Category Archives: Decent

Brando’s Burger Joint

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Brando’s Classic Brando Burger is a decent hamburger. It is a burger promising loads of hamburger potential, but delivering a portion of the burger pledge. In a city where the local burger scene has diminished from its 2014 – 16 pinnacle it is great to see new local burger joints popping up, and this burger has hyped itself onto a good start. It isn’t bad, but with what they already have, it could be so much better. It could be the burger experience to satiate the need for more and better hamburger joints in Hong Kong.

This burger began on a lull with its unrequested ‘cut-in-half’ presentation and tepid serving temperature. For some a minor nuisance, but a grave inconvenience for other burger aficionados. A lukewarm burger served as two halves doesn’t offer the same burger taste or feel as holding a complete hamburger. It offers a mediocre start, with all hype gone in a single bite.

One could add that perhaps this was due to a mix up in orders… perhaps one could give it the benefit of the doubt… but it was a certain stumble.

The hamburger potential is pretty clear from the well off set of flavorful ingredients. But when the potency of some is more pronounced than others, we are left with an unbalanced burger taste balance. The patty is a pleasant savory endeavor on its own – aptly seasoned to a clean beef taste that crumbles with each bite, it accentuates proper preparation. Likewise, the bun – which I can only imagine feels better as wholes, is soft, subtle, and absorptive. But richest of all, with its uncompromising tangy charred-ness that overpowered all the other burger components, was the relish. All else… the cheese, caramelized onions, veggies, and the beef all became subjects to what felt like an un-relishing condiment.

Then there’s the marginally cumbersome burger construction. In a continued theme of untapped burger potential and made visible by its ‘half-way-cut’, the patty’s circumference, thickness and girth feels slightly short to the ratio of the bun. Resulting in a few of the dreaded ‘mostly bun, no patty’ last bites. While not terrible, it is not the complete burger taste balance taste one would like to have as a last bite.

For HKD 230.00 (plus 10%) the Classic Brando is just a decent burger. Should one try it? Hard to say… maybe once, out of simple burgeriosity. The rosemary fries were a bit too salty and the portobello mushroom felt and tasted microwaved. The thing is that the Classic Brando is not a bad burger; but it needs to strive to be better, to deliver a prodigious hamburger experience. The potential to be one of the greats is there! So maybe try it when it becomes that.

Brando’s Burger Joint

DM them on Instagram for the next location @brandosburger

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Josef Burger Bar

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Josef’s classic burger from Josef Burger Bar is a decent hamburger. It’s a serviceable burger with plenty of mouthfuls of common flavor that are overshadowed by an off-putting construction that tips the hamburger’s burger taste balance towards bread. It is a burger for which an obese amount of some ingredients suddenly takes over to deliver a messy burger experience. Thus, the ensuing burger struggle, unbalanced taste, and awkward construct places Josef’s burger a little above mediocre.

The first bites of the burger are defined by pure bread, followed by some salad and sauce – loads of sauce, if for anything, this is one saucy burger. It’s all optional though, as this is a hamburger one can pick and choose for. It won’t be until a few mouthfuls when one finally has a chance to taste the double beef patties… The buildup would not have been more exciting if it took one more bite of bread to reach, but it wasn’t; the result is a decently flavored meatloaf beef patty, without a strong taste of clean meat and a mixture of other ingredients. And as one might expect from an overtly seasoned patty, a somewhat rubbery texture.

The rest of the ingredients are experienced in parting bouts, as they appear and disappear from the burger while one contests to keep it together. The sauce intermixture of cream with a large dollop of BBQ and sprinkled coriander and chopped onion freshly explodes from within, engulfing the burger and one’s fingers in a zesty ridden mess – delivering more taste than one would appreciate from any of these. The vegetables – the tomatoes and the lettuce, are crisp and tasty, but one is left with the arduous role of forcing these in place in order to enjoy a three star rating burger taste balance.

This isn’t a bad hamburger, once you figure out to break and reposition the patties as to cover the whole area of the bun; which by the way, has a splendorous spongy feel and taste to it. But the whole process of reconstructing the burger and mediocre ingredients detract from the overall hamburger experience, taking away from its enjoyment.

For NIS 58.00 (HKD 125.50) Josef’s burger is actually worth a try if you’re in the area and desperate for a hamburger. The fries are alright. It’s a neat little experience – enjoying a burger in one of the world’s oldest cities, that like the burger, has been built, destroyed, and rebuilt several times over.

Josef Burger Bar
123 Agripas,
Jerusalem,
Israel

+972 77-527-7070

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Burgerman

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The trucker burger from Burgerman is a decent hamburger. The burger is big… like a mighty truck. It stands up with a hulking burger construction, a freight that brings familiarity and desire for that big burger gratification feel. The feeling of holding and commanding something huge and burly, a massive hamburger that’ll dampen one’s sense of taste, and eventually leave behind a feeling of glut that was never asked for. Regrettably, the handling and consumption of the burger is ditched on its first impression; after a few bites the trucker burger becomes a pile-up of past decent hamburgers, of the many home made burgers that may satisfy but aren’t all that distinctive.

The burger’s burger taste balance is steered by a range of commonplace ingredients; the same hamburger items that many have experienced before, that have shaped countless burgers with a sense of placidness. The purity of the beef taste is driven out by heavy amounts of seasoning, trucking a taste of hamburger mediocracy. The cheese being hauled is nothing more than a couple of singles used to add a cheesy feel to the load. The fried egg has burnt-out beyond its greatness, drying up the runny goodness that is the yolk fluid. And the bacon handles with a crisp chew that is dimmed by a single strip.

The burger construction, rolling in impressively at first, disappoints with the first grab and bite… each mouthful is a constant breakdown of components that haven’t been stacked or planned for. One has to back the hammer down as meat chunks of sizeable proportions fall out of the burger. The meat’s better half, the bun, hauls itself with a great taste before it backfires from the barreling size of the hamburger. Nearing the final marker will be a messy plow that requires many stops and continuous burger repairs.

For 100.00 HKD, which includes some good fries and a drink, this burger is a drive down a long and familiar road, one that has been driven on countless times, that doesn’t offer any new experiences. If anything, this hamburger might make a trucker out of its handler… operating big equipment, knowing when to stop and speed up, getting down and dirty, and getting the whole thing into that tight spot. Once the trucker burger is served one’s in it for the long haul.

www.burgerman.com.hk/
65-71, Yen Chow Street
Sham Shui Po
Kowloon
Hong Kong
+852 2361 1330
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Jamie’s Italian

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Jamie’s Italian burger is a decent hamburger. On paper the burger sounds better than it looks, and on the table it looks better than it tastes. It’s a simple burger that is trying to be too wholesome, but it can’t. A hamburger that will generally appease those momentary burger cravings, but will trouble one with interim bites full of irregularities. Was the plan to make a healthy burger? A burger that one might enjoy without guilt from time and time? Could be… but for all the healthy tidbits a lot of this burger looks and feels a bit too processed.

The burger taste balance in Jamie’s burger isn’t a constant one; the first bite works out to be quite good, but further down the line the taste becomes erratic as bites either lack or plenty something. Start with the patty and something seems amiss, the beef dabbles in an aimless taste that’s not all too bad, but not all that great – it is heavy with salt and textured in a semi-rebounding quality that won’t just tear or crumble with one’s bite. Even the shape of the patty is odd, as if it has been prepackaged and stored – massaged and prepped long before it was cooked… and it tastes of it.

Then there’s the congregation of zest that lives in some of the burger bites, that conclude in thirsty mouthfuls; and it won’t take long to realize that the culprit of these bouts of tang lie within the pancetta… tasty but treasonous with its salt. Between the meats, the beef and the pancetta, there is an ingredient that makes a stand for itself, albeit a small one. The cheddar cheese, with its acidic vibrancy and gooey composure, makes a huge mark in seldom bites that contain meagre amounts of cheesy goodness. The rest of the parts – the cut lettuce, the tomatoes, are fresh and dandy, and the balsamic onions give the hamburger a sweet hue. The bread pulls it off, well toasted and with a nice spring to it, it’s working the burger taste balance – though at times it’ll dominate the burger construction.

For 178.00 HKD this wholesome burger has a whole lot of price for a whole little burger (taste and size)… The fries are good, but the ketchup is healthily-weird. In the end the burger doesn’t really satisfy the moment and it’ll probably leave you wanting for something else – probably one of Jamie’s famous pastas might be a better bet.

Jamie’s Italian
2/F, Soundwill Plaza II- Midtown
1 Tang Lung Street
Causeway Bay Hong Kong
+852 3955 2222

 

The Saint (Closed)

Gourmet Burger

Gourmet Burger

Screen Shot 2015-08-09 at 5.50.59 pmThe Saint’s Gourmet Burger is a decent hamburger. The burger’s first impression, a hamburger that is ready to be taken by a cradling mouthfeel, is one of immediate satisfaction; as burger essences ooze from one layer to another, collecting into a bantam pool of want, a sense of elation causes hunger to forswear. Not until the first bite, the first mouth touch, does the burger begin to reveal its true character, to unravel itself into a mediocre burger taste balance that’ll leave one troweling through a range of ingredients, many that have been seemingly neglected.

The burger, both in its burger taste balance and burger construction, is plagued by a rigid fatigue, by an old dryness that has subsided the freshness and vitality of some ingredients long ago, leaving behind, for the most, only appearances and illusions. The bun enacts one of the principal letdowns, golden and professedly firm with a crumpleness that adheres to the rest of the burger; it exists with a faded texture that, even beyond the release of meaty juices, eventually turns the burger stale. The beef patty is thick and flowing yet thirsty in its chunks, a good beef flavor within the first instances of the burger eventually dwindles into something ominously un-energetic, as if a hard glaciate had withdrawn most of its vigor – leaving a somewhat musty legacy in one’s mouth.

Other aspects of the burger don’t call much attention to themselves, their roles in the burger taste balance pass along without question. The vegetables, the tomato and the lettuce, had the taste one would expect accompanied by a suspicious softness – not a texture one might be looking for. The blue cheese has a fragrant savor that will chance itself the opportunity to overflow the burger, not always in one’s best interests. The bacon, probably the standout ingredient in the burger, exposes itself with an equitable saltness and a thick texture. And the onion rings, oversized with a thick oniony crunch, are a little over the top. The fries are alright.

For 168.00 HKD, plus 10.00 HKD extra for toppings like cheese, bacon and onions rings, this burger is pricey and common; it is a hamburger experience that climaxes on its introduction with its sight, smell and feel, that ultimately abates itself with each bite into becoming a simple decent burger.

The Saint
55 Elgin Street
Soho, Central
+852 2522 2646
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Corner Kitchen Cafe

Juicy Beef Burger

Juicy Beef Burger

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The Juicy Beef Burger from Corner Kitchen Cafe is a decent hamburger. This dainty little burger, prepped inside a snug little corner kitchen, illustrates a burger taste balance that shoulders the genuine feel and care of an honestly humble home-made hamburger. Practical, simple, predictable, from the instant one’s hungry gaze comforts onto this hamburger, through the journey to the closing last bite, everything about this burger – ingredients, build, presentation, form a coalescent fervor of menial familiarity, a straightforward house hamburger.

A sturdy burger construction would not describe this burger’s demeanor, more so it becomes a sense of rife in one’s enjoyment. Moments after witnessing an angled inclination in the sheaf of ingredients, as one’s fingers begin to feel comfort with the body of this burger, and as the first bite takes over, a loss of semblance commences from within its depths, within its patty… To the burger’s suggestion, the patty is a juicy piece of meat that accommodates a modest beef palatableness seasoned with what feels as a befitting range of spices that just vaguely overwhelm; the patty’s massed texture and chunky crumble lead to fractures from its core, and within the first few bites a source of torment is given as one never truly knows if and when the meat will collapse.

The hamburger bun, aptly holding its shape as it takes in all the meaty juices, is a tasty toasted bread with a snug crunch – one which is bound by a stiff supple bounce that is too tenacious towards the patty. The lettuce, adding a hefty berth to the burger, and the tomato and caramelized onions, both sort of lost in the burger’s taste balance, drive a desire for better greenery in the burger. The cheese overflows its mild flavor playing well with the ingredients, even if it hints to a process; but its the bacon, with a hefty bacon flavor that overhangs in the burger along with a brittle chew, that gives this burger its congeniality. The special sauce is nice and spicy, and the fries turn out good.

For 125.00 HKD this burger is pretty pricey for a home-made hamburger – it is a simple everyday burger, a well known burger to anyone who has every had a house hamburger made for them by someone who’ll give little thought to a burger crafting process, a homely burger that most could comfortably make at home.

Corner Kitchen Cafe
226 Hollywood Road
Sheung Wan
Hong Kong
+852 2547 8008
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Big Fernand

Le Bartholome Burger

Le Bartholomé Hamburgé

Bier

Big Fernand’s Le Bartholomé Hamburgé is a decent burger. This hamburger, a french concoction of pompous proportions, is introduced as a proud frenchmen; a frenchanization of an american icon, a potential representative for le cuisine française – a culinary fling considered by some to be the best in the world. This notion might lead one to believe that this hamburgé would be something to excite, a chef d’œuvre that benefits form its french touch; instead, Big Fernand’s statement of “stop guzzling burgers, eat hamburgés” fails as it becomes one too grand to convey.

The passionate affair that the french have for bread is well translated in the taste and construction of this hamburgé, the intricate unwrapping of the burger culminates in a faux pas as only bun and smidgens of sauce become visible. This bun, with its soft texture and with a crusty exterior, is good bread, but oh mon dieu sacrebleu there’s just too much of it – bite after bite the patty seems to become an improbable fact. After each dragging mouthful, as one beckons the arrival of the patty – quel dommage! The calamité of the patty is not derived from its flavour, which has been bred for meat, it comes from an un-juicy chunky texture and a petiteness that leaves a desire for a patty that circumferences the bun.

The rest of the burger décor forms a tableau vivant – nothing in this hamburgé particular stands out as remarkable. A combination of two sauces, the BB Fernand or BBQ sauce and Tata Fernand also known as cocktail sauce, are overwhelmingly sweet to the burger – le hamburgé is served au jus, as these dominate the burger taste balance. The raclette fromage, the sassy stinky cheese one can expect, adds a french gooey embrace to the burger; the bacón, a crunchy tasty forte in the burger, falls short with a vignette of slices. The légumes are quite limited, the handful of chopped chives add little more than hints of greenery, and the caramelised onions are present but forgettable – and voilà, one’s experience with le hamburgé. The fries were soggy and old.

For 135.00 HKD, plus an additional 40.00 HKD for the little combo – fries and a drink, the hamburgé is a pricey burger to be missed. Towards the finale there’s a realisation that the burger taste balance isn’t terrible, it simply isn’t representative of that high level of french food one would embrace – but hey not everything turns out as one wants… c’est la vie!

Big Fernand
Shop 2017 Podium 2 IFC Mall,
8 Finance Street,
Central,
Hong Kong
+852 6650 0580
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Burger Circus

The Magician's Maytag Blue

The Magician’s Maytag Blue

Burger Circus

The Magician’s Maytag Blue burger from Burger Circus is a magical burger of decent abilities. The big top has been raised and the stage set – a burger construction with everything in place, where not all is as it seems… As the curtains rise and the show in one’s mouth commences, a hamburger, full of mysteries and illusions, will have a couple of audience members in awed wonderment as to the perplexities of the ingredients that spectacle a presentable burger taste balance and a burger construction of unfulfilled proportions.

The burger’s showhamburgership, perfectly scened in its box, appears to be as sincere as they come, yet something about it feels slightly dolorous… something about its stacked presentation, as one is soon to discover, seems a little out of character – and as the show plays on, the burger’s lead characters are restrained by those of supporting roles. A green hyperbole of lettuce and tomato is introduced in this hamburger; the lettuce in particular, with its too many layers of leaves, robs the title role – bites are lush with crispy fresh tomatoey greenery that overpower the ring leaving the meats as fill-ins.

The beef patty, standing in as the magician’s assistant, has an enticing brown roundness and a textured character that crumbles in an agreeable juicy manner, its tragic illusion is portrayed by a beefy blandness and an unimposing stature that has difficulty staging itself with the other characters in the panoply. The bacon has a more ominous feel in the burger, the single slice has a hard crisp presence that behests attention, but lacks confidence in its taste.

The burger magic between the two pieces of bread, buns that execute their part with a winning malleability and taste that manages to capture the essence of the burger show, continues with the vanished cheese. A distinguished performer such as blue cheese, with an interesting stage name, should hail excitement; as one anxiously waits for its savory appearance, in the end, this credited role was left utterly unfulfilled. The fried onions make a charismatic but lowly appearance throughout most of the burger. The fries are pretty standard.

The cost for the burger experience at the circus comes to 88.00 HKD plus an additional 30.00 HKD for the fries, it all seems a bit steep for the burger one gets. During the finale, as one reflects on the closing act of this decent burger, it’s hard not to think about other burgers one might be missing because the circus is in town.

Burger Circus
22 Hollywood Road
Central
Hong Kong
+852 2878 7787
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Texas Burger

Texas BBQ Burger

Texas BBQ Burger

TexasBurger

The Texas BBQ Burger from Texas Burger is a decently good hamburger. The burger, titillatingly glistened with a neon luminescence from the electric trace on the wall, staged with a brand of provenance a-top, approaches the table with a persuasive burger ardor of sight and smell. Yet, under the gloaming redness of the shop, as the hamburger rides in closer – questions on how this burger rodeo will fair arise…

The pioneer impression of the burger’s burger construction, with ingredients that seem slightly under ratio, will first leave one as nervous as woodshed waiter; the top half of the hamburger, particularly the bun, enters the roundup like a cowboy, as fat as a town dog, gripping a lesser bucking bull facing all efforts to avoid a tumbling. A cheating stick that follows the width of the hamburger works to quell the uneasiness until its outward slide – with a gentle pull and pray a discovery that the burger construction holds is met with comfort – a feeling that rides ’til the end.

The burger’s burger taste balance counts a contrasting story, a brawny first sway entices one to reverie that the burger may be right as rain, but a progression of the chow reveals slim faults of overcookedness that slight the hamburger. The sole slice of bacon makes a hardy impression with a nice salty savor that looks out for the burger but cracks with a dry crispiness. The fairly sized patty has an honest beef flavor that has been snarled with a tinge of seasoning as to not spoil the burger taste balance; on the other hand, the crumbled texture of the patty, drier than a popcorn fart, does at times feel slightly bare and lumpy.

The bun has a soft texture that snugly saddles the burger even if it feels too big; the onion rings gives the burger a modest crunch with a tasty mushy sweetness while the lettuce feels respectable; and the cheddar cheese is thinly present. The signature smoked jalpeno BBQ sauce is one of the better acts, with a tangy piquant taste, it feels fine as cream gravy. The fries are good.

For 88.00 HKD, if one finds themselves venturing into the east of Hong Kong Island and is in need of a burgerhole, this might be the roadhouse to try – one’ll get some grub with a good serving, and be as happy as a hog in mud before pilgriming on.

Texas Burger
G/F 109 Electric Road
Tin Hau
Hong Kong
+852 2576 9011
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Boomshack

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Vintage

 

Boomshack

Boomshack’s Vintage burger is a decent hamburger. The boom burger, as it’s categorized on the menu, won’t particularly cause a booming blast of satisfaction in one’s hungry stomach; not by cause of its burger taste balance, which is good in itself, but because of a burger construction that explodes with the burst of a twinkle; and with this it’s hard to see the vintage side of this hamburger, a burger from the past that represents the best of its kind… it is the more traditional option in the shack.

The favorable burger taste balance, though a tad on the salty side, seems to have been chemestried with ingredients that have received, flavor wise, proper attention. The square patty, with a juiciness that bursts in a richly manner following a fine texture and rupture, has a prosperous beef taste. The mixture of three cheeses, cheddar, provolone, and something else, melted together in a milky blend of goo, savorily flow through burger to mouth without imposing a hefty oleaginous feel. The bread, a riveting potato bun that actually awkwardly resembles a bun, has an amicable flocculent softness that is confined within an easeful exterior that has a bit of a crackle to it. And the vegetables, a sprinkle of chopped onions and a slice of tomato, feel as fresh and frugal as shall be.

The botheration with this simple burger, which is initially hidden as it sits inside a container, is not its contents, but a small burger construction which detonates with a burger force of minuscule proportions. As one proceeds to open the carton, weary of a burger boom, what one is left with is the shared feeling and look of bewilderment and defeat that Wile E. Coyote has when something doesn’t go as would be expected. Somehow somewhere one could probably find an ACME Corporation logo followed by an absurd contents description printed on the box, and as the roadrunner continues its run so will one’s hunger. At least the burger ratios work. The beet fries are alright.

For 78.00 HKD, plus 30.00 HKD for the combo, an overpriced feeling befalls onto this burger, a feeling that increases as one departs this shack of a trailer park with an unsatiated yearning for a full stomach. On occasion even a booming burger taste balance can be brought down by a dud sized burger, a fizzle that lessens this so called vintage burger.

Boomshack
Shop B G/F Wo On Building
8-12 Wo On Lane
Central
Hong Kong
+852 2660 5977
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Al’s Diner

Bacon Cheese Burger

Big Bopper Burger

Al's Diner QRThe Big Bopper burger from Al’s Diner is a good decent hamburger. As one makes haste towards this locale tis hard to gage what sort of burger experience will be had in the following moments… Enter the burger, a hamburger with an exquisite looking presentation – a colorful facing burger that is accompanied by an enjoyable expansive smell. The initial buildature of the hamburger is also a reason to rejoice, the circumferences of the bun and the patty look to agree with each other while the proportional measurements of the characters appear appropriate – the beef seems to have the right shape and thickness, the cheese a musk hardy yellow presence that deluges the bacon, and the vegetables look verdantly present.

The aesthetic and nasal enjoyment begin to dispel when taste and feel comes to play – faults are made more obvious as one delves into the burger experience. The perception towards the bun shifts from a proportionally rationed bread to something that seems slightly oversized and weak, the soft bread with a bushy density soon becomes soggy – the longer it is held between one’s finger the greater the chances of protruding though the sweaty dough and tickling the meat. There’s a whole other character to the patty once the meat is grasped within one’s lips; from a great scent and an exciting moisture, the meat falls short on its lack of tasty meatness, by the inadequate composition of a jerky seasoning and a grainy chunked texture that reveal a decent taste.

The usual vegetable trio of tomato, onion, and lettuce are all acceptable – more so ordinarily selected vegetables that at times possess the burger taste balance as overlooked thick shapes. The cheese has a couthy visual feel to it that was not strongly contemplated in the burger; and the bacon, not evenly cooked with crunchy bits and soft bits, ends up as an enjoyable salty inclusion into the burger. The pale fries were passable.

For 105.00 HKD Al’s Big Bopper Burger is a burger that could be given a single chance – ultimately the burger taste balance and the construction offer a greater visual and olfactory experience than a palatable one. One might be better of enjoying some of their jello shots than the burger… but then again, few will go to Al’s Diner specifically for a hamburger.

Al’s Diner
G/F 39 D’Aguilar Street,
Central,
Hong Kong
+852 2521 8714
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Harlan Goldstein’s Comfort

McHarlan Burger

McHarlan Burger

ComfortThe McHarlan Burger at Harlan Goldstein’s Comfort is a decent hamburger. Undeserving of the ‘Mc’ title this is a burger that, as Eddie Murphy puts it, resembles a ‘big-house-burger’, which in this particular exemplar by no means is it meant to be taken as a burger complement – the concept of this hamburger has been eminently oversimplified. The burger’s whole induction is encountered with dubiety; beyond the casket’s unfurlment, through a colorful burger facade, as the burger sits in its faux cardboard hamburger throne – a box seat that one guesses should be taken as a joke, the feeling of skepticism enthralls.

Stratyfing the box in order to determine how to best lift the burger a disgraceful construction is made observable; everything shakes as everything moves, and a worrying degree of jiggling and joggling ensues with panic caused at every soft jolt, panic for a burger that seems stacked for a plummet. At the touch of the bun, with one’s gentle fingers, the burger feels hard and appears pretty small. The first bite is frantic and out of control as a terrible thickness of all the burger parts makes for a chaotic challenge to grasp. It is the poorly chosen bun, a cornerstone of the problems and the root of a terrible compression that exerts to much force on the insides – it’s too stubbornly crunchy, it’s much too rigid for this poor burger.

Then, there isn’t a patty… much more of a meatball that has been slightly and carelessly squished; a meat shape that doesn’t feel juicy but a bit over seasoned – with a dark peppery essence that covers a beefy expectation of taste. The bacon is good all out on its own, but struggles to play within the burger taste balance. The vegetables – butter lettuce and onions manage to deliver some sense of chunky greenery in the burger, but with a couple of burger issues at bay it’s hard to pay attention to them; and the truffled mushrooms, shichimi msyo and gouda cheese seem almost non existent – just another mediocre burger taste balance that befalls from a not suitable burger construct. The fries are good.

For 188.00 HKD, one shouldn’t pay too much attention to this burger; it might be trying to hard to be equal or better to something it is not… One thing’s for sure – this ain’t no McDonald’s burger.

Harlan Goldstein’s Comfort
5/F Grand Progress Building,
15-16 Lan Kwai Fong,
Central,
Hong Kong
+852 2521 8638
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The Lot on Possession

Number 1

Number 1

The Lot QRThe Lot’s Number 1 hamburger is a decent hamburger. The mid range burger manages to deliver a reasonable burger experience, a satisfactory burger satisfaction that has both good moments and somewhat adequate moments. Not all the ingredients have been treated equally here, and it shows in both its burger taste balance and its burger construct – at the time of this write up, as a new arrival to Sheung Wan, its as if some ingredients are still trying to find their way, their purpose.

The unwieldy presentation will initially raise concerns around proper burger ratios, and as the patty hides in the core of the bun and the bread shows its scalding scars one can only perturb themselves as to what the first bite will be like. The beef patty is one of the few ingredients that has been taken care off – juicy, tenderous, and with a ripe beef taste, it is a noble ingredient within the burger; but not all is lush in this hamburger, the surrounding bun hasn’t been as privileged – covered in burn marks, it is dry with a somewhat stale attitude.

Perusing the rest of the ingredients; the cheese, with a strong extent, lacks any sort of essence; the relish, with an acrid sourness on its own, luckily doesn’t particularly give much back to the team; and the rich buttery herb mayo, could have made its presence better known. The vegetables, appropriately sufficient, deliver a somewhat fresh experience with particularly juicy tomatoes.

Once one gets into the hamburger, considering the burger construction, the burger proportions aren’t as amateurish as they seem. However, the shoddily fabricated burger ingredients, a dried bun that departs as a terribly soft mediumly rare patty releases its juices  to break through, signify a somewhat troublesome burger holding experience – one is to be careful as to not cause to much compression onto this burger, as one squeeze to hard may cause a spilling discard. The spicy wedges weren’t that spicy but good.

For 118.00 HKD plus 25.00 HKD for the fries, and with not many options in the Sheung Wan area, this is a burger that one might give at least a single opportunity; though it is obvious that it still needs some learning to do – oddly enough it has no bacon, one can only hope that this burger will bloom to live up to its name, though unlikely – to become the number one burger in the lot.

The Lot on Possession 
22 Possesion Street,
Sheung Wan,
Hong Kong
+852 2576 7700
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Liberty Exchange Kitchen & Bar

Wall Street Burger

Wall Street Burger

Liberty Exchange Kitchen & BarLiberty Exchange’s Wall Street Burger is a decent hamburger. Located in the heart of Hong Kong, no where near a street named Wall, how this burger got its name will, most likely, forever, in my heart, remain a mystery…

Could it be because of a glistening rugged facade, or because of its burger magnitude? Not likely. What is introduced is a monstrosity of a burger, unfortunately, this is not in reference to its size; this is not a gluttonous burger not a hamburger so greedy as to take up all the space in one’s stomach. What this small fisted sized burger is, is an ugly misshapen, swamp monster, goo covered, raggedy leaves sticking out, looking hamburger – certainly not a dressed to impress kinda burger.

Might the name have come from a sturdy resilient burger construction? Definitely, n-o, no. From the moment this burger is placed on the table, it’s deformed proportions – with a patty/meatball too thick and a bun slightly too wide for adequate burger construction, fail to impress. Moments from its arrival, without laying a single finger on this poor malformed hamburger, my burger became alive… the top bun, holding on for dear life began a downward move, unwillingly sliding towards an impending doom away from its lofty seat. However, throughout the eatery, the burger does manage to hold its shape with acceptable compression, but a last bite of empty bread doesn’t manage to make up for this slight hopefulness.

A name bestowed from a powerful mighty burger taste balance? Which is actually quite decent pedestrian and dry… doubt it, the burger chemistry isn’t really there. The meatball of a patty is thirsty, and the beef flavoring is a mediocre one covered in a charness that is hard to escape. The tomato confit, which I guess is a fancy name for a pickled tomato, is quite powerful on the burger – making it an excellent substitute for ketchup; on the flip side of the beef, the lettuce is just merely there to add some texture. The cheese, which covers the core in a strong appearance, is feeble in taste; and the basil mayo, which is barely noticeable has a hefty savoriness that is enjoyable in smidgens. The bun, though a bit dry, does have a nice soft bite to it. The fries are alright.

Wall Street Burger… maybe its because of its price tag? One could say so. For 228.00 HKD you can get a small burger with 6 oz. of beef all to yourself – the reality is that one would expect more from this burger considering the price. In the end, the experience one gets from this burger is a mediocre one; ordinary enough that one should take the liberty of exchanging this restaurant for one with a better burger option.

Liberty Exchange
2 Exchange Square,
8 Connaught Place,
Central,
Hong Kong
+ 852 2810 8400
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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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