Wednesday, 13 June 2012

V Burger Bar

V Burger Bar on Urbanspoon
When I am not quite full after dinner and still have the munchies, a big fresh quality burger works wonders to fill that not quite empty but not quite full void in my stomach.


I must sound like a monstrous eater monster, to treat a normal sized burger merely as a snack one.
But no, I am completely normal and V Burgers' burgers are delicious.
I would gladly go for 1 (or 3) for breakfast, lunch or dinner and as entree, main or dessert. Or a void filler. I am completely captivated.

V Teriyaki Chicken - $11
This was the very first culprit that started my love affair with this very attractive burger joint.
Back when I disliked Jus Burgers for its very normal and bland burgers (which I now fully take back), I wondered how Jus managed to steal all the hype and limelight from Mr V here. Personally I thought he shone 10x brighter than Jus ever did in my eyes!


It was the standard curvature position of the hands to wrap around a big burger, the jaw lock of attempting to fit the whole thing into your mouth and the downright mess on the table, your clothes and your face that comprises the real burger eating experience in its entirety. And the sauce overload from the V Teriyaki Chicken satisfies the last criteria best.


A perfectly grilled chicken fillet glistening with teriyaki glaze nestled among juicy caramelised onion, tomato and mixed gourmet lettuce is enhanced with creamy wasabi mayonnaise that leaks out with every single greedy bite.


Onion Rings - $4.80
Onion rings done well can convert the most biggest onion hater to temporarily dismiss all that anger and devote it towards enjoying the deep fried, majestic ring of pure gold. Although generous in size, it makes sense that V Burgers is appropriately named and famed for its showstopping burgers and not exactly for their battered and fried onions.


Served with an aioli dip, it cannot hide the greasiness of these golden loops - they are quite heavily battered and oily as a result. The batter reminds me of the general fish n chip type, which could be improved on and battered with a lighter hand.


Try em - you'll either love em or you'll be indifferent.



Usually, 3 males with roaring appetites and metabolisms (luckily enough) would mean one serving each still might not be enough. But with all that batter and grease, it really should be more than enough.


V Burger offers an Onion ring + Drink combo for $6 when a main burger is purchased, allowing you to eat more, pay more while paying less at the same time.


Crispy Crisp - $10.80
And as if a burger on its own is way too healthy for your standards, V Burgers challenges that with its gob smacking Crispy Crisp - a tall, towering burger with circular tiers of onion rings. This is the first that I've seen of the burger revolution with such fillings, but I really shouldn't be surprised after witnessing a friend downing potato crisps sandwiches like a normal BLT sandwich.


It is close to impossible to fit all the fillings in a single bite. You're going to have to try your best to have the prime beef patty, battered onion rings, mixed lettuce, tomato, relish and aioli together, as I tried my best to take the opening bite and ended up with a mouthful of bun and a shred of lettuce at best.


Just looking at this pulled on my heartstrings, with a little flutter of pain. To eat it would completely yank all those strings off.


Mr Pinky - $15
With the seafood section of a burger menu usually showcasing a boring crumbed white fish fillet, Mr Pinky was truly impressive. This burger is a lot more manageable in height and most mouths can open to the size that can comfortably take a clean bite out of this one.


A seared Tasmanian salmon fillet is grilled to the point of moist and flaky goodness doused with a fitting honey mustard dressing, liberally coating the mixed lettuce, tomato and onion salad inside. One of the priciest burgers on their menu, but such a gourmet burger.


Unfortunately, I've noticed a substantial decrease in the size of the salmon fillet slotted into the burger. Not to say it is way too small, but is always sad to see when viewed in hindsight to the times where I couldn't stop commending just how big the fish fillet was when I first had it.
My first burger had 2 thick fillets side by side, compared to the second time round, where the single fillet had lost some weight and its companion.


F.B.A (Full Blooded Aussie) - $13.80
My memory fails me and I can't ascertain whether this is the F.B.A or the Eggy Steaky. I am inclined to conclude that it is the F.B.A burger for it includes beetroot, and the images I slightly remember of bloody, gory scenes on tables and clothes whenever beetroot is around.

The Full Blooded Aussie is bloody indeed, with the sauce of vibrantly red beetroot staining the entire burger with its blood. It's like you ordered a red wine soaked burger bun, or a maniac killer just assembled your burger.


This is what I would call a "Man Burger", with seemingly endless burger fillings of a prime beef patty, your usual salads, melted cheddar, bacon, fried egg, sliced beetroot, relish, aioli and BBQ sauce. A mouthful to say, and an even bigger mouthful to eat. The ingredients scream AUSSIE so much that the burger itself is all yeah eat me mate.

Avocado Chicken - $13
This is what I imagined I would go for, purely for the love of avocado. It sounds so seemingly normal next to the enticing options on the menu that I decided that I needed to break my boundaries a bit from choosing avocado schmavocado every single time.


A simple tender grilled chicken fillet slathered with avocado guacamole, tomato, onion, mixed gourmet salad, aioli and topped with melted cheddar. I appreciate that the chicken fillets here are cooked just right and don't have those charred, blackened carcinogenic grill lines embedded into the flesh which seem to suggest that it is freshly cooked burnt.



Freshly cooked and prepared ingredients, seriously bursting at the burger seams.
Will also make you burst at the seams, with excess careless burger consumption.


Chickorian - $11
It was the lime sweet chilli mayo inclusion in the description of the Chickorian that disillusioned me toward a food spasm. I'm big on sauce and prefer most of my things saucy (we are still on the topic of food yes?) The way I eat sauce would make one ask would you like some burger with that sauce?


I've learnt to ask for my burgers to be cut up, which seriously makes it easier (i.e. make it possible) to enjoy the fillings inside the burger at the SAME time in the SAME mouthful. The chicken and coriander patty was still quite discerningly pinkish, and while I feared that it was slightly rare, the sheer power of laziness quite easily beat the effort of finding out if this was fully cooked and could be safely eaten without being as sick as a dog afterwards.
I need to change.


The coriander was definitely visible but with a flavour so not overpowering that I could hardly taste it. I'd understand that coriander is a hit or miss with many people and shouldn't be too strong, but a stronger and more intense flavour would be appreciated for those who have already decided to order a chicken & coriander patty.


Battered Chips - $3.80
Burgers without a side of chips almost seems incomplete sometimes. V Burgers offers a Chips + Drink deal for $5, alongside their $6 onion rings + drink combo.


Similar to the onion rings, the chips are well fried but don't leave that big of an imprint in the memory. They're hot, they're crisp and they're golden, but they lack a little seasoning and overall wow factor that memorable chips have.


Med Veg - $10
Finishing a dinner at the restaurant next to V Burgers but seated right in front of the entrance of the burger joint instead, it seemed like a waste not to top off dinner with a burger finale. We weren't full, but it was the sheer convenience and coincidence that V Burgers was located right next to our dinner spot that propelled us to make a burger as our dessert.


To combat the guilt of eating a burger just minutes after a whole dinner, we chose a no-meat burger - because vegetarian is always inherently healthy. Roasted vegetables bring out a certain moist sweetness from within that is impossible to taste when you eat them in their raw, crunchy, healthy form.


There is a whole vegetable garden packed between 2 slices of burger bun - the inherently sweet flavours of grilled zucchini, eggplant, red peppers and salad intermingling with slathers of thick basil pesto and aioli. The pesto is chunky, strong and with substance, enough to replace the missing savoury and creamy texture of Danish fetta cheese that I ordered without.
Sad, because a burger sans anything is a pity. Unless it is beetroot.


...


I came for the burgers and fell in love with the buns. A good bun is much like a good friend - it is strong, it holds everything together when everything is noticeably falling apart. And V Burgers then, is a very good friend and has very nice buns. Their light sourdough bun and turkish style bread rolls have strength, texture and substance and while they get soaked with the generous amount of sauce, their gradual sogginess does not disintegrate into a pile between your fingers.


Their burger range offering is similar to the other restaurants that have hopped onto the burger train revolution, with pleasing prices. The range of prices seem to be bigger here, and sadly while the increased prices are fair and make them on par with competitors, their portions in some burgers have diminished. Never fear though, for their burgers are still generously filled and deceptively substantial. Something not so substantial however, is their limited drink selection offering mostly soft drinks and the all important H2o.


The staff here serve you well, though there is limited interaction in a system whereby you order at the counter and the minimal requirement of service or utensils that go into wolfing down a burger. Though they do make that effort to ask you how was your burger? and they are wonderfully inviting even if they're about to close after a long dinner shift. They start to clean around you, and while it is not their cue to hint to us we need to stuff the burger down our throat and leave, we thought it best not to push the boundaries of patience too far.


V is situated on the corner of a little restaurant village, brightly lit and being successful at attention seeking. Its interior can get a little cramped from too many burger demanders at the same time, but it sports a very open shop design concept to let out the steam of overcrowded areas as well as the enticing sizzling aromas of patties sizzling on the grill. Quite a cosy feel, various framed newspaper article clippings promoting its successes, cartoons and photos of diners at V Burgers - they like their customers, and we like them too :) I LOVE em.


Somehow my burger eating experience is the messiest possible way. I usually end up with a sauce moustache but here I also adopt a dripping beard too. With more sauce ending up on my plate than in my mouth, it almost looks like I've just finished exchanging kisses with a sauce dispenser instead.


"Prepared with Love, Served with Passion" is how V Burgers does their thing.
So be warned, 'cause love and passion is gonna get so, so messy. Have fun ;)


***
Monday: 5pm-9.30pm
Tuesday-Thursday: 11.30am-9.30pm
Friday-Saturday: 11.30am-late
Sunday: 11.30am-9.30pm


(08) 9355 3702
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3 comments:

  1. mmmMmm its one of the best burger place in town :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. I visited V Burger Bar for the first time during the week. I had ordered 3 burgers to share among the family and I really enjoyed all their burgers. I did enjoy their buns very much. My chips were well seasoned but could have had less time in the deep fryer and more potato.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shaun I'm surprised it has taken you this long! I love their burgers too although I think they used to be even better than they are now, meaning they must have been really, really, really damn good! :)

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