Vancouver, BC, and Western Canada Burger Club

[gerald]

Hi Guys;

I guess I have to chime in here as Vera's keeps getting mentioned. I want to clarify what I think might be a couple of mis-conceptions.

1. We make our own patties, everyday, we have a guy locked in a dungeon mixing meat (no seriously we do, in the kennel right beside the gimp from pulp fiction), the only difference to one off operators is that we machine mould them, because of the quantity we produce. The fact that we make our own patties to our specs will always seperate us from others. While companies constantly offer to make them for us we graciuosly decline (the gimp needs a friend). In fact we are so committed to making our own, that we are building a plant to do that.

2. Our fries are double fried fresh cut, not flash frozen then fried (in my opinion the only people that do that to the best specs are McDonalds)

3. We produce as much as we can in house (dressings, vera's sauce, our toppings).

4. We are the freshest WE DO NOT USE FROZEN PATTIES ND WE NEVER WILL, the biggest (6oz patties, which means 12oz for a dbl, 3/4 of a pound) and the best value (7.95, for dbl meat dbl cheese dbl fried onions dbl by-pass), the most calories (proudly)

5. If anyone has a bad experience I would like to know because we do want to get better.

6. We are not fast food, we are great food fast (well sometimes not so fast if there is a line up, but we are working on that). One way to avoid line-ups is to call your order in to the store then pick up, it saves the line up time.

7. In the west end you can get delivery (15.00 minimum)

8. Our davie st store is licensed and opne until 2 am Thurs-Sat (late night eats).

9. We have the broadest menu of any burger joint in town.

10. We are not perfect but are working at getting there.

Lastly, I am proud to announce that we are now using Certified Organic Meat from Blue Goose Cattle, a good group of people with an excellent product. Further we have just perfected a veggie burger using our spice mix, so look out veg heads you will thinking we gave you the real deal, about 3 weeks away from the stores.

thanks for letting me rant, I just want to make sure that I get my 2 cents (or 20 bucks worth)

[Vancouver]

7.  In the west end you can get delivery (15.00 minimum)

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You should update your website to reflect that. I can't seem to find it on there. (But perhaps I just missed it?)

Cheers!

[tinhead]

Fatburger does a good job with their burgers - I'm impressed.

My only complaint of their immediate competion down the street (Vera's Burger) is that they load it with too much topping. It becomes soggy and messy very quickly and I'm not really a fan of that. My friends keep me coming back tho - they love Vera's so I tend to oblige. Next time, no topping, I guess.

Went to Fat for the May 9th opening, and it looks like it's been busy ever since. I like their advance ordering system when the lineups are long - a fellow (presumably the manager) walks down the line and verbally calls out the type of food you want so they start making it right away.

Fat burger - very tasty, I do like the bacon topping as well (yes, yes, something about burger club protocol). The bun is toasted just right.

Milkshake - have had the strawberry milkshake - it's not bad, no discernable chunks of strawberry, I like the idea of whip cream on top tho.

Coney Island hot dog - my favourite at Fatburger - since Johnny's closed down, I've been looking for an alternative in the 'hood.

Any of the above with chili on top.... okay, well, chili on my milkshake is something I wouldn't do ... It's not a thick chili, no whole beans in the mixture - it's quite consistent and makes a good topping for the burgers and hot dog. Actually, my last hot dog featured the cheddar and the chili. Very yummy.

The staff - they're really really nice and professional! Always smiling... it's like they force the staff to take some prozac before they all start their shift.

Peppyre, Daddy-A and I had lunch today at Fatburger on Denman, just a few doors North of Vera's.

The restaurant is probably 50% larger than your average Vera's, with four times the staff.  Everyone was very friendly, not a Squidward in sight.  You place your order at the cash, pay, and your food is delivered to your table.  It took about 5-10 minutes for our food to arrive, which I'm sure depends on how busy they are.  They started getting slammed as we were finishing our lunch, and one of the staffers still found time to come to the table and offer to refill Arne's drink. 

I had the Double Fatburger with cheese, which was, as I discovered *after* I ordered, 2/3rd of a pound of beef.    Available toppings are fairly standard, except that no mushrooms are available.  I had bacon, lettuce, tomato, mustard and relish.  It was as close to a perfect fast food burger as I've ever had, bar none.  Lean meat but not tough or flavourless.  Soft bun that was just the right size in relation to the rest of the burger.  Cheese that was fully melted and added some flavour.  Fresh condiments, too.  Yummy.    Sorry, no photos.

The fries, based on the ones I stole from Peppyre  are pretty good.  They are very very thin, lightly salted, and cooked just shy of crispy.  A tad overcooked to my taste, but being that thin it works for me.

The onion rings, however, were AWESOME.  Perfectly cooked, battered rings without feeling greasy or heavy.  When you go, you must try the rings.....

My meal was $14 and change, but the relatively high cost was due to the double burger being quite a bit more than the single.  My companions had a more human-sized serving and their lunch was ~$8, IIRC.  I'm sure we will hear from them shortly.

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Edited June 11, 2005 by tinhead (log)

[tinhead]

Mmmm.. onion rings.

Anyone ever experiment with red onions to make these delicious treats?

Side note, too much beer in the batter makes the rings heavy, I prefer a soda water or sparkling mineral water in the batter. Anyone else got any pointers?

Lee : I must disagree with you on the onion rings. I thought them to be bland, tasteless and greasy. I actually left some. Those of you who know me know I do not leave food, ever. I thionk that A & W onions rings are far, far superior to that of Fatburger.

Now, as for the milkshake: probably the best that I have ever had, including any that I have made. I can imagine that you all must be rocked by that statement : A chef actually saying that something was better than he could make, but it is true. I will edit this part out later so it can never come back and haunt me.

The burger was OK , the bun being a bit soft and "Wonderbread" like for me. As you know, I serve a Portugese bun on my burgers as I like a bit more "chew" to the bun. If I could get away with serving burgers on Ciabatta bread, I would.

Arne made to offer to deliver one to me but I turned him down as I am starting to reach maximum density.

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[tinhead]

On the same topic of burger club.. how about the Kobe Beef Burger at Diva (Metropolitan Hotel). Do they even still have that on the menu? I recall enjoying it some time ago - it was quite good. I'm going to have to return, however, with the reviewer hat on.. unless someone else has already done that.

Also, (the new) Marmalade's burger was good... ate it too fast to get a good pic, tho...

<a target="_blank" href="http://people.urbanmixer.com/Members/rtaneja/raj_photo_album/2005/200506/photoalbum_photo_view?b_start=14"><img src="http://people.urbanmixer.com/Members/rtaneja/raj_photo_album/2005/200506/55920016.jpg/variant/medium"></a>

<em>The second rule of burger club is you do not talk about burger club!</em>

Edited June 11, 2005 by tinhead (log)

[Vancouver Lee]

Is the Double Fatburger the same as the King burger? If so, my friend ate one and a half of those bad boys, and then hit KK for half a dozen donuts.

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Nope, the King Burger is even larger. Each patty is a half pound, IIRC, making the Double King a whopping 1 lb of beef.

A double King and six Krispy Kremes. Makes me feel sick just thinking about it.

[gerald]

Fatburger has their patties made for them (as do most other burger chains that I know of), so beyond that I don't know about frozen or not. I do know this, as far as chains go our belief is more along the lines of an in n out where they make their own patties for 400 stores. In my opinion its just too easy to let someone else produce the very thing you are known for, way too many things can change without you really knowing.

Edited June 11, 2005 by gerald (log)

[gerald]

Hi tin;

Toppings has been as issue for us, training staff to respond appropriately with the right amount of topping is hard, the more items, the easier you go on the toppings, that being said, next time you are in, ask for easy toppings and you should be good to go.

As fo r red onions for onion rings we have been mucking around with recipes for a feew months now for a red onion variety of onion rings, stay tuned

As for the milkshake at fatburger, they use vanilla ice cream for all of their shakes and a regular syrup so you would not see any pieces of strawberry.

Edited June 11, 2005 by gerald (log)

[nwyles]

I am off to Vera's for a late night burger after service tonight, probably around 11:30 ish. I will drag Chef Fowke with me as it was he and I who made a visit to Fatburger together and we will compare our experiences.

I must add that the very fact that Vera's will serve us a beer after shift is going to make it the sentimantal favourite. If that is not a pretty picture, two chubby Chefs, beers and burgers in hand watching the full cross section of humanity walk by on Davie Street at midnight on a Saturday.

Having read and re-read Gerald's post, I would think that fresh is always better. Fatburger serves the large "McCain" style wedge cut french fries. They certainly do not make those in house. Does anyone know how much mess fresh cutting that many fries in house is ( besides Gerald ) - potato starch everywhere........it never seems to go away. There is a consistancy problem that would develop over the year with fresh fries as potatos are not harvested all year round and are store in dark sheds. This allows for the sugars to develop in the potatos and sometimes during the year you would tend to get darker fries as the sugar makes them dark. If I recall, it is about now. That is a slight advantage of using a frozen fry - consistant 365 days a year, but still, a frozen fry. Intercity Packers has been contracted out to make the burger patties for Fatburger IIRC. They certainly would not be making them fresh everyday. Intercity would mass produce amd then freeze them. I would not think that one store would demand the kind of volume to be making and shipping fresh everyday. Just economics. Too expensive.

I will report soon.

[peppyre]

As Lee mentioned, a much smaller mafia hit Fatburger for lunch yesterday. I had the Fat on the char with cheese. I found it quite tasty for what it was, a fast food burger. It actually reminded me of the In'N'Out burger I had in San Francisco. The patty wasn't overcooked, in fact mine still had a hint of pink. The cheese was full melted and it had relish on it. I love relish on a burger. I had the skinny fries which were quite tasty. Arne's thick fries looked dry and mealy, you could tell they were the frozen yucky kind. As for the onion rings, Neil, I have to ask why you like the A&W onion rings? I find them unbelievably greasy and doughy with very little actual onion in them. These were lightly battered, fried at the right temperature, not greasy and distinctly tasted of onion. I love onion rings, but I've found that in the last few years, good ones are impossible to find. These were good!! Thanks for ordering them Lee.

I can't compare this to Vera's since I haven't been yet (Sorry Gerald. I'll go soon, I promise) but I don't think this would be on the same level and I don't know if I could compare the two. I think Fatburger should be compared to the other fast food chains in the city. If I'm in the area though, I'd probably go back.

Edited June 11, 2005 by peppyre (log)

[Mooshmouse]

Behold, long-lost photos from the Rodeo Drive-in... perhaps they should've stayed lost.

The first thing that hit me as soon as we walked through the doors was the smell. Nostalgia in one whiff. Reminded me of drive-in dinners on the road during camping trips to the Okanagan. I felt like I was eight years old all over again.

Feeding Trough

Like lambs to the slaughter.

Mexican Burger with Deep-fried Mushrooms

I was disappointed when my burger arrived without any "salad" (to use Lee's word) as it would've gone a long way to mitigate the grease. The salsa had a tangy kick to it but was rather watery, along the lines of Pace Picante Sauce. And Lee certainly hit the nail on the head with his comment about the mushrooms being little bundles of grease. Malt vinegar was the only thing that made them remotely palatable.

Deborah's Burger

Posted just above the takeout window

The most important picture of all. Perhaps they were trying to reassure us that we'd be saved from eternal damnation in the grease fires of Hades.

Suffice it to say I'm greatly looking forward to Feenie's.

[tinhead]

Thanks Gerald - I'll definitely do that next time I'm at Vera's. Perhaps if the Vancouver Club Extravaganza gets boring tonight, I'll pop in for a burger and heckle Neil et. crew.

As for Fat, thanks for the tip, what prompted me to say that about the shake was the pointed question to front end staff:

"Real Strawberries in your milkshake?"

Response was, "Absolutely!".

I guess they meant the other strawberry milkshake.. or perhaps they were referring to the chocolate shake ;)

Hi tin;

Toppings has been as issue for us, training staff to respond appropriately with the right amount of topping is hard, the more items, the easier you go on the toppings, that being said, next time you are in, ask for easy toppings and you should be good to go.

As fo r red onions for onion rings we have been mucking around with recipes for a feew months now for a red onion variety of onion rings, stay tuned

As for the milkshake at fatburger, they use vanilla ice cream for all of their shakes and a regular syrup so you would not see any pieces of strawberry.

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[Macha]

7.  In the west end you can get delivery (15.00 minimum)

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You should update your website to reflect that. I can't seem to find it on there. (But perhaps I just missed it?)

Cheers!

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Delivery??? Since when? Im eating at Veras way to much lately and have to say the onion rings are the best in the city ( Sorry to the A&W supporters )

Im intrested in the Fennies burger test next month, i have heard good things about their burgers , but can they handle the burger critique?

[canucklehead]

Doing some solo recon and had the following burgers in the last two days:

Yesterday Aft: White Spot at the Airport.

Just before my flight to Winnipeg - I was desparate and I thought, what the hell. Well - this was the best WS Burger ever! It was like a miracle! Everything that was supposed to be hot was hot (ie burger and fries) - and everything that was supposed to be cool was actually cold (ie drink and coleslaw). The fries were crispy and fresh - I tell ya, I was a little afraid to get on the plane because I thought that I must have used up all my good luck with that meal.

Yesterday - Midnight: Winnipeg Sals

Had the infamous Nips Burger. Check it out:

I think that the slightly racial undertones of calling a product "Nip's" becomes more evident when you see the menu somehow. Plus - an Asian man ordering a "Nip" seemed to make everybody uncomfortable.

Okay - I can see how the Eastern European use of the onion has pervaded all prairie cooking. The onions in this thing were cooked to an inch of their lives - parts were raw while others were almost black. The bun was toasted but very soft.

It was a very sad little diner - one of the customers wanted all this extra stuff on there burger and it did'nt come with it - so he was yelling and the waitress brought it out but had to charge him for it. I actually changed seats so that I could watch the action and also keep an out for any flying debris.

So - is there a winner between the two hometown favorites. I think in this case - the merits are all so relative, that declaring a 'winner' would be both unfair and inaccurate.

BTW - I ate this instead of the experiencing the wonders of Schezwan Restaurant. So if you sense any bitter undertones - you know why.

[Andrew Morrison]

I had a wonderful BBQ burger at LilyKate today at lunch. Two strips of the most perfect bacon. Kind of weird buying a $12 burger that doesn't come with fries (just a ramikan of coleslaw bordering on boring).

$12 burgers...

[Vancouver Lee]

Doing some solo recon and had the following burgers in the last two days:

Yesterday Aft: White Spot at the Airport.

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If you find yourself in the airport craving a burger again, try out the Portobello Mushroom burger at the Fairmont.

[*Deborah*]

I had a wonderful BBQ burger at LilyKate today at lunch. Two strips of the most perfect bacon. Kind of weird buying a $12 burger that doesn't come with fries (just a ramikan of coleslaw bordering on boring).

$12 burgers...

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How many lbs of meat in there, Andrew? was it as big as a dinner plate? was it Kobe beef or something?

[Vancouver Lee]

Today's Globe & Mail has an article comparing FatBurger and Vera's. Alexandra Gill's take on it: Vera's is better. The battle rages on.....

BTW, the article also quotes a certain restaurant chef/owner best known for his Gingerbread Pudding....

[jackandjill]

Does a chicken burger qualify as a burger to the Burger Club?

I had the cajun chicken burger at Relish last nigth, and it was one of the best I've ever had - the chicken was blackened on the outside, with a lot of cajun heat, but so juicy inside. The burger was only outdone by the fries - thin like McDonald's fries, but much more crispy on the outside and meltingly soft inside.

Good selection of Russel beers on tap and very tasty-looking "culinary martinis" that I didn't try (muddled cilantro in some of them). It was my first time to Relish but will be back soon.

Edited June 18, 2005 by jackandjill (log)

[Daddy-A]

Does a chicken burger qualify as a burger to the Burger Club?

NO

Now get out before I taunt you some more!

What is it about spicey chicken burgers? All the best chicken burgers I've had have some form of spice-heat to them ... not so with beef burgers.

Just wondering...

A.

[Vancouver Lee]

I thought seriously about not posting this, as this makes 6 posts in a row and comes dangerously close to outing me as the geek that I am...

I finally got around to trying the burgers at Skyhawk, the restaurant at Boundry Bay airport today. First problem, all the different food choices have been given really dumb names like Captain Kirk, Stormtrooper, etc. In a low voice so nobody heard me, I ordered a "Paratrooper, hold the onions, with fries". At Skyhawk, that gets you a cheeseburger with mushrooms. Ordering something "On the Char" at Fatburger is cool, ordering food named for science fiction movie characters is not.

The food arrives, and it's a prefab, frozen burger on a slightly stale bun with plastic orange cheese and McCain frozen fries. About the best thing I can say is that the tomato and lettuce were fresh and crisp, and the mushrooms were properly sauteed. Otherwise....

Here's the bright side: It's going to make the Feenie Patty on Sunday taste that much sweeter.

[peppyre]

It had to be better than the Sodexho Chicken burger (I know, not technically Burger Club...) I had for lunch today. The indigestion is still killing me. I'm hoping the wine will calm it. The only good thing, pesto mayo and real cheddar cheese.

[Vancouver Lee]

It had to be better than the Sodexho Chicken burger (I know, not technically Burger Club...) I had for lunch today.  The indigestion is still killing me.  I'm hoping the wine will calm it.  The only good thing, pesto mayo and real cheddar cheese.

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Sodexho Chicken Burger? What were you thinking?

[peppyre]

3 letters: PMS The joys of the hospital cafeteria. That should hold me for another 6 months, thank god.

[Daddy-A]

3 letters: PMS

3 letters: TMI

(Too Much Information!)

On a burger related note ... on our way over to Sechelt last weekend, Matthew & I "enjoyed" a BC Burger platters from the White Spot on BC Ferries. I gotta say, I'm starting to side with Keith on this. WTF was Feenie thinking??

A.