O'Burger? Mmmm Burger!

After my mild indignation over the scant patties of Patati Patata, it was time to get some serious, juicy burgers into and around our faces.

The spot: O'Burger.

First - an apology. My trusted point-and-shoot which should be able to withstand meteorite impacts and sudden Manhattan flash floods, inexplicably died. So I stole any and all photos from the internets. Sorry internets, and faithful reader. I've betrayed us all. But, moving on to more important things than my personal and disintegrating moral compass: the burgers.

It's a fairly high-end burger place, complete with fancy salads and kitchy mod wall art, and we hit the McGill College location. Rumour had reached the ears of these burgerphiles that here was where one could find the best burger in Montreal. So, obviously, it needed checking out.

The menu is mouthwatering, if not a bit pricey, and thankfully we had a guest contributor, Lady Blacksmith MmmmBurger, to help us test out the variety of options.

Lady MmmmBurger had the Zurich (Swiss cheese - get it? - sauteed mushrooms, glazed onions, and BBQ sauce), Creamy Dij' had the Boston (old cheddar, bacon and o'sauce - "What is O'sauce?" "It's basically Big Mac Sauce" "...Ok then...") while pattymaster C Dill ordered herself the Dallas (Monterey Jack cheese, bacon, glazed onions and creole dijon sauce).

Each burger was masterful art, topped with flags indicating which burger was which by stereotypes associated with the respective cities the burgs were named for. People in Boston wear ballcaps! Isn't prejudice much more delicious this way?

Anyhow, cowboy hatted and lederhosened bovine stickers aside, the burgers were delicious. Thick and juicy, Angus patties, on remarkable buns. Remarkable. Sesame and poppyseed. A little sweet. People tend to ignore the bun unless there's something wrong with it (like, in my opinion, the too chewy Patati ciabatta bun, but, just me...), but this was just a bun worth stopping and noting the quality of. Which we did. Which says a lot, considering how delicious the burgers were.

One huge drawback with O'Burger is the price. While anywhere from 7-10$ a burger may not seem that unreasonable, the burger is all you get - all sides cost extra. This is particularly misleading, when the server asks "Fries?" after your order - beware, you just spent an extra 3$ on those crispy golden suckers. Though they are quite good, and I would suspect that their O'[nion] rings would be worth investigating as well.

How did O'Burger fare in the breakdown?

Value: 2/5 Dill & MmmBurger, 3/5 Dijon
Bun: 5/5 Dill & Dijon, 4/5 MmmBurger
Burger: 5/5 Dill & MmmBurger, 4.5/5 Dijon
Toppings: 4.5/5 et al
Mess: 4/5 Dill & Dij' (MmmBurg abstained)
Ambience: 3/5 Dill & Dij, 3.5/5 MmmBurger
Service: 1/5 Dill, 1.5/5 Dijon, 2/5 MmmBurger

So I clearly thought the food was awesome, but everything left up to people outside the kitchen (decorators and servers) was pretty flat. I can see where some people would like the look of O'Burger - it's kind of mod, with a black, white, and hot pink decor - but I find it unnerving. And, working in the service industry, I can be more understanding than most when food is slow, but I also know that when we are one of two tables eating at 5pm, being ignored for ten minutes is just the product of laziness.

And a quick clarification on the Mess and Value categories. The higher the score for mess, the less messy it was. I know "Ease of Eating Without Soiling Yourself" would make a more clear category, but Dij' and I are partial to monosyllables. Clearly. And Value is a tricky one. It basically asks "was it worth it?" So while, for instance, O'Burger is far far more expensive than Patati Patata burgers, it's because, at the end of the day, the quality of the food is just in a different category. So if you want to go grab a 14$ burger lunch, I would say O'Burger is worth checking out - you get what you pay for, and brother, it's good.