Update: Burgers and more!

Hi all.

We've decided to start doing reviews of foods other than burgers. While we are still devoted to finding Adelaide and Sydney's best burgers, we thought we would review other fast food/dine out creations while we're at it. Burgers aren't always available, or we've reviewed them before. So enjoy!

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T.G.I Friday's - Marion, Adelaide - South Australia

T.G.I Friday's - Marion, Adelaide - South Australia

Name: T.G.I Friday's

Address: Marion Shopping Centre, Marion, Adelaide - South Australia

Burger: Jalapeno Burger

Price: $19.25 (with fries)

Description: Well-known American chain, with typical American fare

T.G.I Friday's is a huge American chain. It's one of those much-maligned chains, notorious for poor quality food, albeit in large portions. TGI Friday's in ubiquitous in many areas of the US, particularly New York City (in my experience, anyway). I visited one with my sister and best mate "Buddha" in  2009. I loved it.

There are a few TGI's in Melbourne. When I heard they were opening a store in Adelaide (my home town, which I visit a few times a year), I put it on my list of things to do.

 I'm glad I did. Jalapeno burger for me. I'm a burger purist, but I do love a bit of spice. 

The burger, in all of its gloriousness.

As per the menu above, the burger contained:

• Toasted Bun
• Jalapenos
• Pico de Gallo
• Shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
• Tangy roasted green chilli sauce
• Beef Pattie
• Lettuce
• Side of Guacamole
• Bun

The cross-section. Delicous (trust me)

Beef:

The beef tasted like beef. Good start. It was juicy, tasty and plentiful. Oh, how I wish all burgers were as slutty in the beef department.

The only thing that could improve the beef, would be more beef. Mmm, beef.

Cheese:

Shredded
Monterey
Jack

For those of you who haven't experienced the delight that is monterey jack cheese: I feel sorry for you. But I shall explain. It's American. It's melty. It's slightly sharp. It's very salty. It's everything you want in a burger cheese. As George Costanza from Seinfeld said: "If it were socially acceptable, I would drape myself in Monterey Jack cheese". He may have said velvet. I don't remember.

Bun: 

Soft. Sesame-ish. Held together, and actually had a good flavour. About as good as you could get.

Extras:

Not your usual pub/cafe/chicken shop extras here. The Jalapenos weren't excessively hot. The Pico de Gallo was fresh and tasty. The chilli sauce was very tasty and not over bearing. This burger tried hard. But it succeeded. And for that reason, I would love to have its babies.

Fries:

Great! No American eatery can survive without doing fries right. Very fresh, and very tasty. And not too salty. Although I managed to shove half a dozen (awesome) potato skins down my oesophagus before diving into the burger, I managed to polish off the fries. Mainly because they were so damn tasty. I may even cheat on the burger extras for these things.

Verdict:

Go and get one. TGI Friday's, although not your high-class joint, serves up some fantastic food. Burgers, Tex-mex, amazing fries. What else could you want? There's even a bar! One of my favourites in Adelaide. Just goes to show that the "big boys" can serve up something pretty special. It's just my hope that they can maintain this, as they are fairly new to the Adelaide market.

Meat

4/5
Cheese
4.5/5
Bun
4/5
Extras
4/5
Fries

4.5/5

Total:

4.2

(GO NOW!)

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An un-named Cafe - World Square, Sydney.

An un-named Cafe - World Square, Sydney.

The cafe, at World Sqaure. To the left of the left-most pillar.

Name: Can't Remember (not worth remembering)

Address: Cnr. Liverpool & Pitt Streets, Sydney

Burger: Beef burger

Price: $16-$18 (with fries)

Description: A cafe in the expensive part of the city, with a very limited menu

This review is from a cafe I visited with my parents while they were last in Sydney. It was a few months ago, but I've been busy with uni. Holiday time now, though!

We were shopping for a new TV for myself near world square, and got a bit hungry (after we found it near impossible to find a good deal). My Dad saw a nice coffee machine, so decided that the above mentioned locality should be the place we have lunch. The cafe was located on the same block/complex as world square. I don't remember the name, but it was very small inside, and had a few outside tables.

The coffee wasn't bad, apparently. That was the only thing that wasn't bad though. Apart from the can of "V" I guess - it was cold at least.


The burger was similar to any other cafe burger.. in ingredients anyway.

"Burger"

The contents were as follows:

• Bun
• Onion
• Egg
• Beef pattie
• Lettuce

Beef:

A more accurate description would have been "wet cardboard". In fact, I would much rather eat wet cardboard, as not only would it taste better, but its nutritional value would likely have been much higher. You could probably put a dozen clowns in a room with a pile of mattresses, and they'd likely be able to come up with something more convincing.

The beef was VERY dry. It was tasteless. It was quite obvious that beef was a minor component, with bread crumbs and I'm guessing some sort of desiccant being the main ingredients in the pattie. 

Cheese:

I love cheese. I'm harsh when it comes to cheese.

THERE WAS NO CHEESE! Burger? This wasn't a burger? It was a meatloaf with egg and lettuce between bread! Someone call those clowns. If there's any of that pile of mattresses left over, please....

Bun: 

Bland, dry. It did perform it's main function though: holding everything in. But without cheese or any type of sauce, it's job was damn easy.

Extras:

"Caramelised" onions. Egg. Lettuce. Lack of effort.

The only 4 extras that came with this burger. The onions probably met the grill, said "what's up" and left. They were raw. The egg on the other hand, stuck around with the grill a bit longer.

The lettuce, was wilted as as soft as myself whilst trying to choke down this abomination.

And, the lack of effort? Well that speaks for itself.

Fries:

The fries were fairly average. Dry (yet still oily), bland yes overly salted. How they managed that, I have no idea.

Verdict:

You are probably better off dusting off the yellow pages, opening it to "Clown" and hiring a handful of jolly (albeit creepy) entertainers and asking them to fashion a burger out of the aforementioned, althoughcomfortable ingredient. At least it would be entertaining.

Avoid, at all costs. Even if you're starving to death.

Meat

0.5/5
Cheese
0/5
Bun
2/5
Extras
1/5
Fries

1.5/5

Total:

1

(Mattress time)

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Toxteth Hotel, Glebe NSW

Name: Toxteth Hotel

Address: 345 Glebe Point Road, Glebe NSW

Burger: Beef, Bacon and Cheese Burger

Price: $16 (with fries)

Description: A nice little pub in Glebe with British and American food

My parents were in Sydney, from Adelaide recently. They were staying in Glebe, so I went to visit them and we decided to eat near to their hotel at the Toxteth Hotel. 

The Toxteth is a really nice pub. The TAB is contained within the bistro area however, which can prove to be amusing. The menu is quite different to most that of most pubs. Although there is an obvious British theme, the menu is half British and Half American (with the exception of a few typical Australian pub dishes such as Schnitzel Parmigiania). Although the Chilli dog looked great, I went for the Beef, Bacon and Cheese Burger. 

The contents were as follows:

• Bun
• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Pickles
• Beef
• House made bourbon BBQ sauce
• Mustard

Beef:

The beef was good. It was medium to well-done, and fairly beefy. Despite this, it wasn't all that flavourful. It was a good pattie, but not one that would draw me back.

Cheese:

Unmelted, and bland tasting. As is common from pubs, it was standard supermarket sliced cheese, although not the better (for burgers) highly processed cheese. I could taste it, and as such it added something to the burger. But, like the beef, it didn't really make me think twice.

Bun: 

The bun was a rather small brioche bun. It held together very well, and also tasted quite good. All in all, it was a good bun, albeit slightly over-toasted.

Extras:

The standard lettuce and tomato on this burger were decent. Not extremely fresh, but not old either. The burger had both mustard and a home-made BBQ sauce. I love mustard, but I'm always skeptical about BBQ sauce on a burger. They worked OK together. The pickles added a good crunch and flavour. I do love pickles on burgers.

Fries:

The fries were very oily (as is evident from the photos). They were soggy though, so I was fairly happy. They were well seasoned (I don't like a whole lot of salt). I'd have them again, but wouldn't rush out for them. A decent serve of fries, but nothing more.

Verdict:

A good pub burger. Although there were no individual standouts (in terms of the parameters I reviewed above), it worked well together. It just wasn't amazing. I wouldn't be upset if I had to have it again, but I'd definitely try something else next time. My Dad had the chilli dog, which he said was good, but far too small. Maybe a couple of those!

Meat

3/5
Cheese
2.5/5
Bun
3/5
Extras
3/5
Fries

3/5

Total:

2.9

(Worth a shot)

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Burgerlicious Newtown, NSW 2042

Name: Burgerlicious (Newtown)

Address: 215 King Street Newtown, NSW 2042

Burger: Cheese Burger

Price: $11.40 (with chips and a bottle of water)

Description: A "Gourmet" burger chain

I had the beer munchies after a few beers at Kelly's in Newtown. I was going to stop off at a tex-mex place on the way to Tom's car, but it was busy. Luckily, I walked past burgerlicious, and my decision was pretty much made for me. Burgerlicious (in my opinion) fall between your local take-away shops, and the famous fast food chains such as McDonald's and Hungry Jacks. They are similar to some of the burger chains in the USA which fill this gap, namely Fatburger, In n' Out and Five Guys.

I decided to wait until I got home to eat. It was only a 5 minute drive, but it seemed like 5 hours. The smell emanating from the bag was amazing, I was pretty impressed when I took the food out of the bag.

Cheese Burger and chips - with melty cheese!

The contents were as follows:

• Bun
• Grilled Onions
• Angus Beef
• Cheese
• Pickles
• Tomato Sauce
• American Mustard

Mmmmmmm.

Beef:

The beef in my Burgerlicious Cheese Burger was amazing. It was as close to the unadulterated beef you get at fast food chains as I've seen in a non-major chain. It was extremely juicy, very well cooked, and tasted amazing. There were no obvious fillers - only beef and seasoning (salt and pepper). My only gripe - The pattie was slightly small in comparison to the bun. Otherwise - wow. Amazing.

Cheese:

Finally. A burger place which understands the importance of cheese. Not only was it very tasty, and a good size, the slice of cheese was as close to perfectly melted I've come across from a non-fast food burger place. It was salty, creamy and complemented the beef perfectly.

Bun: 

This was a good bun. It was flour-dusted and tasted quite good. It held together fine - very important. It was also quite fresh. This was a good bun - something most places neglect.

Extras:

There weren't a whole lot of extras. This was essentially a typical American cheese burger, with grilled onions. The grilled onions were cooked well, and added to the overall burger experience. The pickles were fresh and tangy, and went so well with the tomato sauce (ketchup) and American mustard combination. A time-tested formula - other places should take not. 

Fries:

Quite good. While not what you would get from this sort of place (half local take-away, half fast food), they were good. They were somewhat soggy - perfect! Great flavour, and seasoned well.

Verdict

Go grab one - even if you're not just walking past! The burger was great. I may think this way because I love my classic cheese burgers, but I'd be surprised if others didn't enjoy it too. The burger had an almost perfect combination of ingredients - with all parts complementing each other, and not drowning out others. 

Meat

4/5
Cheese
4/5
Bun
3.5/5
Extras
4/5
Fries

3.5/5

Total:

3.8

(Go for it, now!)

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