The 7th edition of the Yeg Burger Odyssey features a burger-centric restaurant that Avenue Magazine recently voted as  Edmonton’s Best Burger, and a brand new restaurant that could very well make that list next year.

The Burg- 10190 104 st. 

The Burg has been a bit of a lightning rod since opening it’s doors last year. Their first few weeks in business were  full of complaints of poor service, unknowledgeable servers, and poorly executed food; all of which I experienced personally on my first visit last summer.

The feedback I’ve been getting since starting the search for Edmonton’s best burger has been that some of those issues have been improved, so I was anxious to see for myself.

Shunning the “Build Your Own Burger” option, I ordered their namesake: The Burg. This is one of their chef-created options, and starts with a beef patty stuffed with house cured bacon, “creamy melty cheese” (huh?), jalapeno’s, and topped with Burg sauce (thousand island and mayo), lettuce, tomato, onion rings, on an onion bun (though I switched the bun to a brioche bun).

• Meat- I found the patty to be seasoned nicely, but was a little more dense than I would prefer, possibly due to the process of sealing the stuffed burger. We’re not talking about a density that’s a big issue though, and certainly not a bigger issue than the gristle we got in one of our burgers. Seeing as the patty was stuffed with so many different flavours, it was difficult to taste the meat on it’s own, but it was ok. A lot of the moisture was definitely coming from the stuffing, which erupted all over the plate (and me) on the first bite. It was quite a mess.

• Bun- Something I really liked about The Burg is that you can get any kind of patty on any kind of bun. Since I generally enjoy a nice soft brioche bun, I went with that. The bun may have been a touch dry, but not terribly so. It was evenly toasted., but did kind of umbrella the patty somewhat, as you can see in the picture.

• Toppings- Though stuffed inside the patty, I’d still consider the cheese, jalapeno, and bacon as “toppings”. There was a lot of messy juices running out of the patty, but it was tough to decipher any bacon or jalapenos. It all kind of got lost in the works, but those juices still tasted pretty good. The Burg sauce was tasty, but there was probably too much on there considering the pool of juices already drowning the plate. It was a bit much even for me, a certified sloppy burger lover. Thankfully the lettuce and tomato added some much needed freshness, but the onion rings were a colossal failure. Cold, spongey, and undercooked, not even Beyonce would suggest to put those rings on it.

The Burg at The Burg

After I had mopped up a bunch of juices already

Individually there were some aspects of The Burg that were pretty tasty, but this was definitely a case where less would have been more. I’m not usually a fan of burgers that you need an elevator to reach the top of, but at least you could knock a few floors off if you remove the dreadful onion rings. I mean really, I’ve got a pretty big mouth (no need to add a comment here, folks), but even I’d have no chance of cramming this skyscraper in my burger hole without ditching the rings.

There was undoubtably some progress from the last time I visited, but this burger still ranked as just ok for me. Given that there was quite an improvement from the first burger I had here (burned, dry, bland, and inedible) and this one (which I would score as average for me), I’d probably give it another try but it’s not somewhere I’d make a plan to go specifically; especially given the Side Note to follow. 

We did however get a good chuckle near the end of the evening. During the course of dinner I had the gall to ask our waitress a couple silly questions like “do you grind your own beef”, and “what is Burg sauce”. She seemed quite new on the job, and didn’t know the answer to either question. After the second one she didn’t quite manage to turn fully away from us before executing a massive eye roll. Having experience in the service industry (and rolled our own eyes many times), Robyn and I both thought it was hilarious and laughed about it most of the night.

Side note– We also got a side of fries and their special “2 day gravy” with our burgers. The fries, similar to the onion rings, were lukewarm at best and not crispy at all. The gravy, which is said to take 2 days to make from roasted bones and homemade stock, had the strangest texture of any gravy I’ve ever tried. I would describe it as creamy and pasty, and the flavour didn’t appeal to me either.  I think I’d just stick to the burger next time.

Cost- $13 for the burger alone. $4 for fries (enough for 2), $2 for gravy

Daravara-  10713- 124 st. 

When I heard of yet another new restaurant opening on trendy 124 st, I wasn’t initially all that excited. After all, it seems a lot of restaurants are opening these days with price points that a lot of us just can’t afford on the regular.

I got a look at a fuzzy picture of a menu on their facebook page to confirm that dinner at Daravara wouldn’t put me in the poor house, and off we went for dinner. We really had no idea what to expect, as our only source of info on the restaurant to that point was this short write-up from Edmonton Journal food writer Liane Faulder well before they opened the doors.

Stepping inside the doors, we were a little surprised to see that Daravara was much more of a bar than a restaurant in appearance. I guess I had just assumed it was more restaurant than bar, but this was actually kind of a pleasant surprise. Casual is always good in my books.

The menu is small, but there were a few things that caught our eyes. The poutine, green onion hush puppies, and Pork Belly with Black Eyed Peas all sounded good, but we weren’t swayed from the burger for a minute. Daravara’s version has caramelized onions, tomato, and cheddar cheese, with a dollop of bbq mayo for good measure.

• Meat- This is a tasty patty, and probably my favourite burger patty of the Odyssey to date. I was really surprised to find the patty cooked medium, though I’m not sure if it was meant to be. Regardless, it was really good.  The meat was very juicy right to the edges, and was blissfully gristle-free. My only quibble is that similar to The Burg, the patty is smaller than the bun by a couple bites.

• Bun- The bonus is that the aforementioned bun is pretty good. It’s a white Portuguese bun, and it was soft and nicely grilled.

• Toppings- Real cheddar, tomato, caramelized onions, and bbq mayo. You know I love real cheddar and caramelized onions, but sometimes there’s so much onion on there that it dominates the whole burger. Not so in this case. This was the perfect amount, and the bbq mayo was subtle and tied everything together.

Daravara Burger

Daravara Burger

Mmmm, Daravara Poutine

There is room to make Daravara’s burger even better, but I quite enjoyed this one. More than any burger I’ve had to date in the Yeg Burger Odyssey, this one balanced the flavours and textures so that no one component dominated the bite. It was relatively simple, but done well.

Side Note– There is an option to upgrade your fries on the side to poutine, which obviously I did. There is no mention on the menu of the cost of doing this, but we figured it would be 2 or 3 dollars, given a full order of fries was $6 and Poutine is $8. The upgrade charge was a very surprising $5.00, which seems pretty excessive. The poutine was pretty darn good though, and a full order will be in my crosshairs next time we go. The fries were aggressively seasoned with an ancho based spice mix, and they had plenty of bite.

Cost: $15 with fries (add $5 for the poutine upgrade)

I would put the Daravara burger as the new leader in the Yeg Burger Odyssey  so far, and the clear winner of this weeks edition over The Burg.