We’re up to Episode #8 in the search for Edmonton’s best burger, which means this will be burger number 15 and 16 for me.

I get asked all the time, “Are you getting sick of burgers yet?”, and frankly today the answer might be “yes”, and tomorrow it might “no”.

I guess the real answer is that I’m not sick of good burgers, but I’ve about had it with the crappy ones.

Which brings us to this weeks episode, where unfortunately my patience wears thin thanks to a horrible patty and over-zealous pricing from one of the contenders.

I guess I can’t put off this train wreck any longer, so let’s get to it.

The Hat- 10251 Jasper ave

The Hat has gone through a lot of changes in the last decade to be sure, going from run-down eyesore to a more upscale looking “Resto-Pub”. It wasn’t on my radar at all, but after a couple suggestions from readers, I made my way over to check it out. There’s quite a selection of burgers on the menu, and I went with the Canadian.  With double smoked bacon, cheddar, monterey jack, and basil mayo, I was confident in my selection.

• Meat- The menu states “AAA prime rib 1/2 lb patty“, which just goes to show that you can make just about anything sound ok if you try. This was clearly a store-bought, frozen patty, and not a very good one at that. I went back and forth on whether it tasted more like a 7-Eleven burger, or a small-town arena concession burger. Either way, it is definitely in the conversation for worst patty of the Odyssey to date, even with it’s factory installed grill marks.

• Bun- It was a standard white bun, but really, who even cares when the patty is that bad. No matter what bun you put that on, it would only be the proverbial lipstick on the pig.

• Toppings- The bacon was fine, as were the lettuce and tomato. There really wasn’t enough of the basil mayo to say if it tasted ok or not. If I have to search to find it, consider it a fail. The menu says monterey jack and cheddar, but when the cheese cooled it got that shiny plastic-like appearance that processed cheese gets when it cools. I couldn’t tell for sure, so I guess I’ll have to defer to the menu.

The Hat- Canadian Burger

The Hat’s Canadian Burger

To be blunt, this is exactly the kind of burger I go out of my way to avoid. I can’t understand why a restaurant, especially one that devotes  such a large part of it’s menu to burgers, would resort to a horrible frozen piece of beef like this. And we were unlucky enough to still be tasting it hours later.

The server mentioned that a lot of the food is made in house, and that the new (approx. a year ago) owner is slowly trying to improve the quality, but given what I was served  that statement rings pretty hollow. I was especially taken aback by the exorbitant price tag for a frozen burger and fries of $15.50.

Side Note- Our server recommended the gravy with the fries, as it’s homemade. We went one better and upgraded to the poutine. He was bang on with the gravy, as it was easily the best thing on the plate. The cheese was melted more than I’ve ever seen in a poutine, and could have easily been plain old mozza. It was ok, but with the “curds” so compromised it wasn’t really poutine to me anymore.

We also got the Mac & Cheese Rolls, which was mac and cheese mixed with cream cheese and jalapenos, rolled, sliced, breaded, and deep fried. This was nothing more than doctored Kraft Dinner deep fried in little oval puck shapes, and frankly it was kind of embarrassing to receive at a restaurant. We left quite a bit uneaten.

Cost: $15.50, served with french fries.

Soda Jerks- 17520 100 ave

Thankfully things got better on my visit to Soda Jerks, which was another reader suggested restaurant. Their menu is weighted heavily in favour of burgers, and the sheer quantity of choices in the named burgers was a little daunting, not to mention the ever popular build your own burger options.

Given the choice, I tend to default to a restaurant created burger, as I tend to overload my burger if left to my own devices. At Soda Jerks my reputation dictated that I order the Beef and Bacon, which has 8 strips of bacon, cheddar, and bacon mayo on a sesame seed bun.

• Meat-The 1/2 pound patty had good flavour, and zero gristle- always a plus in my books. It had a definite homestyle taste, and a nice char on the outside. It was juicy enough, but was flirting with that line between moist and dry. The texture was pretty decent, and it wasn’t overly dense. There was a slight chewiness near the end, but overall pretty good. There was some noticeable segments of different coloured meat when you break open the patty, but our server wasn’t sure if it was spices or if something else was mixed into the patty. It wasn’t a bad thing, but I would have liked to know what it was. I’m including a picture so you can see for yourself.

• Bun- The bun was a standard white sesame seed bun, and didn’t do much for me. It wasn’t bad per se, it was sufficiently soft and grilled nicely, but it’s definitely a little boring. The option is there to switch it out with a different bun, so I’d probably do that next time.

• Toppings- I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but 8 slices of bacon is just too much for 1 burger. And just to clarify, this wasn’t 4 slices cut in half to make 8 like I suspected would be the case… it was 8 full slices! That would be great if the patty was horrible like some other places *cough* The Hat* cough*… as it would totally dominate the show and you wouldn’t even notice the patty. In this case the patty was ok, so the bacon just served to render the good work that went into the patty totally useless. The bacon mayo was totally un-noticeable under all that bacon too, but with that amount of grease in the mix already it wasn’t exactly crying out for more juiciness and fat. I was happy to see a good amount of cheese which actually covered the patty nicely without leaving big blotches of un-cheesed burger.

Soda Jerks Beef and Bacon

That’s a lot of bacon!

The mystery colour in the burger

This burger was absolutely not effing around, and provided a lot of bang for a pretty reasonable buck. Robyn built her own burger and got her’s on a pretzel bun which, incidentally, I find too chewy for burgers but tasty. Her burger was also quite substantial, and pretty similarly tasty. Another notable tidbit from the menu: the build your own burger option here is probably the best one I’ve seen. The initial cost is higher than say Five guys, but pretty much all the “premium” toppings like bacon, onion rings, and even a fried egg are available to add at no extra charge. Plus it’s a much bigger burger.

Gluttons rejoice!

Although the Soda Jerks burger didn’t have any real standout aspects that I’d drive across town for, it’s a pretty solid burger and an easy pick as this week’s winner.

Sides Note- The only side we got was the fries, and they were just ok. Not crispy enough for my tastes, but they were passable. For me, fries need to be either soft and limp like British chips, or crispy and crunchy. The middle ground doesn’t work for me, and that’s kind of where these fell. No worries, with the size of the burger you’ll probably barely touch the fries anyways.

Cost- $13.75, served with fries.