On the night of June 1, a few of my friends and I decided to do some burger hopping. I was greedy, I wanted to try more than 1 burger. So the plan was to go to each restaurant on my list and order takeout and we would then split the burger to try. On my original list was Keriwa Cafe, Gladstone Hotel, Barque Smokehouse, Drake Hotel and Stockyards Smokehouse & Larder. But I read on a forum that some restaurants were not allowing takeout. So I made some calls to make sure we can do the take out option. Turns out Keriwa cafe was only doing the burger on a sitdown basis and Barque Smokehouse was only offering the burger at lunch. My list got shortened to 3.
First stop, Stockyards Smokehouse & Larder. I have been here several times for their fried chicken, deep fried poached eggs, and sandwiches, but never their burgers. So this was a great opportunity to try their burger for cheap! Their $5 burger offering consisted of: Beef burger with house made smoked American style cheese, pickeled sweet onion and brown butter cornichon aioli. The burger came with 2 beef patties cooked to medium (we asked for medium rare). I was 100% sure that there was bacon in the burger, but it was no where to be found. Turns out the smoke flavour came from the cheese. It was so good, but slightly salty! I wasn't a fan of the burger bun though, too soft, I prefer something a bit more dense. The hubby couldn't help it and had to order some fried chicken as well.
 |
| Stockyards |
 |
| Stockyards Fried Chicken |
Gladstone Hotel. The service here was atrocious! I tried to call to place a take out order when we left Stockyards to minimize the wait time. What I got was, we're really busy right now and can't take your order, so please come into order. I thought fine, it shoudn't take long to cook a burger so the wait can't be that long. We arrive and see that there were a few people seated at tables but this was far from being full. While waiting for the hostess to greet us, and for us to ask for a takeout order to be placed, I noticed that there was no food on the table for the people that were seated and a bunch of wait staff were all standing in the back corner talking. We waited a good 10-15 mins before the hostess came over, only then to direct us to the bartender to place our take out order. We had to wait 5 mins for the bartender to walk over to talk to us, she wasn't making drinks but rather walking back and forth behind the bar. We placed our order and waited....and waited and waited. A good 20 mins later, we asked the bartender how much longer. She responded with "I don't know. You see that table over there, they placed their order before yours and they haven't recieved their food yet." Shouldn't she have checked with the kitchen for us? Another 10 mins later we got our food and we headed out to try the burgers. It was a rainy night, so the bunch of us hudled in a TTC bus shelter to try out the burgers. Not sure if the bad service had an effect on what I tasted, but I did not enjoy this burger. Gladstone Hotel's burger offering: Beef short rib burger with house cured bacon, tomato marmalade, sheep's milk cheddar, and pickeled red onions. The part of the burger that I got did not have any short rib in it. My friends showed me chunks of it. The beef patty I found to be flavorless, not much beef flavor and over seasoned with salt. Worst is that it was overcooked. Beyond well done.
 |
| Gladstone Hotel |
 |
| Gladstone Hotel Burger with Chunk of Short Rib |
Drake Hotel. I was looking forward to this burger. This was the most expensive burger offered during Burger Week. A hefty 1 pounder, meant to be shared, for $27.95. The One Pounder: Naturally raised chuck and short rib with Grand Chevalier, arugula, red onion, and tomatoes, served with house made onion rings. Two of us ordered the Muskoka beer which came in the Burger Week mug. I was expecting the burger to be big, but not as big as what arrived on the table. The size of the burger was probably the size of the span of my hand. The thickness of the beef patty was a good 1 inch thick. We asked for the burgers to be cooked medium rare and they were. So juicy, good beef flavor and seasoned perfectly. My only complaint about my part of the burger (1/4 of it), was that it didn't have enough arugula. My friends all said theirs was ok though. The onion rings were a bit greasy for my liking, but the onion inside was super sweet. The rings were massive. Most of them were larger than the bangles that we would wear on our wrists! One of the photos I put my Blackberrry next to it for size reference. This burger was definitely my favorite of the night. To finish off the night, we ordered a Malt Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwich. So good, the cookies had a great peanut butter flavor, and best part is that it was light tasting. After that heavy burger, we didn't need anything else to make our stomachs heavy.
 |
| Burger Week Beer Mug |
 |
| Drake Hotel One Pounder |
 |
| Drake Hotel One Pounder halved |
 |
| Malted IceCream Sandwich |
Stockyards Smokehouse & Larder
699 St. Clair W.
Toronto, ON
416-658-9666
Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen St W.
Toronto, ON
416-531-4635
Drake Hotel
1150 Queen St W.
Toronto, ON
416-531-5042
No comments:
Post a Comment