Works Burger - Pandemonium Cafe, Paddington

I ride past the Pandemonium Cafe on Given Tce, Paddo, every day on the way to work. I thought it was some kind of kids-play cafe at first due to its bright fun colouring and lettering on the sign. But as always a google search led me to the Pandemonium Menu featuring several varieties of Burgers. For some reason we got a bit lost on the way so after a bit of a walk we entered this friendly, funky cafe and set about our business of burger busting.
Pandemonium has many 1950`s style tables and funky colours - its a great spot in Paddo if you ever need to meet someone - there seems to be a nice view over houses on the valley out the back of the cafe also.
There were 5 members in our party - 2 of the lads are non-red meat types and opted for chicken panini`s. But the real men selected works burgers - Laurie opted for a no egg / plus avocado option. For drinks, instead of beer I opted for a fresh orange/pineapple juice - this was`nt intentional - the beer alcohol menu was a separate document we did'nt spot til after we`d ordered. However the juice was nice and only $3.50 - you can keep your boost juice.
The meals took a whiles to prepare when they came out they looked a treat.

This is a picture of the Works Burger.

Pandemonium Works Burger Pandemonium Works Aerial View

Pandemonium Works Midway

I`d made a promise to myself to never go the Pineapple route again, but it really did`nt affect this works burger. The burger was constructed on a light floury triangular garlic buttered Panini. Tasted nice with the garlic butter but its floury coating made the burger quite messy to consume. Kierans bread disentegrated midway thru much tio his dismay.
The burger pattie itself was wonderful. Nice and fat, a pinch of extender detected but cooked nice to remain juicey, but not too juicey. The egg was good, bacon good, tomato and beetroot, and notice no lettuce but a smal lpinch of pea shoot sprouts. Grated cheese, fresh from the bag ( ie not freshly grated ) added the welcome cheesey mid note. The chips had some kind of crunchy batter and were really tasty. The waitress brought us out little tubs of tomato and bbq sauce to dip our chips in, which was thoughtful of her, the little darling.
All in all the burger filling aspects of this experience were top notch, but the panini encasement let this otherwise fine meal down. Your humble host gives a 7.5 !

Works Burger - Rainworth Seafoods

Well readers, your humble host is back on the Burgers after a 2 Month Hiatus. In my absence I`ve gone and married my myself a beautiful wife and honeymooned for 2 weeks in Thailand. I did`nt eat any burgers during the lead up to the wedding - I did`nt want a burger gut for the wedding photo`s.
Anyways the safari is back - I did my usual googling of 'gourmet burger brisbane' and turned up a couple of contenders I`d seen before but had`nt pursued. My pick for today was to be 'Harry`s Diner' at Windsor, but when I tried calling them the phone was disconnected and WhitePages did`nt have a listing for them. Perhaps they`ve closed??
The next on the list was the Works Burger from Rainworth Seafoods. This Burger recieved a couple of noms for Brisbanes best Burger from some brisbane times column and also from a forum post on that aussie techno website thats name slips my mind right now.

So we made the Journey out thru Rosalie to Rainworth to the venue of what I was expecting to be Burger of the Year!! On entry - Rainworth Seafoods is your stock fish and chippery. Nothing stood out to me to differentiate it - usual fare of battered savs and fish displayed in the counter window. I ordered the works burger for I believe $6.50 and here is what I received:

Works Burger - Rainworth Seafoods

Works Burger with Tin Scale

I opened the burger and thought - is this it? I was expecting something fabulous but this was stock - not a bad fishnchip shop burger but nothing special - but on to the burger description - Stock white bread burger buns with sesame seeds - these were fresh but obviously not made on premises. Salads included a pinch of fried onion, tomato, slice of beetroot and shredded iceberg. I must compliment the amount of salad - there was just enough to know it was there but not enough to overpower the good stuff. The cheese slice was some kind of processed slice. Topped with a couple of rashers of real bacon and a tidy fried egg - well cooked just past making a mess. The burger was also seasoned with BBQ sauce. All in all a fair support to the headline burger pattie that IMHO was a fairly miserable excuse for a burger pattie. 5mm thick at best, well cooked and dry. Without the sauce my burger would not have been enjoyable.
Now I don`t want to give the wrong idea - this was a fair fishnchip shop burger, it was`nt greasy or messy but it really just was`nt anything special. The sign did`nt promise a gourmet burger, so perhaps its a little harsh getting rated on the gourmet scale but thems the brake I`m afraid.

Rainworth Works Midway

I was overall unimpressed but not unhappy. Kieran on the otherhand thought his burger was great! Laurie rated his burger with pineapple a 7.5. I`ll give the burger a 6.5 giving points to its tidy construction and lack of greasy after mess. If the burger pattie was twice the thickness then I might have got excited. Looking back at the pictures though - I`d love to eat it again right now.