I have wanted to try Burger Kitchen since I found out about it. I think I originally found out about it from an ad on this very blog. Since then it has been gaining momentum and even appeared on some best burger lists. So as a birthday / finishing a half marathon celebration for my friend Ngoc, we decided to check this place out.
Trying to keep to my baseline of burgers prepared similarly, I ordered The Natural. This burger is made from 40-day aged prime beef and is served with butter lettuce, caramelized onions, tomatoes, and your choice of camembert or white cheddar cheese. All of this is served on a brioche bun. I was worried about the brioche bun as it reminded me of the Umami burger, which was too greasy for me. This bun was fortunately not greasy and had a nice buttery flavor. Overall the burger was good but not great. The cheese was overwhelming and the prime meat tasted too steak-y and not enough like a burger for my tastes.
Ngoc's boyfriend Matt ordered the Mountain Burger. This burger had BBQ sauce and jalapeño peppers. I noted this because it looked impressive and came with the peppers pretty much whole on the burger.
We also ordered the Australian meat pie. Every review I read about the restaurant, mentioned the great burgers but also said to get the meat pie. We shared the meat pie for the table and it was also a bit underwhelming. It was exactly as expected, meat surrounded by puff pastry.
Overall, the experience was underwhelming and did not inspire me to want to go back to try the other burgers.
I know I have been slacking a bit in the burger eating department. So I decided to get back on track by going to The Yard. I have been to this gastro pub a few times before but have not had the burger yet. First let us talk about the restaurant. I love this place. My first visit was on a date and it is a great place to go and share a few dishes. The Chef roams around the restaurant and on that first occasion came up and explained the dish to us. The chef is Chris "CJ" Jacobson as seen on Top Chef. He just seems to have a good feel for putting together flavors.
Now onto the burger. When it first comes out, it has the look of a good burger. The burger comes with grilled onions, thousand island, heirloom tomatoes, and cheddar cheese. Kicker to this burger is you start eating it and all of a sudden you realize there is a hint of bacon; stealth bacon if you will. There is no mention of bacon in the description. I examined the burger and could not see any bacon. MY only thought was that the bacon was ground into the patty. Usually, when comparing burgers, using bacon seems like cheating or covering up the rest of the burger. With that being said, this burger had a perfect amount of bacon. The bacon worked with the rest of the flavors rather than what seems like a masking agent.
Overall this is a very delicious burger. I feel it still lacks the originality or sophistication of the Foundry or Father's Office burgers. Check out the updated rankings on the right.
