burger – Page 5 – Michael Eats

Mexican Chipotle Burger at McDonald’s

Published on September 26, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 1138 Victoria Street North, Kitchener
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

McDonald’s recently came out with a couple of “new” (I’m pretty sure both have been on the menu before) items called McTasters: the Thai Sweet Chili Chicken Sandwich, and the Mexican Chipotle Burger.

I tried the Mexican Chipotle Burger, and it was surprisingly decent. It’s definitely one of the better new things I’ve tried at McDonald’s recently.

The burger comes with “chipotle aioli sauce, crispy tortilla strips and a juicy beef patty, all on a toasted sesame and paprika ciabatta bun.”

It’s tasty. The chipotle aioli sauce basically tastes like the dressing you’ll find on any number of Southwest salads, only with a mild spicy kick. The crunchy tortilla strips add a nice bit of texture, and the cheese (which is unmentioned on the menu for some reason) ties it all together.

The bun is interesting, too — it’s chewier and more dense than the typical McDonald’s bun, but it works.

It helps that the beef is the classic small McDonald’s patty, and not the Angus or the Quarter Pounder patty that they use in most of their limited-time items. When it comes to the beef at McDonald’s, less is more; the slim old-school patty is the perfect size.

The New “Hotter and Juicier” Big Mac

Published on August 13, 2019 by Michael Nusair4 Comments

Location: 2510 Hampshire Gate, Oakville
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

McDonald’s is making a big hullabaloo about their “remastered” classic burgers (the Big Mac, the Quarter Pounder with Cheese, and the Cheeseburger). This includes a promotion where you can get a Big Mac for three bucks, so I figured it was worth a shot.

The improvements, according to McDonald’s:

100 per cent Canadian beef patties now cooked in smaller batches for hotter and juicier beef

Storage changes for fresher and crisper produce

Onions added directly on the patties on the grill to intensify flavour

More of our legendary Mac Sauce applied on Big Macs

New bun recipes for warmer buns

I got a Big Mac, and… I don’t know. It’s a Big Mac? It tastes like a Big Mac? I’m sure if I were that guy who eats multiple Big Macs every day, it would have blown my mind with all the little differences. But it’s been a year or two since I’ve had one. It tasted exactly the same to me.

Actually, that’s not entirely true — it’s clearly saucier. The amount of sauce is kind of insane. It oozes out of the burger with every bite. It’s a mess.

Obviously the dry, mostly tasteless McDonald’s patties need a lot of help (and no, they are absolutely not juicier in any discernible way). But even still, this was overkill.

The only other change that stood out were the onions; you could tell just by looking at them that they had been put on the griddle. They had a bit of colour to them. But if that made any particular difference to the flavour, I certainly couldn’t tell.

Still, it wasn’t bad. I liked the Big Mac before, and I like it now — but I guess I prefer the old version, because the amount of sauce on the new one is bonkers.

Beyond Burger at Tim Hortons

Published on July 18, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4100 Dixie Road, Mississauga
Website: https://www.timhortons.com/ca/en/index.php

The Beyond Burger at Tim Hortons is way better than it has any right to be. Is it particularly good? No, not really. Would I order it again? Absolutely not. But it’s perfectly acceptable. It’s not gross.

Maybe that’s a low bar. But Tim Hortons isn’t exactly known for having an appetizing lunch selection. And their last foray into the fake meat game — the Beyond Sausage breakfast sandwich — featured an impressive emulation of actual meat, but was otherwise pretty lousy.

Beyond Meat has clearly been evolving their product since I tried the Beyond burger at A&W last summer. I found that one to be off-puttingly mushy. The texture of the burger I just had at Tim’s was much, much better.

If you compare it to a good quality burger, it’s pretty much garbage. But! It actually compares quite favourably to the frozen burgers that are served all over the city. If I had eaten it blind, that’s what I would have assumed it was. It’s impressive.

In fact, I think I might have liked this a bit better than that type of frozen burger; those ones sometimes have a gamy, off meat flavour that’s a bit off-putting. This one, on the other hand, has a generic meaty flavour that’s not unpleasant. Again, it’s not particularly good, but it’s not bad either. It’s fine.

They top it with cheese (which isn’t melted, of course), lettuce, tomato, ketchup, and mustard, which successfully covers up the patty’s lack of a beefy flavour. Between the assertive condiments and the impressively accurate cheap burger texture, you’d never know that you’re not eating a lousy (but real!) hamburger. I know that’s not exactly high praise, but I’m actually really impressed.

Fake Burgers and Real Onion Rings at Fresh

Published on November 30, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Toronto
Website: https://freshrestaurants.ca/

The original plan was to review the veggie burger from Fresh for my burger blog. But then I actually ate it, and to be honest… I didn’t want to.

It’s not a burger. They call it a burger, and it basically looks like a burger, but the taste and the texture both contain zero hamburger-like properties. I only post a review on Tasty Burgers every couple of weeks, and it just didn’t feel right wasting one on something that absolutely, positively isn’t a hamburger.

We started with the much-lauded onion rings, which are frequently called the best in the city. And yeah, they’re good — maybe not best-in-the-city good, but they’re quite tasty. They actually reminded me a lot of what they serve at A&W — they’re similarly hearty, with a crispy breaded exterior encasing a perfectly cooked onion.

They were slightly underseasoned, however, and a little bit greasier than you’d like (which is particularly odd given the restaurant’s health food pedigree). I think I like A&W’s version slightly more, especially given how crazy expensive the ones at Fresh are (eight bucks for five substantial rings).

As for the “burger,” I ordered the banquet burger, which features fake bacon and fake cheese on a fake hamburger patty.

It’s fine. It’s actually not bad for what it is, but as I mentioned earlier, it’s not going to satisfy anyone’s hamburger cravings. The taste and texture are quite falafel-esque (but without the crispy exterior). Like most veggie burgers, it’s on the mushy side — a problem that’s compounded by how incredibly dense the wheaty bun is. It’s so unforgivingly brick-like that it’s actually quite difficult to eat, but I got through it.

The fake cheese is basically a thick, salty paste, and the fake bacon literally could not have tasted less like bacon. It was sweet and vaguely plantain-like. It wasn’t bad, but comparing it to bacon is absurd.

Unique Pork Cheeseburgers at Harmony Lunch

Published on November 20, 2018 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 90 King Street North, Waterloo
Website: https://harmonylunch.ca/

Harmony Lunch makes me mad. Not because the food is bad — it’s actually quite good. That’s the problem.

I went to the University of Waterloo, so I lived in the area for four years, and I somehow managed to go that entire time without knowing that this place existed. To add insult to injury: it’s right around the corner from the Princess Cinema, an art house theatre that was a regular destination for me during my time in Waterloo. So it was right there, and I had no idea.

Harmony Lunch is a legit old-school diner (it’s been around since 1930) that’s mostly known for their pork-based hamburgers that are served with a generous amount of griddled onions (along with tomato, relish, mustard, and American cheese).

It’s basically a classic griddled hamburger, only with pork instead of beef. I missed the beef — in the context of a hamburger, the much milder flavour of pork feels like a downgrade when you’re expecting that nice beefy hit. But then I’m kinda burger-obsessed, so maybe I’m biased.

Certainly, it’s hard to complain too much when the final product is so tasty. The patty is otherwise just right, with a good texture, a nice amount of crust from the griddle, and a satisfying juiciness. And the combo of the pork patty, the soft griddled onions, and the gooey American cheese is hard to resist.

It’s all on a soft, fresh bun that’s been lightly toasted on both sides, and that suits the burger perfectly.

I got it with the house salad on the side, which was nicely prepared and featured a deliciously zingy dressing.

So… how did I manage to live in Waterloo for four years without knowing about this place?? Who should I be furious at? I need to direct this anger somewhere.