Old Skool Burgers at Dean's Diner, Newtown

Dean's Diner, located on King Street serves up burgers of yesteryear. Forget brioche buns or even milk buns or patties that can reference the name of the cow it came from. Dean's is all about the classic Australian burger.

It has a strong following by those that want a sesame seed topped bun shrouding a filling of beef patty with beetroot, pineapple and egg. But the burgers have names like Fine Young Cannibals (a vegetarian burger), ACDC (a bacon and egg roll with sauce) or one named after Elvis called "The King" with double of everything. Chicken chips come with chicken salt or regular salt.

And who is Dean? Well the very friendly owner explains that Dean is in fact her 8 year old son (seen on the wall photo with Delta Goodrem). When they opened here 7 yers ago they had intended to keep it "old skool" and they have.

From the potato scallops to the Chiko roll the menu is an ode to the retro "greasy spoon" diner except here they play music and they name their burgers and wraps. Some of the names have come from customers like The Porker. Open til 3am Dean's is a favourite of late night Newtown crowd.

Sammie and I are hungry but not famished so we order a burger each and a serve of fries to share and a shake (haha that's how much we order when we're not famished!). There are no mini trolleys for the fries, here they are wrapped up in white paper, in a generous serve. The chips are thick and golden and laced with that magical chicken salt dust that makes them moreish.

They deliver the shake in a metal milkshake canister. The thickshake with caramel is so thick the straw stands up erect although it's mild in the malt that I ordered but it's still a goody.

Everything is made fresh to order. This is the classic burger with the lot. With a beef patty, tomato, lettuce, beetroot, pineapple, double bacon, egg, fried onions and your choice of sauce it's thick and juicy. It can get wet at parts, especially with the pineapple in the mix but if you want a sloppy, juicy classic Aussie burger then this is it.

I spent about 5 minutes staring at the menu trying to figure out what to order. I settled on the Spanish Harlem because hello chorizo. It has grilled Spanish chorizo sliced in half horizontally, tomato relish, lettuce, tomato and onion, aioli and a drizzle of chilli sauce. And this burger is great with just the right amount of garlicky goodness from the chorizo. I add a bit of tomato sauce and house made piri piri sauce to give it a bit of kick too.

There are rice puddings and a nut sundae but our attention is piqued by the macadamia, coconut and white chocolate baklava. I'm thinking that it will be super sweet but it isn't as syrupy as some baklava can be. It's very coconutty, with a coconut centre, perhaps best suited to dipping in a cup of tea or coffee. Or indeed a giant canister of milkshake :)

So tell me Dear Reader, do you prefer the old style of burgers or are you embracing the new burgers? Or is any burger good to you? Do you have a favourite late night food?

This meal was independently paid for._

Dean's Diner

385 King St, Newtown NSW 2042
Phone: (02) 9557 6085
Cash Only
Open 7 days from 10am til late