonzola cheese on an egg brioche bun served with potatoes and mixed greens, all for $15. All three of us ordered it — mine without mushrooms, naturally – and I believe we all enjoyed it.

You can’t really go wrong with toppings like that — I mean shit, man. Onions, pancetta and gorgonzola? Fuck yeah. Why don’t more burgers have pancetta? Pancetta is great! And Volo’s not really the kind of place to dick around; the ingredients were top-notch, and the burger tasted awesome. Sure it was smallish, but it was really densely flavoured and rich. I loved it. Also, the bun was really nice. Why aren’t more burgers served on brioche? Brioche is great!

So, I’m not 100% sure if Volo even has burgers on their menu normally, but if you happen to be there and if there happens to be a burger special, for the love of God, order it. And have some great beers, too.

Bottom Line

Average rating:

4.7/5

 

 

Dave N.’s Review

The Experience

I had been working late, and needed to grab some food. I ended up meeting up with some friends, who highly recommended the burgers at this pub, so we hit the mother up.

The Duke of Somerset is part of the ‘Duke’ chain of pubs that can be found around Toronto. I had been in here a long time ago, when my girlfriend used to live nearby. I’m pretty sure it’s undergone some renos in the years since I had last visited and the place looks really nice. I’m a big fan of pubs, and this one hits a really sweet spot where it’s nice and classy and clean, without being pretentious.

The service was excellent, we got a nice big table in a prime location, and overall the night was good. There was some weird music playing that straddled a fine line between amazing and terrible. Selections included a disco medley of The Streets Have No Name and Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You, and some Blur.

Also: really good fries.

The Burger

Despite my friends’ recommendations, I didn’t actually intend to have a burger. However, the Somerset had this Monday night special that I found impossible to resist: any burger on the menu plus a pint of Keith’s for $12.99. Considering the burgers can cost $12.99 anyway, that’s a good bargain.

I opted for the Big Ben Burger, which has Stilton cheese, mushrooms, and beer-braised onions. I got it without mushrooms because mushrooms are gross, y’all. The burger was really beefy, in a good way; the meat had a nice, strong flavour. Oddly enough, the sesame seeds on my bun were also surprisingly strong (which is also good in my book). Unfortunately, these robust tastes just made the very lackluster stilton and onions all the more obvious and disappointing. While they tasted good, they also definitely struggled to be noticed under the beefy-sesamey double-whammy.

The burger was definitely good, but I was not satisfied with the toppings at all. I would definitely return to give the Duke of Somerset another shot, but I probably wouldn’t have the Big Ben Burger again.

Bottom Line

Average rating:

3.9/5

 

 

Dave N.’s Review

The Experience

No, I’m not going to write a review every time I go to McDonald’s, nor are our other reviewers. However, I don’t mind writing up a few a) to cover different menu items, or b) if it was an interesting or exceptional experience. This experience was neither interesting nor exceptional, so this review will simply focus on how sweet it is to get double cheeseburgers.

I don’t have much to say about going to McDonald’s. It was a pretty typical McDonald’s trip. I ended up missing my Queen subway stop on the way to work, so I got off at King and walked up. Recognizing that this was my only chance to eat lunch, and possibly dinner, I popped in for something quick. This particular McDonald’s was spacious and clean — far better than the one I sometimes hit at Queen and Church, which is a tiny scuzzhole.

The Burger

When I was in LA visiting Caryl’s brother last year, we were in search of something fast and cheap to eat before going out drinking at a tiki bar. McDonald’s fit the bill and I was, for the first time, introduced to the dollar menu. Now, in LA, items on this menu actually cost a dollar, which is pretty spectacular. Here in Canada they cost $1.39, which still ain’t nothing to shake no stick at. Included on this menu is the absolutely delicious, if somewhat wee, Double Cheeseburger.

For years, when I ate at McDonald’s, I ate Quarter Pounders. Since I’ve discovered the Double Cheeseburger, I’ve almost never looked back. The one time I tried to have a Quarter Pounder again I ended up being kinda put off by the taste, so I guess they’ve been ruined for me. The Double Cheeseburger is exactly what you would expect. It’s like a Double Quarter Pounder, but far smaller and flimsier, and with a slightly different taste. Though it still tastes like McDonald’s, of course.

Ok, I’m bored of writing this. What you need to know: the Double Cheeseburger is a better value than other McD’s burgers and just as good, if not better. Order up a couple of these bad boys next time you’re here.

Bottom Line

Average rating:

3/5 — it’s McDonald’s

 

 

Dave N.’s Review

The Experience

I first ate at Moxie’s when Caryl and I lived in Vancouver for a year. They were peppered around the city and we found it to be a decent place to get a fairly consistent, if somewhat overpriced, meal. After we moved back to Toronto, I guess they expanded eastwards because, well, here they are.

The atmosphere is like a Milestones or something like that — think (somewhat phonily) fancified bar and grill. It’s too dark for my tastes, and the lack of lighting comes off as kind of pretentious. It also makes it necessary for them to put insanely bright spotlights directly over the tables, which frequently blind you while you’re eating and conversing. The weird lighting and my colour-blindness also combined to trick me into using a pack of fake sugar for my coffee, though this is a problem few others will probably run into.

The service was friendly, but we waited for too long in my opinion. I was getting pretty antsy by the time the food showed up. It was kind of brutal. Once stuff arrived, things went OK. The house Euro-style beer was decent; got the job done. That job being, you know, to quench my thirst and make me a little tipsy. I made a super smart move in substituting the regular fries that came with my burger for their sweet potato fries. They were soooooo good. Damn. They came with a curry-mayo kind of sauce that was great, and also ended up going on my burger.

I like Moxie’s, but it had enough stupid crap going on to annoy me. The lights, the slow service, the price — it all added up to me being kind of cranky, which isn’t exactly what I want in a burger experience. Also, it made me miss Vancouver, so I ended being cranky and sad. The place is good, but they could stand to step their game up a bit.

The Burger

The menu had a few different burgers to choose from, and I decided to go with the Mediterranean Burger that was topped with feta and goat cheese and basil pesto. It was served with lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, pickles and sweet pepper aioli. (I removed the tomatoes and red onions and Caryl took my pickle.) I also added the previously-mentioned great curry-mayo kind of sauce that came with my fries and some mustard.

All of that seems like a hell of a lot of flavours to be mixing together. But, you guys, let me tell you that it was SO GOOD. All the condiments and melty cheeses and things mixed together to form this amazing, delicious awesomesauce. It ended up being a little messy and sloppy, but that worked out to my advantage because I was then able to dip my fries in all the discarded liquid fantastic coming off the burger. I was worried that the feta would make everything too salty, but it did not.

Clearly I liked the burger but, if I’m being honest, it did have some stupid bits. First, the bun was far too bunny — it was too big and poufy, and too dry. The actual burger patty itself was also sub-par. It tasted very familiar to me in a grocery-store-frozen-burger way; I think it might have been a President’s Choice burger. It wasn’t actually bad, but I expect something better (or at the very least different) than that when I go out and drop a small fortune.

So yeah, not the perfect burger. But, if a restaurant’s going to serve some shitty Loblaws burger, then this is the way to do it.

Bottom Line

Average rating:

3.71/5

 

 

Dave N.’s Review

The Experience

J&I is a little food court-type thing by the subway entrance on the lower level of the St. Clair Centre. It’s kind of tucked away in a corner, and I never noticed it until this Monday when I was hungry and on my way into the office. I needed something fast, and since a burger presented itself… well, who am I to resist?

Now, here’s the thing: I’m a font nerd/snob. The menus were all written in comic sans, the worst font ever. This was a huge, huge turnoff for me. I may have avoided this place entirely if I had noticed before ordering, but by the time I glanced over at the menus it was too late. (The specials board I ordered off of was not in CS, which is why I didn’t notice immediately.) So major point deduction there.

The ordering process itself was easy/friendly/straight-forward/fast. The food is cooked to order, so there was a slight wait, but it wasn’t long at all. The biggest annoyance, other than the font, is that the place was crawling with loud kids/teenagers. I guess there’s a school nearby? They weren’t being rowdy or bad or anything like that, but I just wasn’t in the mood for all the commotion. If you care at all about these kinds of things, keep in mind that noon on a weekday is potentially a bad time to show up.

The Burger

I got a cheeseburger and a coke, and the price was right: exactly $5.

The cheese was a thin piece of cheddar. At first I was disappointed, but it was surprisingly flavourful, so that was a nice surprise. When adding other toppings I was pretty jazzed to see that they had sriracha, so I got some of that. They put the right amount on, but unfortunately it seemed all concentrated into one tiny area of the burger, making for an uneven flavour experience. I also got some lettuce and yellow mustard, which were entirely unremarkable.

The burger itself had the same weird meatloaf taste as the one I got from BBQ Express. I can’t put my finger on exactly what’s so weird about it, but it’s definitely an odd taste for a burger. I think both places were Korean, though, so now I’m wondering if there’s some typical Korean way to prepare burgers. Something to investigate further I guess.

Bottom Line

Average rating:

2.83/5

 

 

Dave N.’s Review

The Experience

It’s a chain pub. It’s pretty much what you would expect. The place is huge on the inside and there are three levels of patio, so there’s lots of space. We were on the ground floor patio, with a view out to Yonge St. There were a lot of wasps, and while I wouldn’t normally blame the restaurant for that, they were particularly attracted to an empty jam container on the ground next to us that we had to ask the staff to get rid of. In this case a little extra cleanliness would have gone a long way.

Our server was pretty good most of the night, but two things irked me. The first was that she removed my friend’s drink before he was done with it, without asking. That didn’t go over well. The second is that after we were done our meals we were required to settle the bill, even though we were staying for drinks, because our server’s shift was ending. I realize this isn’t her fault, that’s it’s a limitation of the restaurant’s system most likely, so I don’t blame her. I do blame Fox & Fiddle, though.

The fries were awesome: thick with very nice seasoning.

The Burger

Maybe I should judge each burger on it’s own individual merits. Maybe I’m about to set a bad precedent. The thing is, when you’ve had one peppercorn burger that punches you in the face with peppercorny goodness, it’s hard not to compare other peppercorn burgers to that standard. See, the thing is, if I order a peppercorn burger, I want to take a bite and think "fuck yeah, peppercorns!" Instead this was more like "hmmm…. I think I can taste some peppercorns…"

Here’s the breakdown: this was a nice, big, fairly tasty burger on a good kaiser. As is fairly standard for pubs, it was served with some raw red onion (removed), tomato (removed), lettuce and pickle, with ketchup, yellow mustard (added) and green relish on the side. This bad boy also had some sauteed onions on top, some peppercorns grilled onto the burger, and a side of peppercorn sauce (added).

If I had just ordered a plain burger, this would have been a good solid entry. My problem is with the total lack of flavour coming out of both the peppercorn sauce and the peppercorns themselves. I felt deceived.

Richard C.’s Review

The Experience

[Ed.'s note: Richard indicated his experience rating was mostly because of the fries.]

The Burger

[Ed.'s note: Richard also had the peppercorn burger.]

Bottom Line

Average rating:

3.5/5

 

 

Caryl D.’s Review

The Experience – worse than Plain Jane

Dave asked if I wanted to meet him for lunch; I couldn’t resist. Unfortunately, my lunch turned out to be less than I bargained for. We met at Bay and Bloor and were off to try a new burger place, only to find it hadn’t opened yet. *sigh*

[ed.'s note: the place that was closed, Gourmet Burger Co. on Charles, will get reviewed once it opens.]

I suggested that we try this little hole in the wall in Yorkville - (selfishly to see if I could see any celebrities — no dice. *sad face*) It’s in an alley, it’s the size of my pinky finger, and it’s a mish-mash of Korean grill, Italian, and Canadian. Down side, it’s cash only. We order the burger, walk through the park and find a seat on some rocks. Had it not been for the shining sun and the wonderful company of my honey plus, it would have been a terrible experience.

Don’t get me wrong, I love being around the Newtron, but every other aspect of this burger event was not good.

The Burger (if you want to call it that)

The bun was cold and I hate cold buns.

The meat tasted weird, really weird! Not like a normal beef burger, but some cheap imitation meat, like tofurkey, only this wasn’t tofu.

Luckily, I had mustard, ketchup, and relish, accompanied with onions, lettuce, pickles and tomatoes to drown out the taste of the ‘beef.’

I had a little burger envy because Dave thought it would be good to add Ranch to his burger and I wish I had done that. Damn.

The cheese was not melted. New rule: no ordering cheeseburgers for me. It’s pointless: why pay extra money if I can’t even taste the cheese?

Dave N.’s Review

The Experience

I was leaving the office to go work at home for the afternoon, so I decided to see if Caryl wanted to grab a burger. She was game and we eventually ended up at BBQ Express in Yorkville.

This place is a tiny, tiny little lunch counter in a brick enclosure, with room for about five customers to stand inside. It is literally shoved into the middle of an alley off Bellair St., and it totally doesn’t fit in with the ultra-posh surrounds. I don’t need my burger joints to be fancy at all, but this was definitely far too cramped. I found myself getting annoyed at other customers invading my bubble while we waited.

In what is becoming a common theme, these guys only took cash. Once again I had to head elsewhere (this time to a convenience store) to withdraw money before I could have a burger.

The staff were friendly — they even started getting our burgers ready while we went to get some dough — but this didn’t really make up for the cramped quarters or the money thing. I guess they were fast-ish?

The Burger

This burger sucked hard. No, seriously, it was bad. Most everything about it was bland and tasteless and unexciting. Full-bodied this wasn’t.

I topped my cheeseburger with lettuce, mustard and — inspired by my positive experience the other day with creamy garlic wing sauce – ranch dressing. The lettuce was moist and wilty, adding none of the crunch I was hoping for. The mustard was plain old yellow mustard. The ranch dressing was basically tasteless, and definitely not worth the extra heart-attack-inducing calories and fat content. Caryl swears the cheese was real cheddar, but it looked and tasted like a processed cheese single to me; if it was real, it was some of the blandest cheese I’ve ever had.

The patty itself had taste, I suppose, but it wasn’t really a burger taste. To me it tasted more like meatloaf almost. I think it might have been homemade, but I couldn’t really tell and it was bad enough that it didn’t matter.

Bottom Line

Average rating:

1.7/5

 

 

Dave N.’s Review

The Experience

My friend Chantel told me this place was really good, so I got her to take me. (She may add to this review soon, but for now you just have the Davester.) She told me ahead of time that it was a little divey, which is true, but that’s cool with me.

One thing that’s kind of funny is that his place is called "Wing Shop", but it’s clear that their burgers are the big deal. I mean, I guess I didn’t try the wings so they might be awesome, but the signage and stuff on the inside certainly plays up the burgers more. The inside is a kind of anger-causing-blood-in-your-eyes red, and a little dumpy. There was a random sweet print of a painting of Paris on one wall. I loved it.

Ordering was awesome. I don’t really go for fake pleasantries and a lot of flash when it comes to ordering fast food (see: free smiles at McDonald’s, singing your order at Lick’s, etc.), so I was pleasantly surprised when this deal went down as nothing more than a business transaction. No smiles, as few words as possible, just money being exchanged for food. Nice.

My only complaint about the experience overall was that their selection of cans of pop was pretty slim. But that’s not that big a deal, man.

The Burger

The burgers here come in four sizes: Junior (2 oz == 1/8 lb), Regular (4 oz == 1/4 lb), Hugo (8 oz == 1/2 lb), and Double Hugo (16 oz == 1 lb) (note: you can also get Halal and veggie burgers, both of which had separate grills.) Chantel and I both went for the regular size burger, with processed cheese slices.

The burgers are homemade and cooked right in front of your eyes, so you know there’s no damned funny-business. Once they are ready you get to choose your toppings. At first I thought, “Hey these toppings are nothing special.” Then I thought “Well, the fried onions, honey mustard, and salt & pepper are a little special.” THEN I saw the best surprise ever on the toppings sign. It read:

• any of our 30+ wing flavours!

Holy canoli, that’s what I’m talking about! Now the whole "Wing Shop" thing makes perfect sense! It’s just an excuse to put delicious wing sauces on top of delicious burgers! I topped my regular burger with fried onions, hot peppers, and creamy garlic wing sauce.

Boy howdy, this was a good burger. The patty was thin, but had a super high flavour density. The bun was nice, not overly grilled, and a good size for the smallish burger that I ordered. The fried onions and hot peppers had just the right amount of flavour to not overwhelm the patty. And the creamy garlic sauce? Shit yeah, that was a good choice.

I actually have one major regret about my burger. As it was being cooked, I noticed that the dude ahead of us got a junior burger, which was darned near the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen. And I realized, too late, that I could have got a couple (or a few) of those and tried more than one wing sauce. Next time, I suppose. My only complaint about the burger that I actually ordered was the cheese. Real cheese would have been a nice touch. That’s it, though, other than that this was a damned good burger.

Bottom Line

Average rating:

4.9/5

 

 

Dave N.’s Review

The Experience

The Burger Shack almost has a cool vibe going for it. The sign and roof thatching out front make you think you’re entering an awesome tiki-themed restaurant, but the atmosphere is killed almost as soon as you enter: inside, the table-tops are the only bit of decor that keep up the theme. The rest of the restaurant looks like a typical divey burger joint. There’s nothing wrong with it, but I was disappointed because it didn’t live up to my (admittedly high) expectations.

Ordering here is way trickier than you would expect! There are couple things to watch out for. First, I was unpleasantly surprised that they only take cash. That meant my ordering was interrupted by a trip to the dodgy ATM at the donut shop next door, which charged me $2 to withdraw cash. Suck. Once I finally was able to order, I didn’t realize that there were two categories of burger, homemade and "regular" (frozen?). I figured the namesake burger, the Shack Special, was the best bet and ordered it without realizing it was one of the regular burgers. Why wouldn’t the Shack Special be homemade? Ridiculous.

Service was pretty fast, the restaurant was clean. If you go in aware of the gotchas mentioned above, you should have a pretty good go of things.

The Burger

I’m going to be honest, I was pretty pissed that this sucker wasn’t homemade. I was eyeing Caryl’s burger with some serious envy. The Shack Special consisted of two patties, two processed cheese slices and toppings of my choosing on a kaiser. The topping selection was pretty standard fare — ketchup, yellow mustard, pickles, etc. The only relatively interesting topping was fried onions. I opted for BBQ sauce, mustard, the fried onions and a few hot peppers.

The thing definitely wasn’t a bad burger, but it sure as heck wasn’t anything special. The frozen patties were thin and disappointing, with fairly lackluster flavour. The kaiser was nice, but they grilled it without asking me and I don’t like grilled buns, so it ended up too crispy and burny for my tastes. The fried onions really were the saving grace, but fried onions can only go so far, you know?

If I return I am absolutely going for one of the homemade burgers, bringing cash, and asking for my bun not to be grilled. Lessons learned.

Caryl D.’s Review

The Experience

They say that smell is the most powerful of the senses and can remind us of past experiences. I must say that my recent trip to Burger Shack brought back memories from when I was a little girl. That smell, oh how I remembered that smell. Driving north on Highway 11 with my whole family and stopping at Webers – for those of you who haven’t experienced Webers on Hwy 11 let me indulge you: a little dive, with old trains on the lawn where we used to go and play, cars flying by on the highway, and smoke billowing out of the little store that made the hamburgers. I have no idea what the burgers tasted like, I don’t remember what I got on it, but I do remember, the smell, the greasy, smoky, fire burning smell of those burgers. Three days ago it felt as though I had traveled back in time: I pulled into the parking lot, stepped out of the car and I could see the smoke rising out of the roof, plummeting down towards me and straight into my nose, there it was, that smell, Webers burgers, only this place was the Burger Shack at Oriole and Eglinton. What a place!

The atmosphere was rather plain, although the booths intrigued me because there were individual seats that you had to pull down. It was slightly weird and uncomfortable, and as someone with OCD I had to put the seat down beside me even though no one was sitting there. As a side note, it’s cash only. That wasn’t the biggest concern because my sugar daddy Dave took care of the bill, but if you’re planning on going, be sure to have cash, or a sugar daddy/momma.

The Burger

I ordered the Homemade Cheeseburger and I was sure to get the works, save for the hot peppers and I think sauerkraut. The burger was juicy; the bun was toasted, and the size was perfect. To my surprise, I could taste the burger through all the fixens, which is a bonus for me because I love putting lots of toppings on my burgers. My only problem was that there could have been more cheese.

My burger experience was great, although, I wonder, was it mostly nostalgia that made it good? Either way, if smell has the power of memory, then the taste of these burgers has the power to keep me going back for more.

Bottom Line

Average rating:

3.56/5