Tag: Burgers

Shake Shack lands in Shanghai

Famed American burger chain Shake Shack made it to Shanghai opening in Xintiandi just before Spring Festival 2019. This is what we found visiting the joint on a weekend in March 2019. We already experienced Shake Shack in Hong Kong where we enjoyed their smoke burger.

The visit

Shake Shack replaced Pizza Marzano in one of the reconstituted traditional shikumen in the heart of the car-free area of Xintiandi. In my opinion it is a big gain for the area.

It was around 2pm and the relatively small shop was packed. Luckily not much queue and in around 20 minute I got my burger. I was even able to seize a chair.

The delicious smoke burger did not disappoint, but I think the bacon was crispier in Hong Kong. What I like about these burgers is the moderate use of condiments and the spicy backtaste.

They also sell branded merchandising. Not sure it is a good idea to associate your food brand with a pet bowl (pictured above), but it was for sale.

The check

The burger cost 58 RMB, that’s almost 10% more expensive than Hong Kong’s price where it was 62 HKD that at the current exchange rate would be 53 RMB.

They also have the the classic hot dogs, shakes, fries, and concretes (frozen custards, for those who do not fear sugar). The local signature shake is called Strawberry Yu(zu) Garden and is a vanilla frozen custard (can we call it ice cream?) blended with strawberry and, of course, yuzu juice. Will try it next time.

Update

Came back on a Sunday evening, no queue and I tried the exclusive Shake. Yuzu and strawberry are fused well together. I would gladly avoid the whipped cream (and the green tea powder does not add much to the mix).

Where in Shanghai:
Unit 02-03, Building 11-13, Xintiandi, 181 Taicang Lu, near Madang Lu
In Chinese: 新天地北里, 太仓路181弄11-13号, 近马当路
Nearest metro stations: Xintiandi or South Huangpi Road (the latter is closer).
Website: https://www.shakeshack.com/location/shanghai-xintiandi/

Turning American fare into gourmet food in Shanghai: Highline

Highline opened in Shanghai in the summer of 2016 and became an instant hit with both locals and expats. Reservation, especially during peak hours on weekends, is a must. From what I read, the restaurant, located on the 6th floor of the Ascott hotel in a very central shopping area, is a collaboration between three Shanghai veterans: John Liu, Cody Allen, and Michael Sun. I guess they knew what they were doing.

The visit

This review is based on their brunch menu and is part of my Shanghai brunch series. They have different menus for lunch and dinner during the week.

The ambience is refined and modern and they have different seating arrangements: from sofas and armchairs to regular tables and booths. The dining room opens on a terrace from which you can not just see, but feel Shanghai’s skyline, surrounded by high-rises and malls.

I was with a friend so we could try a few dishes. My friend chose their foie gras burger, that I had on another occasion. This is a glorious burger that is enriched by a substantial piece of foie gras and wrapped in Parma ham. It is one of the best burgers I had in Shanghai and elsewhere (it is also one of the most expensive at around 200 CNY or 29 USD). If you order it and like eating burgers the old fashioned way, you might want to ask them not to cut it (on the other side, this is a great way to share it).

The foie burger is one of their four signature dishes for brunch, the others being the shrimp and crab roll, the chicken and waffles, and the Philly cheesesteak.

Personally I opted for the half lobster (one of their cold dishes) and for one of their creative egg Benedict. The lobster was ok, but if you are hungry will not satisfy you.

The egg Benedict I had was the one with a spicy deep fried soft shell crab. It was a delicious combination.

Finally my friend had their “Acai”, a massive yogurt and fruit bowl.

The check

The bill was 622 CNY (or 90 USD) for two people. House water was complimentary that is nice. For two courses 300 CNY is on the pricey side even for Shanghai, but the combination of good service, great ambience and quality food make the expense tolerable.

Where in Shanghai:
6/F, 282 Huaihai Zhong Lu
Address in Chinese: 淮海中路282号雅诗阁公寓6楼
Tip: I usually use Chope to reserve.

This burger was amazing and you cannot have it: Soul Burger in Ho Chi Minh City

What I like in a restaurant experience is substance paired with creativity. Creativity alone can be dissatisfying and substance is important but can get boring. For this reason, I am a big fun of Soul Burger in Ho Chi Minh City since in their burgers I can find both creativity and substance. This is particularly true of their burger of the month. Unfortunately these burgers are limited editions. But also the rest of the menu is mouth-watering and over the years, since their opening in 2015, I had a chance to try almost every item (including the juggernaut double patty eponymous Soul Burger) and never got disappointed.

The visit

My most recent visits date back to July 2018 and one big trigger was their burger of the month called Chuck Norris, an homage to the 4th of July American National Day. But let’s proceed with order.

Soul Burger is located on the second level of a building facing the popular Ben Thanh market in central Ho Chi Minh City. To get to the stairs, you have to walk through a narrow corridor beside a noodle shop.

Upstairs, the dining room is long and narrow as per the classic design of Vietnamese buildings. Furniture is comfortable and everywhere there are references to the world of Soul music.

They also have a few seats on a balcony from which you can see Ben Thanh market (and after dusk the busy night market).

The menu is printed on the paper cover and comes with an extensive drink list. The burger names remind again Soul music: the Diana Rose, the Blues Brothers, etc.

The beauty pictured above was the Chuck Norris burger of the month of July 2018: the classic Soul Burger 150 gram beef patty, topped with house made potato chips and a slice of dill pickle between melted cheese sandwiches. Yes, you heard me, they replaced the buns with two melted cheese sandwiches. I am sure Chuck Norris would approve indeed.

Eating this limited edition burger was very satisfying. The cheese was hot and the sandwich crunchy. Overall, I did not make a mess and I was able to eat it bite after bite without compromising its structural integrity (I mean, spilling its content all over the place).

Icing on the cake, the set came with a house made mildly spicy tomato soup. The fries were the standard ones coming with a burger.

Since you won’t have a chance to try the Chuck Norris (but ask for the new burger of the month!), here’s also one of their regular burgers, the Diana Ross. It comes with a 150-gram house-ground beef patty obtained from USDA Choice beef, topped with charred green onion salsa verde, slided avocado, paprika, aioli, cilatro and crispy tortilla chips. They maintain a 80/20 lean to fat ration to ensure the right taste. An unspeakable explosion of flavor!

All burgers include a salad or cut fries and come on a plate with additional leaves of salad, onion, tomato and pickles that you can add as you like. The buns are made of pretzel bread and can be regarded as a signature element of Soul Burger (not seen them used elsewhere in Asia).

And if a burger is not enough, I recommend their fried buffalo wings in their original sauce.

Also the staff deserves some kudos as they speak English and are very friendly and professional.

The check

 

Most burgers cost around 275,000 VND, that is around 12 USD (but there is also the Little Richard, the most basic one, for just around 225,000 VND). If you compare these burgers with the gourmet burgers I tried in Hong Kong and Shanghai, you can realize the the value for money (in Hong Kong and Shanghai usually the patty is only 100 grams and they cost more!).

A meal with the Chuck Norris, half dozen wings and a soda cost me 451,000 VND (a bit less than 20 USD). Just a burger (the Diana Ross) and a soda cost me 308,000 VND (13,20 USD). With this price point, one could easily argue that Soul Burger is good value for money when it comes to Westerner food in Ho Chi Minh City.

But what counts more to me is the passion and the creativity. You can see that this restaurant is a labor of love. Every detail, from the naming of the burgers to the drink list or the wall-decorations, was well thought to tell a story. In an interview chef and owner Gabe Boyer said “Burgers are in my blood… My grandfather owned Goldy’s, a famous burger joint in the suburbs of Chicago, but it was sold before I had the chance to be a part of it.” This is where the passion and creativity comes from: when a restaurant marks the culmination of a life and career trajectory you can bet that the owner will care. When the owner also happens to be extremely creative and talented, then you get a memorable eatery like Soul Burger.

Where in Ho Chi Minh City:
4 Phan Bội Châu, District 1 (read the review to see how the entrance looks like; also, after 7pm the street is closed to traffic to make room for the night market).
Pro-tip I: at the time of publishing this review, they are open for lunch and dinner and closed on Mondays.
Pro-tip II: keep an eye on their Facebook page for promotions. These where available when I visited in July 2018:

Tasting the original Japanese hamburg steak in Saigon: Gyumaru

Japanese cuisine is immensely rich (it is not just sushi and sashimi!) and has been subject to many external influences (tempura is a legacy of the contact with the Portuguese for example). Along these lines, it should not come to a surprise that Japanese have developed their one version of the hamburger. It is called hambāgu and is quite different from the classic American hamburger: usually it has a softer texture and is enriched by various herbs. In Japan, an hamburger is often part of a quick set lunch. I have tested a few in Tokyo and Sapporo for example and I was left unimpressed. But luckily, I can satisfy my taste in Ho Chi Minh City in an authentic Japanese restaurant called Gyumaru Hamburger & Steak. Gyumaru is a small chain of restaurants that originated in Ureshino, a city located in the western part of Saga Prefecture on the island of Kyushu. They also have locations in Nagasaki (read thee review of the Japanese location for a comparison!), Hiroshima and a few other small cities. The branch in Ho Chi Minh City is their only international presence. In Saigon, there is a sizable Japanese business community; my theory is that the owners of Gyumaru must have had a friend in HCMC that encouraged them to open a branch.

The visit

This review refers to their location in an alley of Le Thanh Ton, in the part that is known as Japan town. They also have a small restaurant in the basement level two of Takashimaya, but it has a different menu specializing in burgers only.

I have been a customer of theirs for years. Every time I am in HCMC I pay at least a visit. The reason is their namesake hamburger steak.

The set meal begins with a salad with their delicious dressing sauce.

They have a number of set menus for lunch that include a soup and a side of bread or rice. I chose the simple onion soup. But for a small additional fee, you can get their signature corn pie soup that comes covered with a layer of pastry.

In this meal I chose the simplest option: a plain hamburger steak with some vegetables (this is the 150 gram version, you can choose bigger sizes.

As you can see in the picture above, the hamburger is served sizzling hot on a cast iron plate. By opening it, you will see its juices being released. The meat is soft, tender and enriched in flavor by various herbs. Just great.

The menu includes a number of combos (with croquettes, my recommendation, with fried fish, with BBQ meat, etc…). They also have an hamburger with curry that is great if you like Japanese curry. I finally recommend to have a go once with their huge combo meat platter.

They claim their beef to be wagyu (the type of beef steak that gets marbled with veins of fat that enhance its flavor and tenderness thanks to a special diet administered to the cows). And you can also order a full-fledged wagyu steak for reasonable prices. Honestly I do not care. Wagyu is one of the biggest fad in fine dining right now and I have seen restaurants calling wagyu ordinary beef. What matters, is that the resulting hamburger is brilliant.

I have not dined in any of their Japanese locations, but by looking at their pictures online the offering in Ho Chi Minh City seems to be the same as in Japan. My impression is that they offer the real deal.

The check

This set lunch cost me 209,000 VND (or about 9 USD). I went for the cheapest set, but even the larger combos will not set you back for more than 15 USD or so.

I think that this is great value for money for a quality meal with premium ingredients and professional preparation according to Japanese standards.

I highly recommend Gyumaru for anyone who has not tried a real Japanese hamburger steak or for hamburger lovers in general.

Pro-tip: if you become a regular, take advantage of their point collection scheme (it used to be more generous, maybe too much, but it is still a nice kick-back).

Pro-tip 2: also I love that they keep a set of colored crayons on every table. They can be used to draw on their paper cover. Fun for your kids or for your inner child.

Where in Ho Chi Minh City:
8/3 Lê Thánh Tôn, Bến Nghé, District 1
(Another branch serving burgers only – not the dishes presented in this review based on hamburger steak – is located in the second basement level of Takashimaya)
Attention: at time of writing, the restaurant is closed on Tuesdays. Check their Facebook page for Vietnam.

The quest for the perfect burger – Hong Kong edition

I am using  this page to collect visits to burger places in Hong Kong. For me the perfect burger must have a tender and juicy (but not crumbling) patty, firm buns, appropriate condiments, and be eatable bite by bite without making a mess. In the future I might build a ranking of the places described below, but for now they are listed in no specific order.

The Butchers Club – Wan Chai

Their claim to fame is the use of dry-aged meat for their patties. Apparently they source the beef from Australia and then dry-age it in their own facilities in Hong Kong. They have been featured in the Michelin guide since 2016 when the Hong Kong edition introduced the street food category (they are not a starred restaurant or a Bib Gourmand to be clear).

In my most recent visit (June 2018) I patronized the Wan Chai joint and had a Hogtown burger (160 HKD, around 20 USD). This specific burger adds a good amount of pulled pork to the mix. I give this burger two thumbs up, as not only the patty is juicy and firm, but the various ingredients are splendidly amalgamated. Their standard burger is also excellent and at the time of writing is priced 100 HKD (12.75 USD). I added their duck fat fries (fries “washed up” in duck grease, just to add some cholesterol) and an ice-cream sandwich. This last item is not shown on the receipt in the gallery and accounted for 40 HKD, around 5 USD. The ice cream sandwich is made on the spot, using two of their classic chocolate chip cookies and vanilla ice cream. The cookies were a bit too hard for my taste, I will probably skip the dessert next time.  The only big con of this joint is that their locations are very essential, you can only seat on a steel stool. I am ok for a quick burger and I will certainly go back, but I would look for other options if I was to entertain friends.

Where in Hong Kong:
Rialto Building, 2 Landale St, Wan Chai
Other locations across Hong Kong. Check their website for their locations in mainland China as well.

Beef and Liberty – Central

Beef and Liberty is another homegrown gourmet burger operation. In many ways Beef and Liberty and The Butchers Club seem to track each other… In this case the meat is not dry-aged but sourced from Scotland and ground in Hong Kong.

The result is commendable. In my recent visit in June 2018 I went to their location in Central at the third floor of California Tower (in a nice gourmet enclave just a stone’s throw away from the bustling Queen’s Road. It was a public holiday, lunch menus were not available, but some additional brunch items were. I sank my teeth into a Bacon Cheese burger and I added chili fries and an avocado and ricotta toast. The burger was excellent and honestly I have a hard time telling the difference between their meet and the one used by the Butchers Club. They use glazed buns that are ok but not my favorite. In terms of value for money, not sure that the addition of the bacon and a bit of raclette cheese justify the higher price (135 HKD, around 17 USD) as compared to the plain burger that goes for 99 HKD (around 12.6 USD). The avocado and ricotta toast was a nice side (you see, I am totally for healthy food). It should be mentioned that there was a lot of avocado, but only a hint of ricotta. I could not find any dessert to complete my meal, but that was a nice excuse to walk for an ice cream nearby. A big plus is their location in Central: it is a very nice location, ideal to hang out with friends or for business lunches.

Where in Hong Kong:
3/F California Tower, 30-32 D’Aguilar Street, Central
See their website for other locations in Hong Kong and mainland China.

Shake Shack

In May 2018 one of the big events in the Hong Kong food scene was the opening of Shake Shack on the fourth level of the International Finance Center. This is an interesting development, as the fourth level of IFC has always been underutilized in my opinion, while it offers a spectacular view of the harbor. I had an evening burger with friends in mid June and I liked their smoke burger. Smaller than other gourmet burgers reviewed on this page (but you can always order a double patty), but with the addition of crispy bacon strips (I shall repeat crispy twice) that added to the flavor and made it a favorite of mine.

I visited Shake Shack again in July 2018 and I had the smoke burger again and one of their hot dogs. I avoided lines by going right after the opening at 11am. The story of the firm is linked to hot dogs, that’s how they started. It was a very good hot dog, a rarity in Asia. But let’s be clear, it was just a hot dog.

Where in Hong Kong:
4018, IFC, 1 Harbour View Street, Central (4th level of IFC shopping mall)
They are open from 11am to 11pm.
The HK branch has a website.

Five Guys

Similarly to Shake Shack, Five Guys is another acclaimed American burger chain. Their cheese burgers come with two patties and make them a big eat. You can select the condiments, otherwise they will serve it “all the way”, with everything. It is a satisfying burger, but I would not queue for it. Part of the experience, you can pick peanuts for free and nib them while you wait.

Where in Hong Kong:
60 Johnston Road, Wanchai.
Website: http://www.fiveguys.com.hk/

Burger Room

An old player in the Hong Kong burger scene, the Burger Room means creativity. They have a ton of different burgers available. Of note also their seafood burgers. Patties come well done (which is not my favorite) and they have some decadent choice of fries.

  • Guacamole Cheese Burger
  • Portobello Bacon Burger (with Portobello mushrooms
  • Melted cheese twisted fries and fries with guacamole
  • The check

Where in Hong Kong:
Shop D, G/F, 50-56 Paterson Street, Fashion Walk.
Website: http://burgeroom.com/ (They also have another location in TST).

Honbo

Honbo is a one-shop burger joint in Wan Chai (Sun street, you may need to take a steep stair if you come from Queen’s Road East). I tried their soft-shell crab burger. I ended up trying also their signature Honbo burger that is a “dirty” American-style cheese burger. Both were excellent and worth a 20-minute wait on a Saturday evening (June 2019). “Honbo” means “burger” in Cantonese.

  • Soft-shell crab burger
  • Honbo burger

Where in Hong Kong:
G/F New Sun House, 6-7 Sun Street, Wan Chai.
Website: honbo.hk.