Cheeseburgers at Pub Life Kitchen

Comfort food. We'll be back. Again & again.

Blame Canada... Again!!!

And we're back...

The Glenmore Burger. Stay Away

We went from the best to the worst in a week.

After sampling the heavenly Bar Luca's Blame Canada, we were taken to the opposite place. Perhaps we were spoilt. But the burger we ate next was a major let down. But let me back track.

The Glenmore Hotel in The Rocks was recommended to us as a place for good burgers. Sure, the rooftop bar is fun, the view is great, and the burgers were highly recommended to us.

Enter us. Our stomachs were rumbling for some burger deliciousness. Longing for for a succulent beef cheesy goodness on a soft fresh bun. Perhaps a slight crunch of lettuce or pickle. Our hopes were high. But they were soon to be dashed.

Our order- the Glenmore Burger. We were so confident. So trusting. Only to be bitterly disappointed.

Our burgers came out together. One burger had the disappointing look of having the cheese NOT melted to the patty. A major no-no in our books.

The other burger seemed to have no cheese at all. We asked the waiter about it. He took it back to the chef. Within minutes it was brought back to us. The waiter said ‘the cheese is here’. And… wait for it…

He actually lifted the top of the burger with his naked hand and showed us the cheese on the burger. I kid you not. He touched it!!!

We could not believe it! We should have stopped this whole charade right there and then. But our appetites got the better of us.

The first bite? We noticed the stale buns.

We took note of the sausage-like consistency of the burger patty. The patties seemed like they were cut off from a dog-food log. Perhaps our coats would shine afterwards. The rubber-like consistency was sickening. Too dry. Truly awful. Brought you you by My DogTM and PedigreeTM.

The bun was also stale. It felt like we were given the stale leftovers at the end of the week.  We felt so violated.

We get that prices are increasing everywhere and that Sydney is an expensive city to live in… but wait for this- 2 burgers, 2 pint sized beers, one order of wedges… for $71??? What the?!!!!

Was this worth blogging about? We considered leaving this blog off. But if it helps others to avoid a burger at the Glenmore, it’s worth it. Just go for the rooftop views and you’ll be happy.

Blame Canada, Bar Luca

Burgers at Bar Luca have been the talk of the town so we decided to go and see what all the fuss was about. Bar Luca doesn't particularly look like your typical hipster burger joint- the word 'Burger' is no where in the name of the place. But as we walked inside, it was clear from the lunch orders that the patronage were there for only one thing- a good, hearty, heart stopping burger. Exactly the same for us.

 

It did not take us long to decide upon our order. The Blame Canada has been getting great reviews over at Fatty's Burger Appreciation Society. The menu describes the Blame Canada like this:-

BLAME CANADA 200g wagyu beef pattie, maple glazed streaky bacon, poutine & maple aioli

We have to admit to not knowing what 'poutine' is. But the thought of maple on our burgers intrigued us. 

Being the hungry boys that we were today, we decided to order the double. We were pleasantly surprised when these burgers were delivered to our table.

 

Upon savouring the initial beautiful presentation of this burger, we were then left to wonder how our watering mouths would approach the first mouthful. This burger was a tower to be attacked! We decided upon a course of action. One burger would be taken apart at the top and consumed in layers, whilst the other would be cut down the middle and attacked from the side.

The first bite was beyond wonderful. Once we got past the meaty goodness of this burger, the next thing we noticed was its sweetness. The maple aioli was a magnificent feature of this burger. The sweetness of the maple blends the flavours together well and made us keep coming back for each mouthful.

The fries were well presented, but we both prefer a bit more chunk to our potato. Chunky chips are good chips in our opinion.

However, being the pickle lovers that we are, we would be in burger paradise if this burger came with a huge pickle on the side for us to chomp on between burger bites. Having some onion on the burger wouldn’t go astray either.

The sloppy factor was high- we each went through 2 napkins, but the overall taste sensation more than made up for this. We were so happy afterwards that we went into a burger coma.
It wasn’t until towards the end that we noticed the chips that were stacked in the base of this burger. We had seen pictures of this before, but we appreciated it later when we researched what ‘poutine’ is.

A quick Google search reveals that poutine is a Canadian dish, consisting of crisp fries, a beefy gravy, and cheese curds. Truly a Canadian delicacy!

Having discovered this, our taste memory went into overdrive as we recalled how this added to the burger. The saucy goodness of the poutine at the base of this burger complemented the sweetness of the maple aioli well and it contributed to the overall sheer delight of this burger experience.

We would even go as far as to say that this is one of the better burgers we have sampled in Sydney. Bar Luca, you’re onto a winner here. We will definitely be back. Blame Canada!

Ribs & Burgers

Fancy entrance. 

Strong presentation. 

Meat grinders galore.

We'll be back.

The Local Taphouse

Here at visions of a burger, we pride ourselves on raw honesty. We want the public to know the real truth about the burgers that you could be consuming. Our philosophy is that one's arteries are too precious to waste on bad burgers. We expect our burger blogging colleagues return the same raw honesty to us. 

Sometimes when you go out, you just want a reliable, heart warming, comforting burger. And often you want to eat such a burger somewhere new. And when you are wanting to try a new burger, often another burger blog is your best source of burger information. We will not name this blog here. (Who needs competition, right? Visions of a Burger remains your burger blog of choice, right???) 

Having done our research, we ventured upon a burger haven- the Local Taphouse in Surry Hills. The burger blog we sourced raved about the burgers at The Taphouse. So armed upon this information, we ventured out to Surry Hills.

Upon arrival, we were impressed by the many numbers of brown and dark ales from International sources that The Taphouse had on offer. It took us some time to decide (and taste!) what we would drink.

Choosing a dinner menu item was not so difficult. After all, we came for the burger.

As you can see, the burger bun was presented as lovely and glossy. However, the burger enthusiast will notice that the cheese is not actually melted onto the meat patty. This is a huge disappointment to us. The stack of fries also looked like it could topple over at any moment. Pulling out a fry to eat felt like playing a game of french-fry jenga.

We ventured into eating the burger itself.

The milk bun was fresh and soft- a definitely winner. But the meat patty was thin and dull. There was no excitement about it- just bland tasting meat. And it was slightly overcooked. 

We have already talked about the cheese. Enough said.

Not only was the burger in need of more meat, it needed more pickle and some onion. A lavishing of onion would have greatly improved this burger experience.

The best features about this burger were the lettuce and the special sauce. The lettuce didn't take over the burger, and it was laid out evenly and crunchy all around. Quite pleasant to bite in and crunch with each bite.

The special sauce was sweet- reminiscent of a Macdonalds Big Mac.

Overall we would say that this burger was quite disappointing. We could not understand why a popular burger blog would talk up this burger. Upon a second look at the blog, we were disappointed to learn that the bloggers have a personal connection with the owners of The Taphouse. They are honest about this in their blogging, but we wonder if they have let a personal relationship get in the way of an honest assessment of this burger.

It definitely is not the burger haven we were led to believe. Get the raw, honest, wholesome truth here folks!