Tomahawk Restaurant
There are period of times where my life consists of just twenty or so blocks and I don't end up getting out of the downtown core and neighbouring areas.    Well this time I took a trip to Edgemont Village to get a sandwich at La Galleria with a buddy but unfortunately they were closed.  Missed them by ten minutes.  So we needed a plan B.

My buddy was with a meat eater so we took a trip to Tomahawk Restaurant to eat a burger.  It has been a long time since I have made a trip out here and there has been some revamping of the menu.  As most would expect we both ordered a burger with fries.

I got the Chief Simon which is listed on their menu as "Organic ground beef patty, Yukon-style bacon, sautéed fresh mushrooms and aged cheddar cheese".   This bad boy was a good size, greasy, tasty and hot off the grill.   The price was about 12 bucks and will easily rival any burger establishment (Veras, Moderne, Fat Burger) .

If you ever make your way out to North Vancouver and you have a hankering for a burger, Tomahawk is the place to go.

Tomahawk Restaurant
1550 Philip Ave
North Vancouver
http://www.tomahawkrestaurant.com/

Matt

Burger Heaven
This lunch at Burger Heaven reminded me of my times in the suburbs in the 90s. Old cartoon art that looks like Garfield or Marvin, low rider trucks and some folks with some truly suburban hair cuts.

I only had a short amount of time to chow, so I kept my order simple, a bacon, mushroom, cheddar burger with fries/wedges (13 bucks) and a bottomless pop. I am one of those kids that takes full advantage of the bottomless pop and I usually have at least two or three refills during my sitting. The service was on point even though the place was busy and the atmosphere was interesting (hanging plants, old photos of customers, old cartoon art, and media accolades framed on the wall).

The burger was one of the sloppiest ever. Stacked with mushrooms, dripping with cheddar and two slabs of bacon hanging off of it, this burger guaranteed a stain on my pants. Taste wise the burger was juicy and flavourful. Not quite exploding with flavour but really damn good. It ranks high on my list of burgers, perhaps in the top three (better than Veras). The wedges weren't that great but you can upgrade to yam fries if you want. The problem is how often do you make trips to New West? I make an occasional trip to go antique/vintage shopping and next time I will grab a burger after and then some maple soft serve ice cream at this other spot that I forget the name of.

Burger Heaven
77 10th St
New Westminster, BC



Matt

I don't have the chance to get down there and try it out just yet.

But the Guud people at Guu tell me, starting today they are adding 

a Kobe Beef Burger to their lunch menu.

For $9.80 including 2 choices of Fries, Salad or Soup it sounds like 

a very Guud Deal!!!

I'll be posting an official review along with a photo of it soon. 

(i hope)

Guu With Garlic

1698 Robson st.

604-685-8678

O-toro

The benefits of having unemployed friends is not just that you have someone to hang with on your days off but that they always know the best places to go for good cheap eats.

My favourite free bird introduced me to the Argo Cafe located in the industrial neighbourhood of 2nd and Ontario. Its been around for awhile but four years ago Denis Larouche and Kirby Wong took it over and turned it into the little gem that it is. The clientele; workers, non-workers, people who like value, good service and of course the fierce little waitress, Molly, who can remember your name after one meeting and make even shit on a cracker sound appetizing to any man.

The concept is very simple...classic diner. No, not the restaurant made to look like a diner but the actual diner, with diner prices but with food that doesn't leave grease stains on the side of your mouth.

Me...a burger. $4.00. Fried onions. $.50. Cheese. $.50. Fries. $2.50. Fresh. Classic. Good. The chili mayo adds a nice kick. Comes with a soft sesame seed bun and if you're really hungry, add an extra patty for a buck fifty.

Company...spicy lamb on rice. $9.00. Flavourful, filling and again, simple. Home-cooked tasting. It also comes with the options of noodles.

The food is presented well, simply but attractively, sort of a juxtaposition against the green linoleum tabletops and chalkboard menus.

It's easy to understand why the Argo Cafe, who's name has stayed the same because it was too expensive to change, is creating a little buzz around town. Linda, Denis' wife of 23 years, has spent even more years in the industry, working at The Teahouse and Season in the Park for over 24 years and 3 and a half years as the head chef at Watermark. Her husband Denis, who is originally from Montreal, spent some time overseas, Rwanda specifically, runs the kitchen. Kirby Wong, Linda's brother, runs the front of house (which is very close to the back of house) and Linda seems to oversee everything. Together, they customize in customer service. No attitude. No bullshit. Oh and get your own Coke from the front. Oh and you get soup with that. And a smile.

Linda sat with us while we ate our homemade rice crispy square and chocolate mousse. She talked about forgetting her anniversary....she's got a great laugh.

Argo Cafe

1836 Ontario Street

604.876.3620

Monday-Friday 7am-4pm

Saturday - brunch (hours are being worked out)

mama roma

Guu with Garlic on Robson & Bidwell is now open for lunch!

They are only open for a couple hours a day for lunch (noon~2pm) everyday except mondays. They have a small offering of western style and japanese style dishes. The theme and concept is based around the "Kissaten" which is a japanese cafe.

On our visit the menu was in 3 parts. 

Burger/sandiwich: 

-Pork Tenderloin Cutlet Burger

-Chicken Teriyaki w. Egg Burger

-Vegi Croquette Burger

Pizza:

-Chili Prawn Pizza

-Scallop & Cod Roe Pizza

-Teriyaki Rice Cake Pizza

Noodles & RIce:

-Ground Pork Loco Moco

-Garlic Steak Loco Moco

-Cod Roe Salad Udon

I got the Teriyaki Chicken w. Egg Burger that came french fries sprinkle w. ao nori (seaweed) and a pumpkin soup for $6.80. 

My friend got the Pork Tenderloin Burger also the fries & soup for $7.80.

First bite, the over easy egg bursts and soaks into the chicken and bun. Amazing!

Yass the chef that day told me that they bake the "mochi" (kneaded rice) blended bun that morning. I think the original bun made the sandwich so great.

The large cut fries and pumpkin soup were very tasty as well.

My friend loved the Pork Tenderloin Burger as well.

For the $7~$8 range you can't beat this lunch! Oh and the draft beer was $3!!!

I can't wait to go back to try the other items.

Guu With Garlic

1698 Robson St

604-685-8678

O-toro

Red Robin

Remember when Red Robin was cool? Back in Junior High circa 1991, Red Robin was our place for crew dinners on Friday. Clucks, mud pies, and virgin margaritas were the staples of our diet. I remember the staff were hot, the restaurant was always busy and there were some cool patrons peppered throughout the restaurant. My friend and I had a hankering for some nachos and potato skins so we decided to take a trip down memory lane.

We weren't dissapointed, Red Robin is like a restaurant in a time capsule. I almost wanted to go home to put on my Pepe jeans and paisley printed shirt that stills smells of Eternity. The atmosphere is still the same as I remembered it from the 90s (80s prints, Star Trek posters and the same damn chairs), and the music couldn't be worse (Ini Kamoze - Here Comes the Hot Stepper - WTF). The only patrons in the restaurant this night were a group of ESL students celebrating their birthday. Surprisingly enough the Red Robin staff still sings awkward Happy Birthday songs to their guests. The menu has changed and the macho nachos and the potato skins have both been removed from, so now we are at Red Robin for no good reason. To avoid awkwardly leaving after already being seated, we decided to order the mushroom burger ($10.50) and mini crispy chicken burgers with poutine upgrade ($12.00).

The plates were the same from the early 90s (the famous red basket and some weird looking blue plate) and I think the bun from my burger was from the 90s as well. It was hard as a rock, like a kaiser bun that sat on the kitchen counter for a year. Because of my bun and my dry ass pieces of chicken in the burger I didn't even finish half of my mini burgers, however the server was nice and removed it from my bill. The mushroom burger was a little dry and could have used a little more cheese and sauce. The portion of fries now are a lot smaller even though it is still bottomless.

Red Robin was one of the first casual dining spots, but they obviously were unable to keep up with the Cactus Clubs and Earls of the world. There atmosphere is dated, the food is sub par, and the service was poor. Wouldn't it be cool if Cactus Club still had peanuts on the floor and Earls was still all about that albino rhino?

Red Robin
Various locations that you do not need to visit.



Matt

Just got back from a 4 day work trip to Las Vegas. As far as food goes you can find just about any type of food in Vegas. The problem is the food available to you in Vegas is bad fast food for cheap or good high end restaurants with very expensive prices. For the most of my 4 days there i was confined to a convention center where a trade show took place and all that was available in close vicinity was the sub-par food court. Your choices were greasy sandwiches, greasy chinese food, or greasy pizza all for about $15.

So on the 3rd day my friend and I decided that we would cab it to IN-N-OUT Burger for lunch. The cab ride there was $10. Got there just before the lunch time rush ad ordered their classic Cheese Burger w/ Fries and Drink combo (#2). $5 each! Delicious! In-N-Out has got to be, by far, my favorite North American burger chain.

For those of you who are not familiar with In-N-Out, they are a privately owned burger chain out of California and have been around since 1948. I believe they are only in the state of California, Utah, Arizona and Nevada. They thrive themselves on serving the freshest burgers by having their own farms and beef patty making facilities. Ingredients are hand picks and delivered to each location. So fresh and so lean!

The menu is simple, Double Double (double patty double cheese), Cheese Burger, Hamburger and French Fries. A selection of fountain drinks and milk shakes.
But if you go to their website you will find the "not so secret menu". There you will find some special items that you can order if you can remember the names of the items when placing your order. You can even ask for cheese melted on your fries!

After our very satisfying meal we flagged a cabbie that was just finishing his In-N-Out lunch and took it back to the trade show for $10. So, in the end we got a much more healthier and tastier meal for $15 each (including the cab rides) than anything we could have eaten at the show. Shoulda gone there everyday!

ps: the closest IN-N-OUT BURGER to Vancouver is in Redding, California. I know, i took a road trip down to San Diego and had the pedal floored to get to the closest IN-N-OUT!

IN-N-OUT
various locations in Southwest States
www.in-n-out.com

O-toro

Mini Burgers at Morton's Steakhouse



If you haven't heard, if you go to the bar at Morton's Steakhouse for Happy Hour (5pm-7pm Weekdays) they will serve you FREE mini burgers/mini steak sandwiches to accompany your beverage. I needed to try this out, so I planned a trip with some friends.

Morton's Steakhouse has only two locations in Canada and is considered one of the better places in BC to order a steak. I am a nerdy, introverted person at heart and walking into a pretentious restaurant like Mortons hoping to get something for free makes me uneasy. Keep in my mind one of my last meals was at Save On Meats, I felt like a poorly dressed hipster walking into the Louis Vuitton store toting a Salvation Army bag.

We sat at the bar and ordered a Caesar, that was more memorable for its ten dollars price tag then its flavour. Sipping the drink slowly, I kept scanning for any sign of the mini burgers. Then I started to started sniffing discretely in hopes of an aroma of the burgers from the kitchen. After 10 minutes of stirring my drink and sipping slowly there was still no signs of the mini burgers. Did I just buy a ten dollar drink for nothing? I could sense I was going to have to pay for my friends drinks for the bad intel that we acted on.

The bartender looked like Daniel Sedin (Daniel not Henrik ) and he chatted us up for a bit about the restaurant and for some reason also about the Ol' Dirty Bastard from the Wu Tang Clan. The service at the bar was great and they even made us a pineapple infused shot that tasted fantastic (the shot was on the house cause my cheap ass wasn't going to pay for it). Then the bartender said it, "Oh I have some complementary sandwiches coming your way". My face was all smiles.

The sirloin mini burgers arrived. They were not accessorized with any vegetable toppings however they did have an interesting mayonnaise, mustard and radish spread. In our one drink sitting the four of us shared two trays of these bad boys.

Overall, it was a fun experience. The free mini burgers were good and has tempted me to try out their burger special for 20 dollars.

Morton's Steakhouse
750 W Cordova St
Vancouver, BC

In September 2008, I tried to find the best burger in Vancouver. I was not able to go to all the spots but I think I covered some of the major players. I left out the fancy places like Diva at the Met because I am not dropping 50 dollars on a burger.

Check it out. Click on the link below.

VancouverSlop's Best Burger in Vancouver

Let me know which spots I missed.

This little gem is located in the town of Haleiwa on the North Shore of Oahu. we come back to this spot every time we're on the North Shore. they have a daily menu of fresh fish. at our visit it was Ahi and Hebi (type of spearfish). i went for the Ahi Burger with Onion Rings and my girl had the Haleiwa Salad and Brown Rice. all were fresh and tasty. you can sit inside or outside on the front patio. we sat outside to get our fix of people watching as we ate our tasty food. always cute and friendly Hawaiian girls at Grass Skirt Grill. the price is right but expect to wait as it is pretty popular with both the locals and tourists.

Grass Skirt Grill:

66-214 Kamehameha Hwy

Haleiwa, HI 96712

(808) 637-4852

The burger hunt continues... After hearing much talk about Save On Meats and after Bourdain took a visit there, I quickly had to sweet talk a friend into joining me for a burger. Bourdain didn't really describe the taste burger so I wanted to try it out and review it.

We walked into East Vancouver hungry but after walking the atmosphere of East Hastings we slowly became less hungry. I used to volunteer on Columbia and Hastings , so the site wasn't new to me but it is still not very comforting. This area at night reminds me of playing the video game Resident Evil.

We sat down at the counter in Save On Meats and there were two other people eating burgers there. The service was friendly and very attentive. We opened the menu and ordered, I had the burger with cheese, bacon and mushrooms ($6.50), and my partner had the buffalo/bison burger ($7.00). It took about five minutes for our burgers to be ready.

The burgers were made from ground beef, not frozen patties and the fries were fresh cut . The fries were great, fresh cut with potato skin on the sides, and none were hard in the middle. We ordered a side of gravy which was also tasty, thick with a peppercorn taste to it, really enjoyable.

The burgers were a little greasy but really good. The crazy thing is that you get double patties, so two burger patties between your toasted bun. I recommend the buffalo burger because it was a leaner meat and had a better taste. Both burgers are really solid, a bit greasy but sits high on the burger rankings in this city. They could use a little more lettuce but the mustard and the onions really add a nice taste to the burger. The atmosphere in Save On Meats is tolerable but the walk outside can be difficult for someone who is not used to East Van.


Save on Meats
43 West Hastings St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-683-7761

It is not just a cheap burger it is a dam good burger. As for greasy burgers go, it ranks at the top, I would say better than Veras.

More after the jump.

Buffalo Soldier - Bob Marley

One more burger spot down. Went to Cactus Club or as some people call it cock tease club to try the Feenies Burger. Its not a cheap burger thats for sure. 14 dollars gets you a burger with the fixins including tomato, lettuce, pickle, Cheddar, mushrooms, bacon, red pepper and a side of fries.

The burger is tasty, the meat has a great flavour to it and all the fixins make for a nice handful of fun. I rather order my toppings "a la carte" but I would have ordered two of those toppings anyways. None of the toppings really stood out on their own but the burger was a tasty eat. As far as rankings, I still feel Moderne has the best. Still a few more to try. I am going to have to start biking to these places so I don't get fat.


Cactus Club
Various locations
www.cactusclubcafe.com

Ok, first off the name. White Spot claims their name refers to everything being clean or "white". But come on, a name like White Spot in 1928 would definitely have different connotations associated with it. Anyways, I am not going to go into this to much but really if the Japanese who fought in the first world war were interned during the second war, having a name like White Spot might mean the people who sat on the back of the bus wouldn't be welcomed inside. I should ask my folks about this.

Anyways, their burgers are rad! Consistent, and delicious, something about that triple O sauce which I understand got there name for the amount of OOOZE, three Os for lots of OOOZE. I ordered the Monty Mushroom burger, with the fries. I must say for the price ($9.49 or if you get it to go it comes with a drink) its a good meal, sometimes the downtown one has the burger with a pale ale for like ten dollars or you get some movie tickets. Right now, I think Modern might be the best but you can't go wrong with White Spot. Make sure when you order it you specify lettuce and tomato to be added because it normally doesn't come with it.

Most of you have tried this burger so hopefully this blog post will bring back some memories. For those of you who have not had a White Spot burger go and get one. What else do people get at White Spot, put your comments in. The Calamari Cesar salad is dope and I want them to bring back the strawberry shortcake.

White Spot

Various locations

PS this burger thing is making me fat and feel so full. I think it might have to end. I feel like that guy from Super Size Me.

Burger stop #2. Went to Modern Burger to try it again, my first time after the re opening. They were closed for so long I forgot how good their burger was. This burger was really tasty, the meat was really flavourful, and the bun was done just perfectly. I added mushrooms and swiss to my burger (extra 1.25 per topping), I passed on the milkshakes but I had a sip of my buddies and boy are they good.

I was with two other gentlemen, and two of us ordered the burger and one of us ordered the buger platter (burger and fries) and we still had fries left over. Fries are tasty, just wish we could order gravy. This meal even with the split fries is a serious feast, I pretty much passed out in the car after.

Atmosphere is excellent, looks like a old diner with the owner looking like a cross from Nat from the Peach Pit in 90210 and Frankie Avalon from movies like Beach Blanket Bingo. All kidding aside the owners are super nice and real chatty although someone forgot our dipping sauce. Service could have been a little better but they were short one staff member so I could be an isolated incident.

One thing to note, this is not a date spot. I ended up with one small stain on my pants from the falling mushrooms, 8 dirty napkins used to wipe the sauce off my fingers and face throughout the meal, and I was so full that I would not want to do anything on a date but nap.

Taste wise, this is going to be a hard one to beat.

Moderne Burger
2507 West Broadway St., Vancouver

Still walked out of the place paying 16 bucks for my burger, a coke and my share of the fries. Not sure if the pop was bottomless.

So if you click on the icon for "Vancouver Slop's Best Eats of the City" then you will see that I am trying to find the best burger in the city this month. These challenges may change if my double chin comes back and my face gets round. I ll try the PX 90 to offset this.

So this place has been rated as one of the best burgers in the lower mainland by CTV viewers, I have yet to see that published anywhere but the Burger-etc site but I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

I ordered the burger added mozza cheese and bacon. The burger was good but far from amazing. The bun was tasty, meat was good (ordered medium well), and the vegetables were tasty, the bacon was a little over cooked and dry but added a nice taste to the overall package. Fries were satisfactory, but not much to write about so I won't.

Since this is a battle, all in all, it was a good burger but I do not think it will stack up highly against the competition. Numerical rating about 7.5 out of 10. Price 9.95 plus a dollar for the cheese and another dollar for the bacon.

Burgers Etc
4091 Hastings Street
Burnaby, BC
http://www.burgers-etc.com/