Gourmet Burger Company
I sort of have a love-hate relationship with the whole concept behind gourmet burger joints. I mean, if a burger can become gourmet, then why can’t a place just shove a few extra toppings, such as goat cheese, on a pizza and make it gourmet too? Oh wait, they already have that, it’s called Pizzaiolo.
Love them or hate them, gourmet burger joints are popping up everywhere across our city. The Gourmet Burger Company is sort of tucked away on Charles St, sitting right next to the well known 7 West Restaurant. It also happens to be a 5 minute walk from another famous gourmet burger place, Craft Burger.
When you first walk into the GBC (as they dub themselves), you’re greeted with a 5 step menu. You pick your burger meat, then the basic complimentary toppings, then the extra toppings (at $1.00 each), then you pick your side and your drink.
If you wanna skip the first three steps, you can go with their signature burger selection which may not be a bad idea if you’re not sure what kind of toppings you want. Although they do charge for the extra toppings like cheese and bacon, I’ve got to say that I was quite surprised by their selection of complimentary toppings. So much so that Antony didn’t know when to stop when he was picking all the toppings for his burger. To give you an idea, they have caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, roasted garlic & dijon mustard-mayo.. the list goes on!
I went with the chicken burger, while Antony went with the beef burger. Both come in at about $5.50-$5.95). Antony had a bunch of toppings put on his including the above mentioned while I only had lettuce, pickles, and smokey chipotle honey-mayo.
Chicken burger
For the sides, you get a choice of homemade french fries, beer battered onion rings, sweet potato fries, and either a mixed organic greens salad or a caesar salad, any choice of 1 included in the combo, which is an extra $4.00. Kind of steep I guess but it does include a pop or bottle of water. You’re only saving .30 when you make it a combo. We both went with sweet potato fries.
The burgers were both excellent. I could tell they’re both made with high-grade meat. Not to mention the toppings were nice a fresh. Oh and the burgers were pretty huge themselves too. Antony did feel that the house sauce (called the GBC sauce) was a little on the weak side though. The burgers came on some fresh kaiser buns too.
Beef burger with caramelized onions and sauteed mushrooms
The fries were great too but they were both huge! We could hardly finish them off but I like the fact that I left the place feeling filled and satisfied. So to keep this short, I would definitely recommend the GBC to anyone who enjoys a good burger. Without a doubt, I would pick them over Craft Burger any day!
