Grill`d Bulimba - the sequel

Last sunday feeling seedy as after a night of jugging to retro jjj hottest one hundred tracks on Brisbanes best dancefloor - the patio at the house of skirt - we decided to hit Grill`d just one more time. I had a hankering for the mustard pickled - this time my lady sampled the zen hen.
I decided to go double beef - I enquired about them making me a fat pattie, but the girl said it could`nt be done (??) but that they could do double. Here`s the pictures - a mustard pickled with double beef , with a zen hen in the background
What an awesome burger. We decided to not eat fries with these ones today so we got to enjoy these burgers guilt free - wholemeal role - ultra lean mince - oh yeah!! The pickles were massive on my burger - real thick slices. Moreish. so much better than Macca`s. Some kids came in with their pop - obviously a burger man. I wondered what kids would think about Grill`ds produce - whether they`d cry in the car because they were`nt going to mc-crap-olds.

Heres another view of my double meat mustard pickle - notice the red onion rounds mmmm.

Cheese Burger - Milton`s Coffee House

On a whim we decided to hit the cafe round the corner from work - Milton's Coffee House.
I ordered the cheese burger, Laurie ordered the Burger with the lot (as always). I was`nt expecting much but these babies far exceeded my expectations. If they had`nt of come out on some wanky triangular turkish panini I`d recommend these. The burger itself had traces of carrot, bordering on rissoley qualities. The cheese was nicely melted, and the chef took the liberty of a dousing the pattie with a healthy does of bbq sauce. The burger loses marks (for me) because of the 'bun' and purple bloody fancy lettuce which I loathe. A Healthy lunch option nonetheless. 6.5 out of 10

Check the melty cheesey goodness!!

Cacko`s Lunchtime Rump - Caxton St Hotel

Not a burger, but well worth the journey, the Cacko serve a 15.90 giant rump.
Always a delicious monster feast. We`ve worked out that the thickness of the steak
is inversely proportional to the cooking time - ie if you want a rare steak it will be an
inch and a half thick monster slab.

Pictured here is Lauries medium rare with pepper sauce. This was at least an inch and a half thick , probably closer to 2. Notice the funny hashed potato chips on top. The steaks come with big bowls
of salad - complete with orange cherry tomatoes i`m fascinated by. Sorry about the lack of scale - I`ll capture the beastness better next time.

Grill`d Bulimba

So with much excitement and anticipation, my lovely lady and I fought off the monday-nightis-itis by making the trek over to Bulimba to sample the wares of the brand spankin new Grill`d burger franchise. Jason sent me a scan of an article that someone wrote in some brisbane newspaper, several people have mentioned it to me over the past week - we were even going to do a work trip this Friday. But when one has burgers on the brain like i do I just had to go try.
The joint is located on trendy Oxford St. Its got heaps of seating, so no worries getting a table even if you go at peak times. The wall art is like a bad acid trip - cows eating chicken burgers - chickens eating cowburgers - weird cursive about no roller skating girls (I like roller skating girls !). From what I read in the newspaper article, grilled is a but of a big deal in Melbourne, with perhaps 7 outlets. Their website suffers from its flash heavy-ness - that whilst visually stunning, is like more of that bad acid. But this is not about visuals - this is about the burgers - and what stunning examples were these!!!

5. Mustard & Pickled

I`ll start with my girl's burger (is`nt she lucky!). The mustard and pickled was AWESOME! I was jealous. This had real pickles, real tasty mustard, real tasty cheese - wholemeal bun!! great salad - i`ll expand more on that below.

4. Summer Sunset

There's something about pineapple that calls to me - but i must start learning to resist the sweet yellow sirens call. It was the pineapple that ultimately let my burger down - but its no fault of Grill`d - I must learn to read because no sooner than after sitting down after ordering I realized I`d picked a burger without cheese - oh well - I saved 4gs of fat - :(

Summer Sunset Midway

Grill`d burger patties are great - they profess to using lo/no fat minced beef but season it up a heap with visible herbs throughout the pattie. On their own the patties have an awesome charcoally savoury meatiness. In the burger they are perfect. My only criticism, and this being part of my burger fetish, is that they are`nt thick enough, perhaps being only 1/3rd of an inch, or 8mls depending on which way you swing.
The rolls on the other hand, are absolutely perfect, wholemealy, not too light, held the contents well till the very last bite. Cos lettuce, plenty of tomato in the salads, some tasty relish on mine.
The real champ of our burger experience was the mustard & pickle. Do yourself a favour and get one of these. Ratings? I gave mine an 8, marked down because the pineapple seemed to disjoint the burger, and the pattie width. Courtney gave hers a 9 and I tend to agree.

Burger Safari RECOMMENDS!!!

Wagyu Burger - Pacific Golf Club

So I googled Wagyu Burger and turned up a post somewhere recommending the Wagyu Burger, located at the Pacific Golf Club, Carindale. Geoff, Laurie and myself decided to trek on down for
Friday lunch. The Pacific Golf Club is a proper club in every sense of the word - you have to sign in and everything.
We all ordered (The burger is $14.95), then I bought 3 QLD schooners(385Ml?) for $8.55!! Great start. There were quite a few oldies arriving for their friday outing so we headed out on the balcony to soak in the serenity. Its a beautiful outlook over the golf course, and as its been raining heaps recently it was lush and green.

The Wagyu Burger - Pacific Golf Club

Our burgers arrived fairly quickly, had`nt even finished our beers. They came well equipped with what I`d call almost 'The Lot'. Tomato, Lettuce Beetroot, Hotplate Grilled Pineapple, Egg, A Rasher of proper bacon and the alleged Wagyu Burger Pattie. I was quite impressed by the diameter and thickness of the pattie. It was perhaps 3/4 of an inch thick. When you bit into it you gotta a proper mouthful of meat. The roll was fresh, but of a light white composition which ultimately failed during the messy last few mouthfuls.

Whilst the pattie was of an impressive size, it had a ground beef consistency, like they had been
recieved pre formed, cut up by a machine or something. Have you ever eaten I&J Big Beefers?
I hav`nt since i was perhaps 14 or 15, but that is what these burgers reminded me of.
Also the burger had a fair attempt at 'the lot' but was missing cheese/spicy relish/mustard or onions. There must have been some sauce on there because the roll ultimately disintegrated, but
that could also be because of the beetroot juice - can`t quite recall - the schooner of mid must have clouded my memory.
I also left most of the pile of those golden chips - (which were lovely!) so its a damn fine sign that
the burger was a satisfying mung.

Overall Ratings - I gave the Burger a 7 due to the bread, and big beeferish consistency of the pattie - I also have doubts to its wagyu status - but it was still pretty good. I`m a cheese lover too - no cheese = no burger porn!

Laurie gave his burger an 8.

Would we return?? If I did I`d try some of the other stuff on the menu - it all sounded really nice - if you were here for a round of golf you could do far worse than eating one of these burgers post game.

Diner33 Closed!

I received an email from Diner33 informing me they have shut their doors for good.

Hi Ben,

I'm sorry but Diner 33 will not be opening again. In fact Nicky has now returned to the UK.

Thanks for your support,
Daniel....

Great Burgers - Pig of a location!

The Benno Burger

Let me tell you a story - There`s this place called Diner33 at Taringa that cooked us an awesome burger late last year. This was pre losing my old nokia and buying my sony ericsson phone with a decent camera which lets me photograph the good food you see on this blog. Anyways this burger was Fan f***n tastic. Around the table everyone was giving it scores like 9, 10, 11.
Unreal. 1824 Angus beef or something from memory? big fat ass burgers on wholemealy buns in a quality setting - good beers - good times.
So we decided to go back to resample and re-rate these burgers for the purposes of officialdom.
Making the Diner33 the best burger we`ve had with no photo evidence just does`nt cut it now does it friends? maybe back in the 1900`s when you`d gather around the wireless to hear tales from afar and use your imagination to fill in the gaps.

But in this age of information you need pictures! Anyway, I think they have closed down. Their phone number is disconnected, not listed in the whitepages. I even emailed them. Their site says they are closed for christmas but yeah its like mid january. I fear Diner33 at Taringa might be nothing but a good memory. It is a pig of a location after all. We went to chinese down the road and it was good - we had the banquet - but thats a story for another blog.

So after the disappointment of Wednesdays brewhouse sandwich, and friday`s Diner33 disappointment, I had to cook up some homestyle burger lovin.

Three patties of love baby - thats jarlsberg cheese for the record

I must say I`m a recent convert to Beetroot, but it sets

the burger off BIG TIME. Thats Beerenberg tomato chutney
for saucing, I also had some noosa sweet habanero underneath,
with some type of expensive real mayonnaise on the lettuce.

The Benno Burger!

So what does a burger connoisseur really want? Something like this friends - and this picture is all about the burger pattie. That pattie is an inch thick. Its got onion and a clove of garlic in it. Cut up fresh parsley, pinch of cumin, paprika, sumac, chili, pepper and salt. plus an egg,red wine and mesquite smoke! Delicious. I can`t rate my own burgers - that would`nt be sportsmanlike, but my lovely lady gave her burger a 8, but she is rating against other ones I`ve made, like my Benchmark burger which she gave a 9.5, god bless her.

Real men don`t eat quiche?

Perhaps I`m new school?
Cooked up this bad boy ( or girl ) the other night. Made great breakfast the next day too!

While Im at it, may as well post a picture of this lovely vegetarian stir-fry I cooked, with marinated tofu my lady whipped up. Gotta off-set the burgers somehow friends. Wow - how un-manly is this post - quiche and tofu.

Brewhouse Burger, The Brewhouse

The Brewhouse is located on Albert Street in the City. We ventured up there on a wednesday lunchtime to see what was to be had. I had previously googled 'Parrots Gourmet Burger`s' Which was meant to be on Elizabeth Street - but all paul's recon turned up was 'Adult World'. FurBurgers perhaps?
Not today friends.
I sighted the 'Brewhouse Burger' on the menu -
Slow roasted pork rib meat, chicken breast , peperoni among other things - The siren`s sang to me on this one. So I ordered it along with a pint of pure blonde - low carbs you understand.

Well we sat and drank our beers in the brewhouse hall waiting for our burgers - The brewhouse brew a whole range of beers in-house. Ive been known to sip a few bohemian pilseners here on previous visits - I highly recommend them. The Brewhouse pizza`s are also quite impressive, if not a tad greasy. But thats a story for another blog.

So my 'Burger' was brought out to my table and I thought they were joking. Club sandwich would be a better description or something - but a burger is a streth - definition of a burger is that there is a burger pattie somewhere between those slabs of bread.
But have a look at my salad burger?


Where's the meat? I`d usually leave the wedges but due to the lack of meat on my plate I actually ate them all.
To be fair, the 50g of rib meat was real tasty when I was lucky enough to get some in a bite - But for this to be your pubs signature burger you have got to be on some serious antidepressant medication screwing up your brain and appetite.
Go on, click on the picture to make it bigger.
Locating a chunk of meat is like a where`s wally picture. The 'Chicken Breast' was actually a couple of chunks of cut up chicken. This was a salad sandwich at best.

Burger Safari gives this 'burger' a 3.

Nice salad sandwich though!

Courtney's Pizza

My lovely Lady comes from a good lineage of pizza chefs - her dad creates one of Adelaide`s
finest pizza`s at Laurie`s riverside pizza house.

just a happy snap of her first effort ever - smoked salmon,pumpkin, green bean topped with fresh basil and parmesan. divine baby!!

Burger Urge - New Farm

What?? you`ve been sleeping under a rock??

If you`ve ever googled Brisbanes Best Burgers or something similar,
you`ll know the popularist darlings are Chimi Burger and Burger Urge.

We did sample Chimi recently - quite late at night, quite under the weather.
My double moo chimi was phenomenal.
Brent however, ordered 'The Chimi Burger'. Seeing he could`nt focus to read
at the time, he failed to realize the whole burger, Bun and All, was deep fried!.

Anyways - he tried to eat it anyway - and he does not have much good to say about it he he he.
I forgot to take photos at the time, so we`ll do a follow up mission soon for a proper review.


On now, to Burger Urge, located on the fashionable Brunswick street just over the top
of the hill out of the Valley into New Farm.

Burger Urge`s service is Exceptional. There is a little water jug and glasses you can go
and pour yourself a water from. They have soft porn available to read in the form of
Ralph magazine while you wait for your burger. We decided to eat in as it was a Friday
Lunchtime, we were`nt in that much of a rush.

The chips seem to be a rough cut un-peeled affair - and are excellent, especially with an aioli
mayo for dipping. A large bowl ($5 or so) is plenty for 3-4 people so don`t get too carried away.

Onto the burgers -

Laurie`s Urge Burger

Brent`s Lamb Haloumi

My Double Beef Chili and Cheese

Shaunak`s Chicken Chermoula

Now you are thinking 'They look Delicious!' right??

Well what went wrong? The presentation, you can see, is fantastic. They use gourmet style
lettuce and quality-ish ingredients. The bread roll is wholemealish, and not too sweet in any case.
What went wrong?? The burgers are BLAND!!

I had been here before, and was unimpressed with the beef pattie the first time, thats why i doubled up in case i missed something. But no - no flavour!! its commendable they use lean mince etc, BUT YOU MUST SEASON THE PATTIE - be it chopped clove of garlic - cumin - pepper - onion - parsley or other chopped herbs - carrot - truffle - whatever - its gotta have it.

Plus my chilli sauce was weird and creamy - again kind of bland and made my meal messy. By the time I got to the heart of the burger all the sauce had dropped onto my plate.

Also, its easy to create burger amplitude by stacking lettuce and thick slicing cucumber.
Burger urge is guilty of this.

Laurie rated his with the lot 5.5-6 out of 10 - which is piss poor.

Mine I gave a 6.5, mainly because of the happy service and the bread roll. Make no
mistake - I was stuffed full as a goog after this burger, but it was`nt all that pleasant
an experience, it became an effort to eat.

Brent thought his lamb pattie was also kinda bland.

Shaunak thought the Chermoula sauce lacked any kind of zing or bite.

So would I return?? Probably I would - My missus had a Portabello Mushroom burger
which was unreal when we first came here. Just steer clear of traditional burger options
and go for something zany.

Peace out

Frog N Toad, Auchenflower

Do you remember when you were a kid ( in age, not in maturity - i`m still there)?

Do you remember how your father would not let you eat McDonalds, but would
go pick up a burger for dinner from the local fish and chip shop in a second? My
father praised the virtues of the fish and chip shop burger above the Multinationals
with an almost religious fervour - And he was a vegetarian!!!

I have fond memories of tucking into a burger with the lot from the Port Noarlunga
fish and chip shop after a hard days body boarding at Southport beach, SA. Divine!

Frog N Toad's burger with the lot brought back those memories -

A Greasy Spoon joint, located near Origin Energy on Lang Pde at Auchenflower. My
mate Jason recommendeds the Steak Sandwich wtl - but being a burger man I did what i was born to do - trek on down and eat one of their burgers.

Wednesday the 2nd January 2008 - Frog N toad Day!! A triumph in decent burgers close to work. A Burger with the lot I believe was $6.30. this included beetroot,pineapple, cheese, bacon,onion and an egg, along with standard lettuce/tomato. For the price was not expecting too much - but
was a damn fine burger WTL.

Burger Safari RECOMMENDS!!

Now the photos - Here`s my burger freshly unwrapped -

Geoff's Burger midway

The parklike surroundings out the back of the shop are excellent - a very relaxing way to
devour your lunch - As it was lunch time when we went here - the shop was packed - another testament to its quality.

Criticism? To me, I could taste the burger extender in the meat. But the rest of the burger ( scept the whitebread roll - pet peeve) was exceptional for the cost. However I can not give the burger more than 7.5 due to the burger extenderish consistency of the pattie.

Shaunak thought his chicken burger could have done with a bit more salad - and some more mayo/sauce also.

Would we return?? Absolutely!!

Off the Wall, Wellington Point

The inaugural Burger Mission was to Off the Wall Burger, Wellington Point on
Brisbanes Sunny BaySide. Me and the lads were hunting the 'Megadeath' Chilli burger.

We first heard about the burger here , courtesy of supersized meals. Apparently its a nasty piece
of work, they give you gloves to eat it!!

Anyways, once we arrived, the wall of fame (or shame??) was still up, but the burger had been
removed from the menu!! Apparently there are new owners, and they were worried about
public liability insurance. So we sampled the burgers anyway - fairly sloppy presentation, slightly
stale bread (or so it seemed??) but a fairly tasty burger . We were all dog hungover from the company christmas party the day before, so seediness may have clouded the burgers true greatness?? but ultimately was`nt worth the 40 mins each way trip on our lunch break from
Milton.

The Menu (click for large view)
A Burger with cheese - hey - i just looked at those posts on supersize meals and the original burgers had gourmet lettuce or baby spinach - Seems like we got crappy iceberg lettuce - may as well not be there - iceberg lettuce has minor nutritional value - google it if you don't believe me - i leave it off subways all the time!!


The burger in the back left of the photo loks the best - one with the lot?? not sure - can`t remember - Laurie rated it from memory -

The burger patties were great - the overall burger was let down by poor presentation and crappy iceberg lettuce - overall?? rated between 6.5 - 7.5 around the table.

The Benchmark

What makes a fantastic burger?? After sampling many burgers over the years, and a recent appreciation for the more gourmet, specialist afficionado variety, it pretty much comes down
to a big ass seasoned meat pattie, fatter the better. I prefer a wholemeal/grainy
roll too. After all, white bread causes diabetes and adds empty kilojoules that actually detract
from the burger experience. For instance, have you ever eaten a hungry jacks burger and felt a bit
ill afterwards?? I have - and whilst its easy to blame the fat in the meat, an equally likely candidate is the sugar in the white bread roll - adding many empty kilojoules where they are`nt required or even welcome.

Anyways - whats the benchmark? Here`s a photo of a burger I made at home on about the 29th December 2007. Possibly my finest effort ever, but believe me I will be trying again =)

Welcome to Brisbane Burger Safari

Hi and welcome to Brisbane Burger Safari,

the blog dedicated to unearthing the finest burgers in the Brisbane/Southern Queensland Area.

This blog was inspired by the fine folk at http://www.supersizedmeals.com

Me and my team plan to go on missions at least once a week to gather photos and reviews on burgers,
post photos of any tasty food we create or eat, and generally detail food/drink related excess.

Enjoy,

Benno