Friday 31 May 2013

Food & Dining: BurgeRoom



Image from Locky's English Playground
McDonald's is cheap and convenient, but it will never be tied with the words "quality" or "taste". Unlike other countries, it is not easy to find a place with good burgers in Hong Kong. Luckily, fans of burgers now have a decent eatery to satisfy their taste buds, and that place is called BurgeRoom.


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I have already been here 3 to 4 times and every time I return home with a happy smile and a happy stomach.

The eatery is not too big, can only fit about 20 people in it at the same time, which is why there is always a queue outside. The normal waiting time for a seat is 20 minutes, and then another 15 minutes for the food to arrive after you order, so yes, the logistics are exactly top-notch, but if you are not in a hurry, it is not a big problem.

Posters outside the windows
Image from Locky's English Playground
While you are waiting outside, you are advised to pick the food you want such that you can place your order once you are lead to your table. Prices start from $80 and goes all the way up to $140 depending on how big your burger is and how expensive the ingredients are.
Menu
Image from Locky's English Playground
 If you managed to place your order before 2:30pm, you can order set lunches with fries and drinks.
Bottled drinks included in the lunch set
Image from Locky's English Playground
 My favourite so far is this portabello cheese burger, so huge, so 'fungally' juicy!
Potato rings with chedder cheese and portabello cheese burger
Image from Locky's English Playground
 It just looks too amazing not to take a view more photos from various angles.
Portabello cheese burger with ginger beer
Image from Locky's English Playground
 There is a kind of charm about the burgers that I still cannot describe fully, but I think, maybe,
Portabello cheese burger close up
Image from Locky's English Playground
 that this appearance of a burger was just too good to be true after years after years of mental bullying by the delicious-looking McDonald's burger posters and the cruel 'McReality'.
Sole finger burger with fries
Image from Locky's English Playground
As a child, I was taught by the McPhilosophy that "what you see is not what you get", or even, "what you see is barely 10% of what you get". But this burger from BurgeRoom, suddenly broke this "law of nature"!
A dissection of the sole finger burger with fries
Image from Locky's English Playground
Their à la carte burgers are massive in size but they are absolute beauties!
Foie Gras Beef Burger with Fried Egg
Image from BurgeRoom
The last time I went with my wife we managed to try out the tea time set which begins serving at 2:30pm. We added $10 extra for the bottled drinks.
Image from Locky's English Playground
the burgers are about 50% of the original, but the price too is halved. Quality-wise, the burgers are just as fresh, beefy and juicy.

Mini class burger with potato wedges
Image from Locky's English Playground
It was BurgeRoom that first gave me the experience of having the juice of beef in the mouth with every bite, a feeling that I can never enjoy from eating any burgers from any fast food chains in Hong Kong. It's just not possible! But here in BurgeRoom, it's real!
Mini class burger
Image from Locky's English Playground
The look of the burgers is a joy to behold, simply because what you see from the posters is what you get. There is no cheating, no faking, no lies, just the simple truth. You might get something that is not shown on the posters too, that is the heat and smoke coming out from the freshly fried burger meat!
Mini sole fish burger (left) and mini clasic burger (right)
Image from Locky's English Playground
At $45 each, you get a set that is big enough for a lunch for an average lady in Hong Kong. For an average man, a tea set is a tea set, but the lunch set is surely enough to fully fill your stomach.

Image from Locky's English Playground
After trying the burgers at BurgeRoom, I have fell in love with that rich taste of beef patty, so I went to AEON supermarket, previously known as JUSCO, to buy some Japanese Wagyu patties and make my own burgers. At $80 for 3, the Wagyu patties beat BurgeRoom's patties quite a bit in taste! Since my standard has gone up, I cannot give BurgeRoom the full mark for taste, but it's not far from it.

Wagyu patties from AEON
Image from Locky's English Playground

Definitely give it a go if you have time, I mean, lots of waiting time!


Scores:

Look:            ★★★★★ 5/5
Taste:            ★★★★☆ 4/5
Smell:            ★★★★☆ 4/5
Textures:       ★★★★★ 5/5
Temperature: ★★★★★ 5/5
Overall:         ★★★★★ 23/25


Vocabulary:
eatery -- (n)[C] informal restaurant:
logistics -- (n)[plural] the careful organization of a complicated activity so that it happens in a successful and effective way:
top-notch -- (adj) informal excellent:
'fungally' -- (adv) a word created by Locky, from the adjective 'fungal', related to fungus.
'McReality' -- (n)[U] a word created by Locky, the disappointing reality presented by the McBurgers after looking at the posters and at the actual burgers.
à la carte -- (adj) [before nounIf you eat à la carte, you choose each dish from a separate list instead of eating fixed combination of dishes at a fixed price:
behold -- (vb) [T]  old use or literary to see or look at someone or something:
patty -- (n)[C] piece of food made into a disc shape that is then cooked:
Wagyu -- (n) refers to several breeds of cattle, the most famous of which is genetically predisposed to intense marbling and to producing a high percentage of oleaginous unsaturated fat.


Resources:

BurgeRoom @ Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/BurgeRoom/29807994937?fref=ts

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/eatery?q=eatery
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/logistics?q=logistic
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/top-notch?q=top-notch
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/a-la-carte?q=%C3%A0+la+carte
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/behold?q=behold
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/patty?q=patty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagyu