Uberburger

C says:

Quite coincidentally, we went to Uberburger for dinner the very day the Sunday papers did a feature on their $101 wagyu beef and foie gras burger. We must be trendsetters, cos A planned this dinner with his friends, as well as the venue, a week ago. Heh. And in case you’re wondering, nobody was insane enough to have the 101 burger.

Our friend S had told us that she tried the regular sirloin burger there, and was of the view that the ‘colossal’ one would be better because it had a larger patty (250g vs 200g for the regular) and would probably be juicier as a result. A and I decided to share the colossal one, which comes with a big bucket of fries. We also shared a starter of Swiss cheese and tomatoes on toasted ciabatta, and a side order of brown mushrooms sautéed with black pepper.

Taking each item in turn – the ciabatta was great. The bread was toasted with some fragrant charred bits, and the swiss emmenthal cheese and tomato combination is always a classic. It was simple yet tasty, and I’m now inspired to recreate this at home, although I’m sure there was more to it, like some garlic or other type of dressing, to make it taste as yummy as it did.

The mushrooms were okay; nothing spectacular, they tasted pretty much as you would expect mushrooms sautéed with black pepper to taste.

I liked the fries, they were extremely addictive. They came piping hot, and even though each bite threatened to burn my lips and mouth, I couldn’t stop chowing down nonetheless. They were quite thickly cut, crispy on the outside, and incredibly light and fluffy on the inside. They were only very lightly salted, and weren’t oily at all.

The burger was tasty, but nothing mind-blowing. The patty seemed more medium than medium rare which we ordered, and wasn’t as juicy as I expected it to be. I think the problem with their beef patties in general is that they over-compress them. I read somewhere that to make a good juicy burger, you shouldn’t manhandle the minced meat, and should only press it to the extent necessary to shape it loosely into patties. I couldn’t fault the taste of the beef though – because the patty was made from chopped sirloin, it was very flavourful and you could tell that it wasn’t made from throwaway cuts of meat.

Based on the reactions that A’s friends had to their orders though, it appears that no one will be giving rave reviews about the place any time soon. In fact, they had even more lacklustre reactions to their food than we did. One of them, who perhaps unwisely ordered the steak tartare, was downright revolted with what he was served.

Will we go back again? Probably, but a $29 colossal burger isn’t worth it for just 50g more meat than a $16 regular sirloin burger. Of course, an order of fries is a must.

A says:

What’s up with the stupid menus? It tries to keep hip, but just turns out damn hard to read. Bloody designers trying to be funny. Can’t even tell what the price is!

Overall, the service wasn’t as bad or snotty as I thought it might be, but then again, it wasn’t as packed as I expected. I wouldn’t be too sure about going back. Their thick milkshake (I had the loaded chocolate flavour) wasn’t very thick or very loaded. The best taste actually came from the cheese/tomato toast. I like-a me bread!