Fat burger - big fat meal with milk shakes

I recently purchased a groupon from fat burger. Since I have never been to fat burger, I thought I should pay them a visit.

Upon entering the restaurant, it had a bit of the 60s dive feeling to the place. The menu was quite simple and by looking at the way they make their burgers, it reminded me of the hero burger from Toronto.

It didn't take us too long to decide on what we wanted - we both opted for the big fat meal which consists of a double bacon cheese burger, a refillable drink and a fries or salad.. For $9.99 before tax and tips, it is a premium price for what is considered to be a diner's burger or semi fast food.

We changed our drinks to milkshakes and changed one of our fries to onion rings. I also added mushrooms and egg to my burger. Our bill came to be $32 after tax. Now that is actually quite expensive when you think about it.

The big fat meal with double bacon burger and cheese - this one is with fried egg and sauteed mushrooms as well

Now the burger:

It's hard to tell from my photos but mine (double bacon cheese burger + sautéed mushrooms and fried egg) was huge! It was so big that I was not able to grasp everything in one bite so I had to take several smaller bites to get all the components of the burger together in one huge bite. No doubt everything tasted really fresh, I especially enjoyed the fresh crunch from the lettuce and juicy tomato slice. However, the burger patties were quite dry. When eaten together with every component in the burger, the dryness of the patties seem to be masked by the sauce and juice from the tomato slice (and for my burger, also from the sauteed mushrooms). But when there isn't enough juice, the patty is so dry that I actually had a difficult time swallowing it. I believe it is due to constant pressing of the patty during the cooking process that caused the patties to lose their moisture.

Both the fries and onion rings were quite standard. The onion rings were not too greasy (unlike many chain restaurant) and it was easy to eat. I also thought their milkshake to be quite good as it was creamy yet not too rich to make you want to vomit after such an artery clogging meal.

All in all I liked my meal here but I am not quite sure if I would visit again without another groupon deal. I do find it to be a little too expensive for a diner's meal and there are just way too many other options out there for me to come back to this establishment. (I'd probably go to red robin's instead)

Food - 2.5/5

Service - 4/5 (the girl at the cashier was really helpful; and they bring your food to the table without forcing a tip from you)

Ambiance - n/a - its a diner...

31/Jan/2011

Okay... so I admit that the title should be 01/Feb/2011; and I should really just be honest and say that it is 1:40am.  But, well, it kind of makes me feel bad about procrastinating at this time and I guess I just didn't want to miss the last day of a month :)  So I am keeping this title and really, I am blogging about 31 of January anyway.

I really like the last day of a month, especially when the month ends with 31days.  It makes me feel like I have gotten most use out of that month.  That been said, I am not ready for a 32+days-month either.  Don't ask me why!  Weird, I know... :)  Anyways, which day of the month do you like?

It was so cold today!  So I decided to remove some stuff from my freezer onto our balcony.  It worked last last week when the temperature was around -20 outside; things stayed nice and frozen until the temperature quickly rose back up to somewhere between -6 to -1C.  Hmm... Yep.  My popsicles.didn't handle that news very well.  

They cried me a lot of rivers....

  FOOD!

Yes.  Finally. I know.  :)

Hero (Certified) Burgers.

I had them with sweet potato fries instead of their regular fries.  I liked their sweet potato fries a lot because the sweet potato was really sweet :) so the texture inside was a bit gooey-sticky while the outside was crispy.  Ones with caramelized exterior were especially good!

My 6oz Kona burger + sauteed button mushrooms (0.99extra) + tomato + onion (both free) - the burger itself comes with pickles, chedder cheese, peameal bacon, roasted pineapple; and a sweet chili sauce. 

Okay, maybe I've never had better.  But I absolutely loved the bun!  It was fluffy and chewy at the same time while providing just enough balance to the meaty, saucy center.  The patty was not bad, a little to the dry side but still had a very nice char-grilled flavour to it.  The dry-ness of the patty was masked well by the condiments (pickle, pineapple, tomatoes, onions and mushrooms) - so over all it didn't feel dry at all.

The only thing, was that they forgot to give me the chedder cheese that was supposed to come with my burger. :( I think with the cheese it will be even better because the cheese will add in another dimension of savoury and creamy taste to the burger.  Oh, and peameal bacon, was not exactly necessary as I couldn't taste much of it. :S  Probably due to the strong flavour of the sauce and the patty itself.  

Tina with her 4oz burger :)

Overall I really enjoyed my burger.  But I wish I could have ordered grilled pineapple as a topping so I could have just ordered a hero-burger with all the toppings I liked and NOT adding the peameal bacon :(

And I really liked the idea of their free toppings including tomatoes, onions and even mesclun green.

Food: 4/5

Service: N/A (but pretty good for a fast food chain)

ambiance: N/App

Hero Certified Burger (yonge and King location)