For the past year I’ve heard friends, acquaintances, bloggers, newspapers, etc. talk about the BEST burger in Toronto. I am sure you have too. Lets cut the chase and keep this one simple.
Burger’s Priest.
Apparently, this place is supposed to hold the No. 1 spot for the best tasting burgers in T.O.
Yonge & Lawrence – I walked in with some friends on Family Day (Feb 20th, 2012). To my surprise, this place was packed with a line-up outside the store at approximately 3pm.
This grew my curiosity even further. What the hell is this place? How cheap is the food? How good can it be for people to stay outside with their toddlers on a chilly February afternoon?
Well, the 20 minute wait brought me to the cashier where I had to place my order. I ordered “The Priest” which is a cheeseburger topped with a fried patty of mushrooms stuffed cheese along with a side-order of fries and a shake.
12 minutes later, I grabbed my burger and fries followed by an additional 3 minutes for the shake.
Fries = Over-priced, soggy, tasteless. Merely on the menu just to keep things occupied.
Shake = Nothing exceptional. Not worth waiting another 3 minutes AFTER you have your burger and fries in hand.
Burger = The never frozen and freshly ground nature does make this burger patty exceptional to what I’ve had at other places BUT…the texture did not look appealing at all. It felt like strings of intestines were mashed together and thrown on the grill. The oozing cheese out of the stuffed mushroom patty made every bite worth it. But hey, thats what cheese does anyways.
I must mention the line staff dressed in hip/trendy tee’s along with baseball hats. Now this works if the guys on the grill had short hair but sadly this was not the case. 3 out of 5 individuals I noticed on the line had long hair which really put me off. These guys need to tuck their hair in all the way as food safety would not permit anyone to operate the way they did.
Beware the secret menu. I am not sure if this is intentional, but you have to do your “menu research” before you enter. There are at least 4 burgers that are not mentioned on the menu. It is a “cute” way of attracting attention, but gets irritating specially for someone who has never been there before.
My opinion overall – it was a one-time experience (at least to this particular location). I would rather pay the same amount of money at the Gourmet Burger Company or Craft Burger (Big Smoke) and ENJOY my meal.
Next stop…The Burger Cellar.
Till then,
Gus.
Gus, thanks for the review, but bro, this is the wrong one. The hype is about the original place. That is located at 1636 Queen Street East. Me and bunch of colleagues checked out both places..WORLD OF DIFFERENCE. Check out their website, we called to check they have only one location. http://www.theburgerspriest.com/
Hello Imran,
There is massive confusion about this location business. As per other blogs and other articles, this is the “new” location at Yonge/Lawrence neighbourhood. If this is not true, I would gladly modify the blog based on my visit to the Queen St location. If not, then I believe if someone is hopping the bandwagon with the same brand, then consistency is expected all around.
Surprisingly, Burger’s Priest has not quoted the “new” location on their website. This needs to get looked into.
Thanks for dropping by and commenting. The journey goes on…
Doesn’t look terribly appetizing….