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