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.

 

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.

The Joy of the Humble Cheeseburger

It's simple really. A patty, a slice of cheese and a bun. It's difficult to mess up but almost impossible to perfect. It is the humble cheeseburger.
In my humble opinion the cheeseburger is natures perfect food and I've decided to find the perfect one. And since nothing worth doing is worth doing without blogging here we are.
Of course there is a problem. I'm not much of a traveller so I'm stuck in the Greater Toronto Area (Sorry Paris readers.) but I will occasionally search outside of my comfort zone. I'm looking at you

Havelock.
For the sake of cataloging I will use three categories. Independent restaurants, chain restaurants (your McDonalds and Burger Kings) and Store Bought (like from a grocery store which my wife will most likely cook because she's good at that sort of thing.)
I will pay attention to how juicy the pattie is (a little but not too much), the meat to bun ratio (more meat than bun) and some boring things like taste.
Now I'm not that big a condiment guy. I prefer a simple cheeseburger of meat, bun, cheese (cheddar) and a little bit of ketchup. On occasion I will throw safety to the wind and try a secret sauce. Never will I put tomatoes on it, tomatoes are the devils food and should be wiped out of existence by the use of some sort of time machine.

So let's travel down this road together and maybe we will find the perfect cheeseburger, or at least have fun trying.