The buzz is that Sydney has a new contender for best burger and it's at a brand new eatery in Redfern. Bush Sydney serves up a super neat (okay tiny!) menu along with an Australian bush vibe on Redfern's George Street. Formerly a pop up they've made this their home until they can find a bigger space.
Bush's logo is made out of branches and there are stuffed wombat and kangaroo toys and the whole vibe reminds of a place you would stumble upon in the Blue Mountains.
That's no coincidence, Bush is the brainchild of Grant Lawn, a landscape architect who decided to try something new and wanted to make it distinctly Australian. There are two large tables at the front and smaller tables for two down the side with tree stump stools.
Walk further out towards the back and there's a whole undercover outdoor area with a mural currently being painted. It's table service here and the wait staff are really friendly and unpretentious. It Grant's first food venture but word has spread like wildfire about the burgers.
Yes the burgers. In fact there are only five savoury items on the menu: a beef burger, a vegetarian burger, chips, green potato salad and a kangaroo party pie (sadly sold out). Both the burgers can be made into doubles and a little word of advice if you're wondering if you should double it: DO IT! The double burger isn't a hulking specimen, in fact it's juuust right. Each all chuck beef patty has a slice of speck and is grilled speck side down so that it develops a nice crust to it. It's then paired with a pickles and cheese on a glazeless Bread Top milk bun. The sauce finishes it off and this is a tasty mix of tomato sauce, kewpie mayonnaise and onions.
My favourite people to eat burgers with are Americans Ivy and Ryan. I know they'll give me an honest review of burgers and Americans know great burgers. While we are photographing it Ivy catches Ryan's mouth watering. We bite into it and after the first bite I immediately want to order another. It is saucy and soft with a melting texture to the beef, bun, cheese and pickles. And yep it's an awesome burger and definitely one of Sydney's best especially if you love sauce and pickles (which I happen to adore). It's simple and not overly tricked up or monstrously groaning with filling and sometimes that's just what you want.
The vegetarian burger is no slouch too. Even though it's a single "patty" aka a single field mushroom, the sauce, pickles and cheese does a lot of the heavy lifting in imitating the beef version and the mushroom is flavoursome and juicy.
The "greens" is actually a green potato salad with boiled potatoes, roasted cauliflower florets, sugar snaps peas with plenty of herbs, deep fried baby capers and roasted almonds. It's a perfect foil for the rich burgers as it is a potato salad bursting with freshness which is not something you'd often say about potato salad.
The fries are regular crinkle cut fries with pepper and we ask for tomato sauce and mayonnaise on the side.
I forgot to mention the drinks didn't I? Bush is BYO and has coffee, sparkling water, tea and milkshakes (vanilla, chocolate malted) and there is also a smoothie of the day in "whatever's poppn"). Today's flavour is persimmon and they use a whole persimmon in each smoothie. The persimmon adds texture to the smoothie while they add honey to sweeten it. It's good and not overly sweet but fruity.
Dessert-wise there are two choices: a fairy bread pudding and a grapefruit with grandma's honey. The grapefruit is half a pink grapefruit hollowed out and cut into segments and refilled with the pieces topped with honey. This is best eaten with a spoon so that you can get the honey with each piece.
The fairy bread and butter pudding is a soft, moist bread pudding scattered with hundreds and thousands that colour the pudding like rainbow shooting stars. There are more on top and on top of the scoop of vanilla ice cream too. It's sweet and fun and nice served warm with the cold ice cream on top.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you have a favourite burger place? Do you like simple burgers or do you like ones with lots of filling? Do you like short menus?
This meal was independently paid for.
Bush
55 George St, Redfern NSW 2016
Tuesday to Saturday 12–10pm
Sunday and Monday closed
http://bush.sydney/
Reader Comments
Loading comments...Add Comment