Bean Bar Burger

The idea of buying a burger from a coffee shop is akin to the thought of buying…..a golf bag and buggy from a supermarket. Ludicrous. Preposterous. Destined for failure. However, given that I have already done the latter (yep, you have got to love Aldi) I figured that I was the perfect candidate for reviewing the Bean Bar burger.

Venue
Bean Bar are a well established chain of Adelaide coffee shops with 7 locations dotted around the CBD. These range in size from location to location, and as such the burger option is not available from all of them. However, given that there is never one too far away – unless you are not in the CBD naturally – then tracking down your burger and/or coffee fix shouldn’t prove too onerous.

For the record, I purchased this particular burger from the Flinders Street outlet, before meeting my colleagues at Hindmarsh square for some burger consumption and debrief.

Burger
Pattie
The pattie, on first appearance, didn’t seem too promising. Despite it apparently being ‘world famous’ (note that Google didn’t return any hits, just saying), it was clearly of the mass produced, machine pressed variety. Having said that, the perfectly symmetrical disc of meat was at least of good proportion to the rest of the burger. It had been cooked on, well I am not sure what given that Bean Bar doesn’t have a kitchen as such, so I suspected that the grill marks had in fact been drawn on with permanent marker. I was half inclined to be investigating it for aromas of fabre castel.

However, from low expectations often arise pleasant surprises. It had good flavour of its beef origins, without much in the way of fill with only some seasonings there to enhance the whole experience. The texture, courtesy of the ultra fine grind of the meet and the pressing made it a little ‘dense’ to begin with, but it wasn’t at all dry. It was, overall, quite pleasant.

Bun/Roll
The bun was, from memory, of the sourdough variety and was more than acceptable. It had been lightly toasted and had good flavour and importantly texture. It held together nicely but wasn’t too filling to be pushing other things into the background. Solid.

Fillings and Sauce
The fillings on the BBB – as I have just decided to refer to it – were tomato, lettuce, caramelised onion, cheese, bacon and tomato chutney. There was the option for an extra $1 to add an egg, which I decided to go without. Everything seemed fresh and was doing it’s job nicely, except the cheese which was of somewhat dubious origins, but it wasn’t offensive.

I would also like to ask who is responsible for the ‘caramelised’ epidemic currently sweeping through menus world-wide. Just because the onion is cooked does not make it ‘caramelised’. This is a very specific thing – not simply ‘fried until they are soft’.

Anyhow, nothing was over-powering but they also weren’t adding hugely either. They were all along for the ride but were akin to a quietly spoken type of passenger – not raucous enough to make the trip annoying, but not quite chatty enough to help make it memorable.

Sides
I was sitting on the ground in Hindmarsh Square eating it, so I guess grass was the side. And it was free. You could just as easily opt for park bench, food court chair or office desk. You cant say that they don’t give you good options.

Value
$9.90 for a burger only is, in the growing scheme of things, of mid-range value. The size of the burger was more than sufficient though, don’t misunderstand that, but when you consider that it doesn’t take you long to look around and find a pub burger, with a side of chips, for the sub $15 (and you get to sit in their establishment with a pint of your chosen beverage should you desire) then it isn’t suddenly looking like the absolute bargain. However, this was all the food you would really want for a work lunch, so not having to spend that extra $$ isn’t to be ignored either.

Conclusion
Perhaps the trick is to assume the worst, as from there its going to be hard to be disappointed. This may be a little harsh on Bean Bar as they certainly did much better than that, but ‘Adelaide coffee shop chain makes half decent burger’ isn’t much of a story. On balance, I was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience. While the chances of this are fairly slim – so little time, so many burgers to try! – I would definitely be happy to have another one.

Score – 6.7

http://www.beanbar.com.au/