Best of Auckland Eats: gourmet burger showdown
Aucklanders definitely take their burgers seriously. At least the ones in the Ponsonby neighborhood, where I stayed for the last 4 days. There are three gourmet burger restaurants all within 1-2 minutes walking from one another. With claims like "Engineering the ultimate burger" (Burger Fuel) and "Home of the best burgers in the world" (Burger Wisconsin), I had to try out all of them to see for myself. Be prepared for steep prices, like a lot of food in Auckland: a burger, fries, and drink will run you over $10.
#3: Burger Fuel
"Ford Freakout" - beef burger with avocado and bacon. Side of small spud fries.
Burger Fuel, like a lot of burger joints I've come across in my travels (Brazil, South Africa), pays homage to 1960s Americana in its design theme, and burger nomenclature. The fries were excellent: crunchy, and served with an addictive mayonnaise. But the burger was flawed. First, the bun was much to large and had an unnatural spongy texture. Believe it or not, there's a third-pounder hiding in there. You have to have double-jointed jaws to eat this. Secondly, it's not made with care: all of the bacon were piled up in one corner, like I was eating a bacon sandwich. Overall, even though I was really hungry when I started, I didn't finish everything, and still felt bloated afterwards.
#2: Murder Burger
Beef and Cheese, with side of chunky cut fries.
I was about to give Murder Burger the top spot, until I had to urgently go to the bathroom just now which made me reconsider. But still, I really really liked this place. Partly because this burger joint has serious attitude. Just look at the logo. The interior is painted completely black, with black chandeliers, and red leather seating. And the staff uniforms? T-shirts that say "Meat is Murder."
What I liked about my beef and cheese, the cheese being "our famous cheese sauce" was that it was that it had just the right proportion of everything. Each bite yielded some of the "hand shaped bun" (but not too much), a bit of cheese flavor, burger, and lettuce. The fries were good, but not spectacular. But major points for continuing the design theme to the packaging and napkins.
#1 Burger Wisconsin
Chicken burger with avocado and bacon. Side of beer battered wedges.
This is the burger of an advertising art director's dreams. Every layer distinct, with each leaf of bibb lettuce suspended in its own cloud, each slice of bacon perfectly fanned out across the burger, visible chunks of avocado in the spread. The chicken was a formed burger, deep fried, but it was full of large pieces of juicy chicken. The potato wedges were the ideal wedges: crunchy and savory coating, with steaming potato flesh inside. The only reason why I hesitated to give this #1, and why Murder Burger was #1 for about an hour, is because the ketchup (I mean, "house made tomato relish") was far too sweet. As readers of this blog may know, sweet flavor in my savory food is something I do not like. So even the "world's best burgers" have room for improvement.
