Monday, May 16, 2011

Haro's Restaurant and Bar, Sidney BC Canada

Sadly the burger at Haro’s Restaurant and Bar was pretty much exactly what I expected. In corporate performance appraisal speak the Haro’s burger met expectations but sadly at 8/10 it did not exceed expectations.




Haros is the restaurant attached to the Pier Hotel in Sidney. The Pier is "the" high end Sidney hotel, on the waterfront, very new very modern very metropolitan very clean very antiseptic if you know what I mean. So, from the restaurant I was expecting a gourmet burger using top end ingredients delivering a very good burger. And sadly, again, it's pretty much what I got.


haro’s burger: courtenay cheddar, smoked bacon, house bbq sauce on house made brioche bun


The cheddar was tasty and perfectly melted. The bacon had extraordinary flavour the house baked bun also extraordinary. But then the patty was a letdown, made fresh in house, which is good but then overcooked and tasteless. In the end you get a good burger with some extraordinary components but much like the property a bit antiseptic.



I'd have it again, at least the Blue Buck on tap was cold and tasty, it was a ho hum good burger and certainly better then monstrosity of a burger across the street at the Beacon Landing Pub and Restaurant.



But then again there are many more burgers along the Sidney waterfront to explore.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Good Dog Bar and Restaurant, Philadelphia PA, USA


My first Triple D burger. I’m very excited. I love this show there are some drop dead, brain numbingling, greasy, salivating good looking burgers featured. The Good Dog Bar in downtown Philadelphia is my first experience, my first test to see if the food eye candy from the TV screen translates to the palate.



I'm happy to report the Good Dog burger rocks. First off when I ordered they asked me how I would like the burger done. “Yes please, I'll have the Good Dog Burger and I'd like it medium rare, pink and juicy in the middle”. And that's how it arrived pink and beautiful and thick and blue and cheese stuffed and exploding with beefy blue cheese sauce. The patty was stacked with a heaping mound of sweet sautéed onions and the whole thing was nestled in a soft fresh bun. How can I not give this thing a 10/10? Maybe I'm biased by the euphoria of following Guy Fieri to this place but this burger was excellent.


Yet sadly I can not go 10 for 10 overall on account of the fries. They were served combination style with potatoes and yam fries all tossed together. The potatoes were great, especially when that gooey blue cheesy sauce dripped out of the burger and ran on to the fries. But the yam fries were chewy like leather and the chipotle sauce that often comes with yam fries was so watered down it was like drinking orange yogurt. So a 1 point deduction for yam fries gives this lovely creation a 9/10. Oh… if only I just got regular fries...



Check out this place it looks great for other stuff as well (excluding the yam fries). A. Trendy, taverny type of place with thousands of dog portraits on the wall, eclectic music, sex pistols a 80's bubble gum pop, setting the mood.






I'm looking forward to my next Triple D experience?