The Overcast’s Temporary Burger Showdown
To get you out of your house, and pumped full of iron, and supporting local restaurants, we’ve got 1o chefs showing off their spin on the classic carnivore favourite, the burger. Their creations will only be available at their restaurants for the month of February — this cold, miserable month that begs for hearty comfort foods, like a burger.
Below are the ten tantalizing contenders in The Overcast’s city-wide Temporary Burger Showdown. Try them all, and tell us what you think, via the poll at theovercast.ca/burger-poll. You’ll notice they’re not all beef, so you can’t claim 1o burgers are too many burgers to try in a month – there’s ample variety here, from Chinched sticking to their guns with pork, and Bacalao using our province’s iconic meat (moose), to The Club and Tavola using lamb, and Mallard Cottage’s Todd Perrin daring to make a burger of seal meat, or The Sprout forgoing meat altogether, with a cashew-apple-smoked-cheddar creation.
Go, eat, and consider this month’s burger binging a gift to your body’s iron and protein stores, to keep you feeling peppy and energetic during the dreary mid-winter month of February. These burgers, and the challenge, would even make for good conversation pieces on your Valentine’s date, don’t you think?
CHINCHED BISTRO
Ginger & garlic loose sausage slider with crispy Korean BBQ pork belly, housemade kimchi, and hoisin mayo on a sesame bun. Served with sticky rice ‘tater tots’ and sweet & sour dipping sauce. (In bar only, limited quantities). $11
THE CLUB
A lamb Burger stuffed with feta, cranberry mint relish, roasted garlic rosemary aioli, and baby arugula on a pretzel bun. $23
BACALAO
Moose Burger with homemade blueberry-chipotle ketchup, made with local maple syrup, wild local blueberries, locally-smoked bacon, on a homemade roll with delicious sides. Bacalao states that they have an exclusive line on local maple syrup. Available only during lunch. $19.
MAGNUM & STEINS
Newfoundland Screech Burger, with thinly sliced pickled beets, shaved cabbage, molasses bacon, screech aioli, served on a Newfoundland style bun. $15
MALLARD COTTAGE
Southern-fried seal flipper on a buttermilk biscuit, with house made jalapeño cream cheese, screech and molasses mustard, and smoked pickled beets.
RELISH
Texas Twist: an upgrade on our most popular burger, the Big Texas. Pancetta, avocado, 40 creek BBQ, onion frites, and havarti. $10
RUMPLESTILTSKIN’S
The Rumpel’s BBB is made with fresh, never frozen Canadian ground beef – hand pressed and seasoned just right! This homemade burger is topped with our unique bruschetta blend, parmesan cheese, and crispy bacon. Served on a fresh toasted sourdough bun. (May we suggest a side order of Famous Ziggy Fries with that?) $13.99
THE SHIP
1892 Fire Burger, 6oz all beef patty served on a toasted Kaiser bun, with lettuce, tomato, and a dill pickle, topped with in-house-made spicy tomato and pepper jam, with 1892 beer reduction, a slice of havarti cheese, 1892 beer battered jalapenos and onions. $8.99 (with side $13.99)
THE SPROUT
Cashew, apple, and smoked cheddar burger on a molasses bun, served with basil garlic home fries or a house salad. (Gluten Free Burger Buns will be available upon request.). $15
TAVOLA
Herb & Spice Lamb Burger. “At Tavola we love the tastes of Northern Italy – olives, rosemary, garlic, thyme, and of course, beautiful and fresh spring lamb. Tender and juicy, served on our house made ciabatta buns, and topped with kalamata tapenade and chevre, it is a unique savory experience.” Served with fingerling potato fries. $16
Photos by Joel Upshall for The Overcast
just having a laugh at all this…..really are these actual burgers–seems in the rush to shrug off our provincialism we lately jump on the overdone concept of hipster burgers!(think restos in the rest of N.A. about, hmm, 10 years ago!!!!)
It took me 15 minutes to read all the descriptions of these `burgers` and really…only time I’d eat any of these if I was at a bbq and someone said that I could get a new smartphone with arm support for 6 years!!!(JOKE OF COURSE).
Come on, the overdone trend of catching up culture is a but much..if you want a REAL burger here’s a thought, MAKE ONE!!….that should have been the contest!!
I managed to get through a half dozen with the the weekend still ahead to squeeze in Cinched and possibly Rumplestilskins. Magnum’s was good, though not outstanding. Relish was a bigger version of their usual fare, you’d need to have been really hungry to do it justice. Spout’s was a decent veggie burger. Like the guy above, the Ship was not open the times I stopped by. Mallard’s seal burger is pretty good, though it’s seal, which is one of those things you either like or don’t. My favourite so far was Tavola’s, the lamb was different, spicy and flavourful, but still a recognizable hamburger.
My partner and I have been trying to try these burgers as often as possible. Although there are more than enough days in February to try them all, our budgets and time haven’t quite allowed for it. So far we have tried Five. Our first experience was at The Sprout. As most items delivered by The Sprout the burger was divine, although eating it like an actual burger proved to be a challenge we still have this burger a big thumbs up! Our second burger experience was at Tavola. My partner (Australian) was eager to get his hands on some lamb, and I was excited to try a new restaurant. Unfortunately the spices and sauce didn’t quite ring our bells but the spring chips, however have us constantly craving more! Third up was Rumplestilskin’s, rumps delivered a fantastic beef burger with a bruschetta twist, the flavours worked really well together, and the view of course was an extra treat! Fourth was Magnum and Steins. Magnum’s created a masterpiece between two toutons! This burger was off the hook amazing. The flavours worked well, the toutons were awesome, and the screech aioli was subtle, and tasty! The last burger was have tried was at Relish, we needed a quick lunch so thought we may as well fit in a burger. The burger “Texas Twist” was interesting, and my partner really enjoyed his, I however wasn’t as impressed. I think I was just hoping they were leaving the Newfoundland “touch” as a surprise.
We aren’t finished our mission just yet. There was no way we could finish off this month without trying the Seal Burger at Mallard. We have full intentions to try Seal (for the first time) this weekend, and then finish off with the yummy cake table.
We could never seem to get to “The Ship” to try theirs, although we did try at lunch a couple times, but they were always closed. Chinched was another we are sad to miss out on, as well as The Club. We just didn’t have enough weekends in our month!
Thank you to the Overcast for getting this on the go, it’s been a real time!
This challenge should’ve been two months long. Lots of people didn’t hear about it until a week or two (or more) into the month, and 5 burgers is a lot to try in 1 month, yet alone 10. As such, there are quite a few burgers on here that I’d like to try, but can’t, due to the unrealistic logistics.
Four of us went to Chinched last Tuesday to sample their burger. The food and the entire experience was just great. Tim the bartender was a great addition to the conversation and service. Good job!
PS:Try Tim’s Cilantro Margarita. What a treat!
I tried the burger at Chinched last night. It was delicious – juicy and flavorful. It just melted in my mouth. The little rice balls that were served with it were also fabulous. Go try it!!
Have not managed to try any of the burgers mentioned here, but can attest that Gracie Joe’s and Hungry Heart both also have excellent burgers.
Should have included The Three Sisters in Placentia….their burgers standup with the best!
Enjoyed the article didn’t recognize most of these restaurants, next time could you include locations for the restaurants you are recommending. Only heard of Bacalao on Lemarchant and Magnum and Steins on Duckworth, like to know where the others are. The descriptions of the burgers sound wonderful.
Good point, Carol Ann. (THey’re all on Duckworth or Water … will get the addresses up shortly)
Finally! A reason to like February!