Guest Review - Local Public Eatery - The Press Burger

Place:  Local Public Eatery.

Where: 171 East Liberty Street, Unit 100. Liberty Village, Toronto

Type: Chain

Web Site: localpubliceatery.com

Ambience:  Sort-of modern industrial.

Burger:  The Press Burger with Cheese.

Type of Cheese: Cheddar.

Pricing:  Burger and fries for $14.50, which isn't bad for Liberty Village.

THE PLACE

Like the inside of an old factory or warehouse.  Exposed ceiling, brick, wood and leather.  Classic Rock radio in the background, not too loud.  Attractive young wait staff in jeans & t-shirt uniforms.

 THE BURGER

A handmade patty on a bun baked in-house, topped with three-year old cheddar.  Lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle garnish.  Mustard and miso mayo condiments.  Served with fries.

Tasty burger.  The patty was firm and juicy, well done (no pink) with just a smidge of char at the edge.  The bun was very nice, not to much bread, and perfectly sized for the patty.  All the garnish was fresh and crisp.  The best part was the cheese, a thick slice of cheddar with just a little of the sharp tang you get from aging,

Perhaps the best thing about the burger was the balance of everything.  A near perfect ratio of bun-meat-cheese-garnish was achieved.  And the bun held everything together so that even the last bite was a complete burger experience.

The rest... prefab fries and store-bought ketchup were, you know, fine.  Nicely presented in a little tin bucket and side ketchup salver.  Whatever.

All in all, liked it, would have again.  This burger is not the taste-explosion experience that some places offer, but it's a good, well-made burger at a reasonable (for the neighbourhood) price.

FOLLOW UP

Went back for the first time today, ordered the same burger.  This one completely fell apart on me.  Grease all over my fingers, couldn't take a proper bite without dripping all over myself or the table.  Tried three or four bites, finally gave up and was going to ask for some cutlery (I know, cutlery with a burger, but there was no other way) and the staff had decided to hold a 'meeting' and was nowhere to be found.  A meeting at 12:30 on a weekday in the middle of a business area.  Loads of people at tables and at the bar, and all the staff... gone.

Couldn't have had two more different experiences.

Cheeseburger's in the news

Here is something that may surprise you, but Cheeseburgers are in the new an awful lot. I think it's just proof of its superiority as a food. Well your friendly neighborhood Cheeseburger Hunter feels it is his duty to keep everyone abreast of the world of Cheeseburgers, so here is all of the cheeseburger news from the last few months.

- A lucky man finds $20 inside of his cheeseburger. Link 

- Australian man dies while trying to eat a whole cheeseburger in one bite. Link

- Florida man shoots brother over cheeseburger. Link

- A man orders a plain cheeseburger, calls the news when he gets something different. Link

(Btw: I've gotten a cheeseburger with no meat and I didn't call the news.)

- Singer Britney Spears likes a good cheeseburger from time to time. Link 

- Model Gigi Hadid chows down on a cheeseburger on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Link

 

- Will a $9.99 cheeseburger save Disneyworld? (Of course it will, cheeseburgers are awesome that way.) Link 

- For some reason Shake Shack didn't already have a bacon cheeseburger. Link

- Cheeseburgers are good, and they are doing good. Link 

- Dietitian, nutritionist tries to ruin things for everyone. Link 

- Someone names Stephanie Pratt likes the odd cheeseburger. Link

- And finally, idiot changes his name to "Bacon Double Cheeseburger" for idiotic reasons. Link

A&W - Mama Burger with Cheese - Bramalea City Center

The place: A&W

Location: Bramalea City Center food court.

Type: Chain restaurant. 

Web site: awrestaurants.com 

Atmosphere: Orange and brown food court chic. 

The Burger: Mama burger with cheese

#of Pattys: 1

Special Sauce?: Yes (Mayo)

Toppings: Ketchup, mustard

THE PLACE

Growing up, A&W was known for its root beer first and its food second but recently (in the cosmic scheme of things) they've been talking a lot about how good their food is and what great ingredients they use, using as their spokesman someone who looks like he eats at a burger place.

This A&W is in a food court. It has all the things food courts have. Yelling children, tables you are pretty sure haven't been washed in some time and that one guy who wears sunglasses inside and sits back in such a way that he obviously thinks he's mere seconds away from being surrounded by gorgeous women. 

Also A&W's color scheme is orange and brown, which is not attractive at all.

THE BURGER

 

The first problem I had was they don't really have a "cheeseburger" per se. They name their burgers after members of the imaginary Burger family (Mama Burger, Papa Burger etc. There is no Grandma Burger because screw her). The closest they have to a cheeseburger is the Teen Burger,, which comes with cheese and bacon. I wasn't really in the mood for bacon so I went of the Mama Burger with cheese.

The first thing that strikes you about the above picture might be how nice the fries look. I know that's where my eyes went. Perhaps you noticed the burger just sitting there looking like a half finished Muppet head. You certainly don't look at the burger and say "Wow, I must eat that." 

The burger to bun ratio is terrible, making it look like two buns with red and white paste on it rather than a burger, cheese or otherwise. The cheese was nicely melted but not completely. The patty had a nice, but not a great, taste. The special sauce (mayo) added nothing to the burger. Basically as far as taste goes, it is a nice, middle of the road burger that looks maybe, kinda ok, I guess. 

The fries were really good though, but this isn't French Fry hunter.

So what do you give a middle of the road burger? A middle of the road rating that loses points on presentation.

Rating: 2.0 out of 5.

 

John's Family Restaurant - Cheeseburger

Place: John's Family Restaurant

Location: 1 Fisherman Dr, Brampton

Type: Independant

Atmosphere: Family Style Restaurant

Burger: Cheeseburger

#of Patty's: 1

Cheese: Cheddar 

THE PLACE

John's is a relatively new family style restaurant that is brown. Very, very brown. And grey. Anything that isn't brown is grey. Brown, grey and faux wood. It's amazing how brown and grey and faux wood this place is. It's almost as if whoever owns this place just couldn't figure out the colors they wanted and just said the first two colors that came to head and, once it was out there, became very dedicated to it.

Also when we ordered our drinks we were brought a can of iced tea and a glass. I don't know what that was about but there was someting not right about that. But we went in around 1:30 pm on a week day and the place was really busy, so there must be something great here.

THE BURGER

 

Let's start with the top, literally. The bun was weak, barely toasted, and my fingers crushed it immediately just with regular holding. Not a good start. Fortunately there was a nice hunk of cheese. The patty tasted pretty good, not fantastic mind you, just pretty good. It was well cooked and a little juicy. It had all the right smells and all the right tastes. The meat didn't overpower the cheese, the cheese didn't overpower the meat, it was just the right balance.

One thing I really liked was that the patty did not have that "frozen meat" taste that your average big chain burger has. It tasted freshly made, which was nice. 

This was definitely a better than average cheeseburger, but not too above average. Good, but not over the moon good.  It's a shame the bun was so distractingly weak, it really took away from the whole experience.

The fries were stringy and a little over done for my tastes, but then it's hard to get fries to my tastes when they are string style.

I have to admit I had trouble rating this cheeseburger. How much weight do I give a bad bun? It was bad enough that it distracted from the whole experience, but it is just a bun. In the end I gave it some thought and think I came up with a good balance. 

Harvey's - Cheeseburger

Place: Harvey's

Type: Chain

Web Site: www.harveys.ca

Atmosphere: Wood paneled fast food

Burger: Cheeseburger

# of patty's: 1

Type of cheese: Cheddar

THE PLACE

 

Harvey's is Canada's national hamburger chain. Beloved as much as Molson beer, the Toonie and Mountie hats. Loving Harvey's is a national pastime. And what isn't to love? The orange and dark blue decor, the famous orange "Harvey's Trays." Harvey's, Tim Horton's and Swiss Chalet make up the holy trinity of Canadian fast food.

But That is your fathers Harvey's. Today their restaurants are all wood paneled and soft brown. A modern look for a traditional burger. Even the trays are brown these days. Yep the old Harvey's is looking pretty good.

THE BURGER

 

First of all the one thing Harvey's hasn't changed is you get to pick your toppings and they put them on in front of you. So if you don't want onions (and why would you?) there is none of that pesky asking for onions not to be on, you just ignore the onions and they come nowhere near your burger, the way God intended. 

So you've gotten your burger without the onions and you sit in a wood paneled booth, what does the thing taste like.

Here is what I wrote right after my first bite. "Holy crap this is a good burger!"

Why was I so shocked? Because I have a history of not liking Harvey's burgers. They used to be these square pieces of frozen meat that tasted more frozen than burger like. But this was something else. You could taste to burger, there was a good hunk of cheese, the bun didn't crumble under my fingers.

Of course it's not perfect. There is still this frozen taste that most fast food burgers have, but it was minor and not overwhelming. In fact sometimes the actual taste from the burger drowned it out. 

The fries were also good. Crisp on the outside, potato like in the middle. Really very nice.

There are a lot of fast food burger places out there, and every restaurant has their own version with fancy tastes and sauces. The Harvey's cheeseburger is just a plain, good cheeseburger. Nothing fancy. Just good.

So I give Canada's own Harvey's cheeseburger a 3.1. By far the best "fast food" cheeseburger out there.

 

Wimpy's Diner - Wimpy's Famous Hamburger with Cheese

Place: Wimpy's Diner

Type: Chain

Web Site: wimpysdiner.net, wimpysdiner.ca

Atmosphere: 50's Diner

Burger: Wimpy's Famous Hamburger with Cheese

# of Patty's: 1

Type of Cheese: Cheddar

THE PLACE

Wimpy's Diner is a 50's style diner with flat screen TV's. You can sit in booths, tables or at the counter. There are things in booths where you can put in a coin, pick a song at have it play like your own, private jukebox. On the walls are pictures, plaques and tchotchkes. It's a nice, warm atmosphere with nice colors and comfortable seats. Honestly it's a nice place, complete with some guy yelling in the kitchen in a foreign language. That was a nice touch.

THE BURGER

Let's take a look at the Wimpy's Famous Burger with Cheese. 

Look at it!

Look!

Holy crap that's a big burger! I mean the meat to bun ratio is crazy. I like a little more meat than bun but this is really ridiculous. I had no idea where to start eating this thing. The bright side of this bizarre patty was the cheese. Wow look at that cheese! There was a really excellent amount of good old fashioned cheddar cheese on this thing. The bun though was strictly meh. Lightly toasted but it had no strength, you can see my finger penetrated the top and that was just from me putting the bun on the burger. (Below)

Other than that it's a really nice looking set up, just weird with that big patty.

But enough about its size, how does it taste? Well that's the problem. First of all the meat was a little greasy on the outside but a little dry on the inside. Not a lot, just a little. The patty tasted like a burger but a little strange. Spicy. As if the cook used just a little too much pepper. There was a little bit of that frozen patty taste. These flavors mixed with the regular cheeseburger meat taste to create its own unique taste that, while not completely good, was also not completely bad.

The cheese, my God look at the cheese, was darn right tasty. It's impossible not to taste the cheese through the burger and, while it looks like it might be too strong, the cheese was just right. The bun I have already dealt with.

The French fries were really nice and were an excellent compliment to this cheeseburger, and the drink (Iced Tea) came in this really nice glass that I would like to have taken home.

I want to give this cheeseburger an excellent rating, I really do, but the pepper and frozen taste, plus the size of the patty, plus the bun, really took some points off. Plus it wasn't a "cheeseburger" it was a burger with cheese added, which isn't the same. I'm going to give the Wimpy's Famous Burger with Cheese a solid 3 out of 5. I would have this again but I'm not running out to do it today.

Burger King - Double Whopper with Cheese

The place: Burger Kimg

Type: Chain

Web Site: www.burgerking.ca

Atmosphere: Fast Food Joint

Burger: Double Whopper with Cheese

# of Patty's: 2

Special Sauce: Yes

Toppings: Lettuce, Ketchup

THE PLACE

L

Burger King is ... Well it's Burger King. It looks like a fast food joint. If someone travels through time from the 1800's and wants to know what a fast food restaurant looks like, show them the above picture. They'll get it right away.

THE BURGER

L

First let's talk about the fries. I like Burger King French fries. They are tasty, but I bought a large and got this amount (see above). That is not a large amount of fries. That is, at best, a medium. This is disappointing. In a world where Five Guy's literally fills half a bag with fries, this is just horrible. Come on Burger King, you used to be better than that.

Of course this is not the French Fries Hunter, but I thought it had to be said.

Not onto the burger. The double whopper with cheese has always been a favourite of mine. It's a half decent burger and very sloppy. Look at the above picture. Look how sloppy that is. (The picture doesn't do the burger justice. I photographed it while it was on my lap and had to use a flash. I'm not a photographer. My wife is, but I thought I didn't need her help. Maybe I should put my ego aside next time. But this isn't the My Wife is a Photographer Hunter.) that is one sloppy burger, and I like it.

The first thing I noticed was the Whopper doesn't have that "these patty's are frozen" taste, they tasted like real burger patty's, which is a bonus. The problem is that the flavor of the patty is muted. It's there, but not very strong, that is because the secret sauce is overpowering. It's a trade off, want sloppy then you gotta have a lot of the secret sauce. So maybe it could be a little less sloppy.

The cheese is a big slice of cheddar, but it couldn't be tasted because, again, the secret dauce was overpowering. Maybe they should rename it the Double Secret Sauce burger with Cheese.

Overall I liked it, but the secret sauce is really a problem, a big problem, so I have choice but to give it a :  

O