Monthly Archives: May 2014

May 23 2014
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Burger reviews, Causeway Bay, Exquisite, Hong Kong

The Chop House

BBQ Beef, Bacon & Cheddar Burger

The Chop houseThe Chop House’s BBQ beef, bacon & cheddar burger is an exquisite burger. Starting of one a great note, this burger adventure will have a couple of hiccups along the journey towards the end, but upon completion, one can surely be satisfied with what has been experienced – an accomplished burger taste balance, one that shows that this burger has received a certain level of thought and care… at least for its taste.

The burger will initially make itself noticed by a delightfully radiating burger smell that touches your senses as it lands at your fore with an accompaniment of a strong BBQ aroma that feels zesty to the nostrils – after all, the burger has been christened with ‘BBQ’ as a first name, and with that one should expect great BBQ flavoring. The result: a rightly rich sweet-sour BBQ tanginess so powerful that the burger should be a little more sparing with its sauce, in actuality the sauce is not bad – the amount just needs to be toned down a little or grilled. Still, remove a bit and I found that the experience was still an pleasurable one… again, in terms of taste.

The first bite is quite captivating – the bacon makes a first great impression with a wonderfully sharp salty taste that feels nice to the tongue, not too crispy slightly chewy. Close by, with a shape to perfect to have been hand massaged and fashioned, one can feel the patty charming its way in with an agreeably soft juicy texture and enjoyable beef taste that is seasoned with an appropriate amount of salt. The vegetables, feeling that green crunchiness, play their parts correctly with an outstanding tomato; and the cheese, which doesn’t much feel like cheddar, leaves a gooey touch with a good subtle flavor.

The tribulation, a proportional and constructional one, commences about half way through this hamburger when the overloaded heavy BBQ and mayo sauces begin to swirl and swamp the burger – sabotaging the vessel, a soft pleasant but delicate bun that can’t handle the burger’s engineering challenges. Tearing itself apart in the last stages, revealing a patty that feels slightly short, once completed only a terrible mess remains. One does have the option to add additional components to the already overloaded burger; marinated beats, sweet onion, and the stupendous chili mustard. The tator tots are meh.

For 160.00 HKD this is a delicious burger with sturdy burger taste balance that is worth a visit, to bad the construction and the burger ingredient ratios are a little choppy…

The Chop House
Level 3 Soundwill Plaza II – Midtown
1 Tang Lung Street
Causeway Bay
Hong Kong
+852 2771 3177
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May 09 2014
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Burger reviews, Decent, Hong Kong, Sheung Wan

238

238 Burger

238 Burger

238238’s 238 burger is a decent hamburger. This burger design has a certain euro-essence to its burger taste balance; and with that they’ve tried to play around with the burger components, the results is a burger experimentation that didn’t go horribly wrong, but didn’t exactly go wonderfully right either. The hamburger’s decency is much less derived from its burger taste balance, which in actuality can be quite enjoyable, and much more stemmed within its dreadful burger construction. As one stares at what has been presented, it’s difficult to snub the immediate inadequacies that fault the hamburger – inappropriate assemblage that is visibly apparent in the burger’s main support pillars, the patty and the bun.

The beef patty will be the first one to call attention, it has a nice brown crisp coloring to it that is accompanied by a tangy-esq beef taste that is well seasoned; unfortunately, as it visually crumbles, it lacks the texture of a real patty. I’m not certain what ‘chopped a la minute’ means, but I hope it doesn’t mean that the beef was minced, fried, compressed, and pattied, all in that order, within a minute’s time – cause it really felt that way. Then we have the bun, which is really just a bread roll; and as a roll, what the patty lacks in strength, the bread makes up in a hard exterior that won’t break as you bite into it expelling the burger contents outwards. The garlic seasoning on the bread was a nice touch though.

Finally there’s the mayo, a what-feels-like home made mayonnaise that is thick and rich and good turns out to be a real mess… literally. It’s like someone in the kitchen got so excited with their mayo that they smothered the burger in the stuff, leaving you with an explosion of condiment that’ll figuratively cancel out any vegetables present in the burger, veggies which are quite alright. They did seem to have forgotten one of the ingredients in the burger, listed in the menu is bacon, in my burger, was no bacon. The thick golden fries are quite excellent.

For 150.00 HKD one gets to wrestle a hamburger, and ends up covered in white stuff; and while the euro-taste might be interesting the construction is not. Towards the end, the fries were a little more enjoyable than this over-complicated burger.

238
238 Hollywood Road,
Sheung Wan,
Hong Kong
+852 2517 7322 
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May 02 2014
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Burger reviews, Central, Edible, Hong Kong

Tipping Point Brewing Co.

Classic Cheese Burger

Classic Cheese Burger

Tipping PointThe Tipping Point’s classic cheese burger is an edible hamburger. The overarching burger experience has an unwelcoming feeling from start to finish; and at the end, rather than a sense of satisfaction, there is one of relief – solace that one has completed the difficult task of stuffing this salty burger down one’s throat and leaving this locale.

As the little sized burger arrives, literally dumped in front of you by the irate staff, it brings with it a smelly smell of burntness and old oil that lingers throughout the first moments of this burger’s existence; the small size, which makes it possible to finish the burger within a few good bites, means that the burnt smell will waft throughout most of the hamburger experience – later on, this smell of uncleaned grill, will exit through the nostrils as the burger enters the mouth.

Peering beneath the hood won’t make a thing better, what one does have is: blackened grill marks on a bun that is soft and spongy; a patty that is both thick and compact, that is properly pinked inside and at first has a great beef taste that diminishes into saltines as one eats through; you have slivers of bacon, that’ll aren’t all that tasty but are all that salty; a cheese that is pretty oh-kay; and finally, a feeling of desolation as one notices that there isn’t any sort of greenery or verdure amongst this party. All this combined makes for an edible charred grilled burger taste balance, one that is reminiscent of a Burger King’s cheeseburger – except that Burger King will more likely offer a superior burger experience.

Also, have I mentioned how salty this burger is? They really tipped the point on that one. It does appropriately seem like bar food though, it is after all a micro-brewery, the burger’s so salty it’ll definitely encourage some beer ordering. At least, besides the burger mass, the burger has a good hamburger construction, it is burger sturdy and it’ll hold its shape… but so will a BK cheeseburger. The french fries felt a little soggy and old.

This cheeseburger is undoubtedly not worth 180.00 HKD (24.00 USD), and 28.00 HKD for a couple of slivers of bacon is preposterous – for this price they could of at least included a shred of vegetation. Tipping Point really tipped the scales on this burger – unfortunately towards the more shoddy side…

On another note… I seldom talk about the locales and I don’t usually mention stuff about the services I receive, but sometimes the service in places can be ridiculously abysmal. I don’t think anyone would appreciate having cash tossed across the table because the waiter thought the tip was insufficient – seriously waiter dude, we hadn’t even finished discussing how much tip we’d leave, or if any would be left at all, but you’re attitude made the decision pretty simple.

Tipping Point Brewing Co.
79 Wyndham Street,
Central,
Hong Kong
+852 2868 2892
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