**Counter Burger is now closed**
If you’re in any doubt that the American chain The Counter burger has come to town, take a peek at the menu. For the first thing that my eyes rest upon is a Peanut Butter Shake. If that isn’t American I don’t know what is. Today we’re having lunch at The Counter burger, where you can get a fully customised burger that your heart or tastebud desires. I was first tipped off about The Counter by an NQN reader-got to love tips!
It’s table service here and when you sit down, you get a clipboard with a 5 part checklist of items that you can choose from starting from the patty (Beef, Turkey, Chicken or Vegetarian), then a cheese (from a list of 10 including horseradish cheddar, Gruyere and Danish blue), then some extra toppings (from a list of 18 regular toppings and a list of 10 premium toppings) and then a sauce (from a list of 17) and then a bun (hamburger bun, English muffin or wholemeal). This gives us a potential for 312,120 plus burgers! For low carb eaters, there is also the breadless option where instead of having it in a bun, you’re given the patty and toppings on top of salad leaves. We are literally staring at the menu, pencil paused in our hand, for about 10 minutes. For the terminally indecisive there are burger combinations already laid out.
Surfboard decorations
We are not sure what size patty we’d like so we look at the table next to us. Theirs looks like a fat juicy burger patty and they tell us it’s a 150g one and very filling (in fact they leave some of it behind). My husband rises to the challenge and chooses a 300g burger, despite being egged on to try the 450gram burger by the other customer who wants to see how big it would be. I am relieved to see that the item that I saw on the website, the Maryland Crab Cake burger is indeed the burger of the month here as I had presumed that it was a US only burger but everything there seemed to marry up exactly with the other locations.
Oooh Angus beef!
We ask the waitress about the shakes, apparently the peanut butter one is rather large and rich and she suggests sharing it and she also suggests combining a peanut butter and chocolate shake with malt which delights me as I am a big Reese’s peanut butter cup fan. We also share an order of 50 50 fries with half onion strings and half sweet potato chips.
Peanut butter and chocolate malted shake $5 (one of the two glasses)
Click here to read the full story
| February 17th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
“The best burgers in Sydney you say?” I ask my friend. “Yes” she replies definitively. Granted she has yet to try the Plan B Wagyu burger but she insists that while Plan B’s is no doubt good, BenBry’s burgers are enormous, juicy and filling. From the dreamy look on her face, I’m almost convinced so I do what any curious food fanatic does, I went to BenBry to have a taste of them myself.
I’ve come armed, armed with hungry men. Which is a pretty good way of judging the size of a burger. Inside, there’s one large wooden table with bench seating which seats up to 8 as well as high bar stools to the left. Not a great deal of space to eat in but we are in luck and the couple inhabiting the large table leave soon after.
Waiting for the table to clear has given us plenty of time to contemplate the menu. There are several types of beef burgers, lamb burgers, chicken burgers, a Barramundi burger and 2 vegetarian burgers as well as kid’s sizes and sides. We make our choices and wait about 10 minute for our orders which all come at the same time as there are many takeaway orders for the waiting crowds behind us. The first thing we notice is the size of the burgers, at about 13cms in diameter they’re huge. Figaro suggests putting a McFeast or Big Mac against them to show the size comparison. They’re also flatter than other burgers so that they’re easier to eat.
Tropical Feast burger $8.50
I try my Tropical Feast burger Prime Australian Beef, streaky bacon, cheese, pineapple, lettuce, tomato, red onion, avocado, BB aioli & sauce tomato.
Inside the Tropical Feast
Click here to read the full story
| September 24th, 2008 by Not Quite Nigella
It’s a cold, wintry night that brings us to Bite Me Burger Company, and one in which we’re pressed for time having spent the half half hour looking for a park in Paddington. Ever since the Wagyu burger at Plan B, I’ve been trying to find other Wagyu burgers to try. Call it my latest obsession. So with only 45 minutes to order, eat and go, we enter Bite Me Burger, a small, red lit small Burger place on Oxford Street in Paddington with a neon red Coca Cola type sign. It’s bustlingly full, there is a football game on at the stadium nearby and we explain our impending movie dilemma to the staff. They suggest that we pre-order our meals as it can sometimes take up to 20 minutes for the burgers during a busy period and by then a table should be free.
Sure enough, we’re seated within about 5 minutes and help ourselves to water. There is a large communal table as well as two high tables at the front. We’re seated at one of the front tables but not the very front. Once when we sat there everyone stopped and watched what we ate which made us feel like monkeys in a zoo exhibit.
Everything is visual merchanised to within an inch of itself, the fork and knife come in a sleeve that says “Hold Me”. The ketchup is in a tomato squeezy and of course the salt and pepper co-ordinate.
Onion Rings $4.50
Click here to read the full story
| June 17th, 2008 by Not Quite Nigella
Would you believe me, Dear Reader, when I told you that the humble sausage roll had broken the $7 price barrier? You might be even more surprised when I tell you that at $7 it was worth every lip smackin’, finger lickin’, slowly savoured bite. The sausage roll in question is from Justin North’s “Plan B”, the tiny hole in the wall cafe next to Bécasse. I was put onto it by Y from Lemonpi who had visited earlier and told me about their fantastic Wagyu burger and $7 sausage roll. The most expensive sausage roll I’d had was the sausage roll at Bourke Street Bakery and even that was hardly what you’d call expensive at $4, and a lovely sausage roll it was. But I wasn’t too fussed about trying this one as it was almost double the price. I had no idea that Plan B existed, so tiny hole in the wall it was, I even dined at Bécasse right next to it without knowing of its existence and that it has been there for as long as the restaurant has, for 3 whole years.
Cake selection $3.50-$4 each
There are 3 tables outside that seat 2 people each, so it’s definitely more of a takeaway your lunch back to the office and read blogs during your lunch-hour kind of place. Apparently the new logo’d umbrellas call out its existence a bit better to passing trade. It’s small but it is stylishly outfitted of course. You’d expect no less from Becasse. I’ve rung ahead to pick up my lunch as we’re stopping through the city. I ordered a Wagyu burger (made with 600 day grain fed Wagyu beef) and a sandwich with pork and apple. The crisp pork belly, hoisin sauce and spring onion was out unfortunately so I made do with the pork and apple although I did toss up between that and the coronation chicken. I’d decide on a cake when I got there and I could see them up close.
Sandwich selection, $8 each
My wagyu burger was lost, apparently there was a miscommunication between the cafe and kitchen and my burger was just put on the grill when I arrived to collect it. Two suits who are standing up inside having finished their burgers get up to leave. I see the range of prepacked sandwiches and a plate of cakes and biscuits as well as designer drinks (I don’t think they even had Coke). The cakes look particularly good. The menu on the website seems to have changed slightly for the seasons. Whilst they had a caramelised mango tart, now it’s caramelised apple.
My burger is still running late and a man comes in from an outside table asking for a paper napkin. He happily declares “I’m covered in crumbs but it was all worth it, that was the best sausage roll ever! Worth every crumb!” and wipes the imaginary crumbs off himself and exits. I need no more convincing and I add a sausage roll to the order. I also buy a caramelised apple tart and a candied lemon and vanilla cookie for good measure. I get a coffee takeaway and it is fantastically good, one of the best coffees I’ve ever had (if not the best). It eventually all comes together in a brown handled paper bag and the lovely girl behind the counter apologises profusely for the delay.
Wagyu burger made with 600 day grain fed Wagyu $10
Click here to read the full story
| June 9th, 2008 by Not Quite Nigella
What is NQN up to now? 
NQN on Facebook
RSS
