cheeseburger – Page 2

Big Rösti at McDonald’s (The International Menu Heist)

Published on June 30, 2025June 30, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2736 Lakeshore Boulevard West, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

I’ve now tried every item featured in McDonald’s International Menu Heist (aside from the Sweet Tangy Chili Dip), and it looks like I’ve saved the best for last. The Big Rösti from Germany? Quite tasty!

Here’s how McDonald’s describes it: “Picture a beautifully beefy burger, hickory-smoked bacon, melt-in-your-mouth processed cheese, delicious cheese sauce, and the jewel in the bun: our golden ‘Rösti’ hash brown. Served on a fluffy bun topped with rolled oats, it’s time to say ‘Willkommen.'”

The cheese sauce here is interesting; it’s more like cheese-flavoured mayo than the Cheez-Whiz-esque sauce that you might expect, but it works. It’s nice and zippy, with a noticeable cheesy flavour.

The Quarter Pounder patty was quite dry, but there was enough of that tasty sauce to (mostly) cancel this out.

I don’t know if I’ve ever had a burger with a hash brown on it, but it works surprisingly well — it adds some nice crispiness, and helps to round out the saltiness from the cheese sauce and the bacon.

The placement of the cheese slice was odd, however; it’s on top of the bacon and the hash brown rather than the burger, which means that it doesn’t get particularly melty. That’s a shame, but everything else here is tasty enough that this never feels like a huge deal.

Grilled Cheese Cheeseburger at Wendy’s

Published on May 20, 2025May 20, 2025 by Michael Nusair1 Comment

Location: 5250 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.wendys.com/en-ca

Wendy’s has apparently been in Canada for 50 years, and to celebrate, they’re serving a cheeseburger with two grilled cheese sandwiches for buns. As you do.

No, grilled cheese sandwiches as buns isn’t exactly the most original or fresh idea at this point, but it’s still the type of novelty fast food nonsense that gets me through the day. Most new fast food burgers just add a different sauce or whatever, and it’s like, come on, guys. I know you can do better than this.

Wendy’s: I commend you. I don’t think the burger was particularly good, but hey, you tried.

Here’s how Wendy’s describes the Grilled Cheese Cheeseburger: “A quarter-pound of fresh, 100% Canadian beef topped with cheese, caramelized onions, and mayo all between a grilled-cheese bun on top and another on the bottom. Three sandwiches. One burger.”

The biggest issue here? I don’t think anyone gave the person who made my burger the memo that a grilled cheese sandwich is supposed to be grilled. I mean, maybe I’m out of the loop, but I’m pretty sure that’s how grilled cheese is supposed to work? Otherwise it’s just a cheese sandwich?

Both sandwiches had been lightly toasted on one side, but not enough to particularly melt the cheese. The bottom one was partially melted, but the cheese in the top bun was fully cold.

This means that you’re getting double the bread for no reason. It’s a lot of bread! And because it was mostly untoasted and fully unbuttered (and slightly stale), it’s all very, very dry. Between the mega-dose of bread and the not-especially-juicy burger patty, it was legitimately hard to eat. It was like the Wendy’s version of the saltine challenge. If my bites were too big, my mouth dried out. I was reaching for my drink between every mouthful.

And I like caramelized onions, but the combo of the sweet onions and the punishing amount of mildly sweet bread meant that the burger really needed some pickles or veggies or something to break up the one-note flavour.

I really wanted to like this, but no. I’m sorry, but no. This burger seems like it should be fun, but my life is now appreciably worse for having tried it. Thanks, Wendy’s.

Steakhouse Teen Burger from A&W

Published on May 13, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3300 Bloor Street West, Etobicoke
Website: https://web.aw.ca/en/home

I like A&W. Generally speaking, I think they’re one of the better fast food chains. The Steakhouse Teen Burger, on the other hand? Uh… well, they can’t all be winners, can they?

Here’s how A&W describes it: “A perfectly seasoned grass-fed beef patty topped with sweet and smoky bacon jam, real cheddar cheese, tomato, arugula and creamy peppercorn aioli, all served on a freshly toasted sesame bun.”

It’s that bacon jam. The ads for this thing proudly proclaim that it’s sweet and smoky; I don’t know if I noticed any smokiness, but wow, is it sweet. It’s sweet. I’ve had desserts that aren’t this sugary.

This might have been okay if it has been applied sparingly — a little bit goes a long way — but they had globbed an alarming amount of it onto the burger, and it was all you could taste.

Don’t ask me what the peppercorn aioli tasted like, because I have no idea — the flavour here was 100% pure bacon jam.

And hey, bacon jam can be quite tasty, but this stuff was all jam, no bacon — it had very little bacon flavour, a little bit of tanginess, and a whole lot of sweetness.

I also got unlucky and got a burger patty that had clearly been sitting out for a while, because it was honestly one of the drier hamburgers I’ve had in a long time.

I did not enjoy anything about this. Sorry A&W; I like you, but today was not your day.

Garlic Mushroom Bacon Cheeseburger at Wendy’s

Published on November 20, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 5250 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.wendys.com/en-ca

Wendy’s is on a roll — the last burger I tried here, the French Onion Cheeseburger, was easily a top-tier fast food hamburger. This one? Not on that level, but still quite tasty!

The Garlic Mushroom Bacon Cheeseburger, as per their website: “A quarter pound of fresh, never-frozen Canadian beef, roasted mushrooms, 3 strips of Applewood smoked bacon, muenster cheese, and Renée’s Gourmet Creamy Garlic Spread. Literally oozing with umami.”

Muenster cheese! On a fast food cheeseburger! Ooh la la.

Also, normally I’d mock the line “literally oozing with umami,” but you know what? It kinda is. It’s savoury AF, and is definitely more umami-packed than your typical fast food fare.

Maybe too umami-packed? On top of being incredibly savoury, it’s a bit of a salt bomb. Something with a little sweetness and/or acidity to cut through the salty richness would be nice.

Still, I can’t deny that it’s tasty. The very rich, garlicky sauce pairs nicely with the mushrooms and the bacon, and the slice of muenster cheese definitely sets it apart from its American-cheese-topped fast food brethren.

Seriously though, throw some pickles on there or something? It’s a lot.

An Amazing Cheeseburger at BEAR Steak Sandwiches

Published on November 6, 2024 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 550A College Street, Toronto
Website: https://bearsteak.ca/

BEAR Steak Sandwiches recently added a cheeseburger to their delightfully focused menu (they serve three things: a steak sandwich, a roast pork sandwich, and now, a burger), and yeah. Of course. Of course I need to try that. Their steak sandwich is easily one of the best sandwiches in the city. So if they’re taking a swing at a hamburger? Yes please.

Bonus: it’s a big fat chunky boy rather than the thin smashed burger that’s so omnipresent in the city. I like a smashed burger as much as the next guy, but come on. Other types of hamburgers exist.

The cheeseburger, as per their menu: “Medium rare chuck patty, American cheese, white onion, pickle, sesame bun. Sauce on the side.”

I skipped the onion, but otherwise got this as is.

Wow, it’s good. Seriously, seriously good. The patty is a thing of beauty: amazing beefy flavour, great texture, perfectly seasoned. That beefy flavour slaps you in the face in all the best ways. I know that it looks very rare in that photo, but it was cooked to a perfect medium rare and had none of the mushiness that you’ll find in too-rare hamburger patties. It was glorious.

It comes with a little tub of what I’m assuming is their chimichurri sauce with mayo mixed in; it’s seriously delicious, but completely unnecessary. When the beef is this good, I don’t need anything to distract from its flavour; the zippiness from the pickles and the salty richness from the cheese are all you need.

The bun has a bit more heft than your typical burger bun, but since the patty here is so substantial, it totally works.

My burger blog is pretty much defunct at this point, but if I were to review this there, I’d rate it a perfect four out of four. I have some minor nitpicks (the cheese could have been meltier, the grind on the beef could have been a bit more coarse, and the beef could have been slightly fattier/juicier), but those are teeny-tiny complaints about an otherwise superlative hamburger.