Are huge burger creations like this common?

[Shel_B]

This morning, I received this image as part of an email promoting the burger joint's upcoming popup this weekend.  I've seen plenty of pics of similar burgers, stacked high and loaded with topping, and I'm sure you've seen such images as well.

 

Are burgers such as these common in restaurants and food trucks, or are they produced maily as enticements and for promotions?  Would you order and eat such a creation?

Speaking for myself, burgers such as these are excessive, and I'd neither order one nor want to try eating one.  I prefer my burgers simple: meat, cheese (usually), pickle, tomato slice, maybe lettuce. The only sauce would be ketchup or perhaps a hot sauce, and then applied lightly. I'd like to be able to get my mouth around the sandwich and fully taste the meat.

 

 

[Ddanno]

 I had a lot of these concoctions when I lived in London, some great, some abominable, almost all of them impossible to eat after the first three or so bites as they collapsed into a clothes destroying mess.

 

Personally, if someone's going to make a burger like this I want it wider, not taller. 

Edited July 11 by Ddanno (log)

[YvetteMT]

Theres a local place that makes such monstrosities (from their FB page on a recent burger "Topped with delicious sliced brisket, garlic aioli, American cheese, onion jam, arugula, tomato and bbq sauce." ) Thats on top of a burger. And the photo.... yeah its a mess.  And it too is a food truck!! Its not like there are tables, real silverware to tackle the beast. 

I like a good gut bomb as much as the next guy but I draw the line at a burger requiring a fork, knife, bib and wet wipes. 

[Ddanno]

Yeah knife and fork jobs can do one.

 

Oh, and I've had enough of brioche buns. They're too sweet and rich.

Edited July 11 by Ddanno (log)

[weinoo]

13 minutes ago, Ddanno said:

Oh, and I've had enough of brioche buns. They're too sweet and rich.

 

Exactly.  As a matter of fact, at one of our favorite places where they make a good burger, it's on a brioche bun; if I order one, I ask for it on toasted rye instead.

[ElsieD]

I think those monstrosities are disgusting.

[blue_dolphin]

I think they’re common on TikTok, Instagram, etc 

 

[gfweb]

Even Guy Fieri has to cut  them in half.

[Anchobrie]

Being always open to innovations when it came to eat, these new, modernist, but mostly ridiculous and absurd hamburgers feed the hater inside of mine. Last heavy diarrhea  I've gotten in the last 20 years or so was in a hamburger food-truck contest.

 

Sorry, I must say I want a classic hamburger upper range of quality meat (forget about wagyu, dry aged ox porterhouse meat or similar "exotic" stuff), some veggies and maybe bacon (it needs to have some crunchy stuff), melted cheddar and that would make me happy.

[Ddanno]

8 minutes ago, Anchobrie said:

 (forget about wagyu, dry aged ox porterhouse meat or similar "exotic" stuff)

 

Why anyone would grind that into a patty (unless it isn't what they claim it is!) is beyond me.

[gfweb]

3 hours ago, Ddanno said:

 

Why anyone would grind that into a patty (unless it isn't what they claim it is!) is beyond me.

 

Two possible reasons.

A.They are using crap-grade meat that would otherwise end up as pet food.

B. They are using it as a menu enhancer for the unwise.

[Maison Rustique]

Here in the mid-west, those ginormous burger creations seem to be all the rage. But then this tends to be the land of huge portions, all-you-can-eat, etc. Explains much about the obesity epidemic.

 

And while we're on it, what's up with entire meals served on top of a Bloody Mary? Is there even a drink under all that food?

[chromedome]

I look at those grotesqueries and wonder to myself "Why even bother having a patty hiding under there?"

 

My GF went through a stage of watching Guy Fieri's DDD and similar shows, and I got to the point where my eyelid would start to twitch at the phrase "...this OVER THE TOP burger..."

 

ETA: Those of us of a certain age (ie, most of us) may remember a vintage Doonesbury cartoon from the mid-70s, with a small Vietnamese orphan being adopted by an American family. They sit her down to her first American meal, cooing fondly "Look how excited she is!" 

The little one, for her part, is raging in a thought bubble "This is obscene! You could feed half of Saigon with this!" (paraphrased from memory, and probably not exact)

I was bemused, years later, to learn that GBT had revived her character as Mike Doonesbury's whip-smart young programmer GF. 

 

Edited July 12 by chromedome (log)

[gfweb]

These burgers are attractive to the sort of bro who wears hats turned backward while indoors

[weinoo]

15 hours ago, gfweb said:

Even Guy Fieri has to cut  them in half.

 

If we could only cut him in half. For good.

 

12 hours ago, Anchobrie said:

Last heavy diarrhea  I've gotten in the last 20 years or so was in a hamburger food-truck contest.

 

Hopefully, you told your gastroenterologist...in addition to telling us, of course.

[rotuts]

things like this exist because the internet is fueled for licks.

 

Even clicks @ eG.

 

Imagine an Internet w a click tariff :  1 cent / click ?   4 cents / click ?

 

 

Edited July 12 by rotuts (log)

[liuzhou]

I don't know how common these burger are. I'm not in the burger market. But I know stupidity is everywhere!

[AlaMoi]

no - the 8-16" thick "hamburger" is neither 'common' or 'normal'

 

it's a 'feature' of specific places/eateries looking to make a splash.

known if advance,,,, I'd not go there.  inane management . . . .

[Mjx]

I think the overloaded burger is more common in countries where people already typically eat burgers with a knife and fork, so the absurdity of a sandwich you can't hold tends to escape them.

[liuzhou]

31 minutes ago, Mjx said:

I think the overloaded burger is more common in countries where people already typically eat burgers with a knife and fork, so the absurdity of a sandwich you can't hold tends to escape them.

 

Which countries?

I've only seen examples from America and the USA, both of which I'm sure eat burgers with the hands. Well, I know the UK does.

 

 

Edited July 13 by liuzhou (log)

[Shel_B]

47 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

I've only seen examples from America and the USA, both of which I'm sure eat burgers with the hands. Well, I know the UK does.

 

Over the years, I have visited many burger places, and while not common, it's not unusual to have a burger served both cut in half and with appropriate flatware to continue cutting the sandwich.

[Tropicalsenior]

I've eaten in some really good burger places where they offer burgers that they call Knife and forkers.

However, it seems that a lot of the burgers that appear on the menus are products of food photographers instead of cooks and what you think you are ordering and what you actually get bear no resemblance to each other.

[Shel_B]

13 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

[...] the burgers that appear on the menus are products of food photographers instead of cooks and what you think you are ordering and what you actually get bear no resemblance to each other.

 

That's another issue, and perhaps worthy of its own thread?

[ElsieD]

2 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I've eaten in some really good burger places where they offer burgers that they call Knife and forkers.

However, it seems that a lot of the burgers that appear on the menus are products of food photographers instead of cooks and what you think you are ordering and what you actually get bear no resemblance to each other.

That's for sure!

[liuzhou]

13 hours ago, liuzhou said:

I've only seen examples from America and the USA, both of which I'm sure eat burgers with the hands. Well, I know the UK does.

 

 

 

Correcting myself.

 

I've seen them in Japan and S. Korea where they definitely don't use knives and forks.

 

They have also made an appearance in China, mainly in Shanghai and Beijing places  but I've never seen them, not that I want to. China doesn't use knives and forks either and I don't think you could eat one with chopsticks! I did see a video with one clown eating by one using a spoon, though, although he ate most of it using his hands.

 

 

 

Edited July 14 by liuzhou (log)