No thanks...

THE SHIP & ANCHOR PUB
5975 Roswell Rd NE
Sandy Springs, GA 30328
(404) 256-3550
www.shipandanchorpub.com


After a long day of helping soon-to-be-roommates in our new house, I went out to The Ship & Anchor Pub to meet up with an old roommate who was in town. We decided to go there due to it's fairly small crowd, decent prices and the fact we both knew where it was and was a good halfway point for us to meet.

Having worked up an appetite, I decided to give one of their burgers a shot. I ordered what they call The Georgian, a hamburger with barbecue sauce, grilled onions and cheddar and monterey jack cheeses. First off, the onions were a little off in taste...little too sweet and soggy. They were sliding right out the back of the burger (which, i guess do to their poor quality, actually was a good thing). The burger came off as very dry and flavorless. It had that, frozen patty, taste to it as well. Possibly even pre-cooked, frozen taste. It was that or they did just overcook it. Who knows, maybe both!

I would definitely recommend avoiding the burgers, I'm sure they've got something good food-wise there, but of course you can't go wrong with the drinks and the Internet Jukebox which gives you quite a variety of music to listen to.

- Bobby!

More from Natalie!

HERO CERTIFIED BURGERS
18 locations all around Toronto
The best veggie burger hands down in the city of Toronto goes to Hero Burger. With an array of topping choices, this delicious veggie burger hits the spot everytime! The texture and flavour are unparalelled anywhere else.

LICK'S HOMEBURGERS AND ICE CREAM
25 locations throughout Ontario
Coming in at a close second is Lick's Homeburgers and Ice Cream. Again, you can choose your favourite toppings (highly recommend the GUK, despite the name) I always order mine well done to ensure that the patty doesn't fall apart as the consistency is sometimes a bit crumbly

Both are totally satisfying options!
This is the veggie burger correspondant signing out for today - tune in next time for the best veggie burgers in Philly!
- Natalie


P.S. Natalie also sent me this fun photo from Ian's cow Website, that's a cow made of veggie burgers. Cute!

If interested, here's his website:
http://www.gallaugher.com/ian/IansCowWebsite.html

Pretty tasty, mister!

MR.TASTY'S
348 Queen Street East
Toronto, ON
(416) 863-0633


Michelle sent me a message tipping me off to Mr.Tasty's on Queen East. Apparently the burgers there are pretty good. I've always been a little weary of that place, since the area is pretty sketchy. However, I trust Michelle, and work about a 10 minute walk from here, so I will definitely mosey over for lunch one afternoon.

Until then, the best I can do is relay how delicious Michelle thought it was!!

Thanks lady :)

Burger wraps!

GRAPEFRUIT MOON
968 Bathurst Street
Toronto, ON
M5R 3G6
(416) 534-9056


OK!
To make up for my terrible hamburger experience the other day, I needed to give it another shot. Christina and I decided to treat ourselves to dinner at our favorite little cozy restaurant, Grapefruit Moon. They specialize in vegetarian and vegan dishes, but also have some rather tasty meat selections. Their hamburger is called a "Rudy's Wrap", and is such a perfect balance of bread to meat ratio. It's always hard to find that, but with a burger being wrapped in a toritilla, it works perfectly. The burger is topped with lettuce, brie and roasted red peppers - you don't even need to add anything else to it, though I did dip it in ketchup.

Absolutely delicious!!
I've had this before, but today's mighty burger wrap was better than ever!

I totally suggest eating here. If not for their burgers, but for their welcoming atmosphere, organic brewed beers, and friendly service :)

:(

BETTY'S
240 King Street East
Toronto, Ontario
M5A 1K1
416-368-1300



I haven't eaten a delicious hamburger, or any hamburger for that matter for over a month. I've been on hamburger-hiatus, if you will, due to my stomach ripping apart constantly. So for the past month, I've not been allowed to consume any red meat :( However, yesterday I got the OK to go ahead again.

I went for lunch this afternoon with my friend Kay - we opted for Betty's, a pub a few doors down from my office that's usually filled with business people grabbing a mid-afternoon/after work pint. I was excited to have a hamburger, with swiss cheese on top. The burger was WAY too hot when it came, that every bite I took was just shooting steam into my mouth. It sucked. Once it cooled off to a good eating temperature, it wasn't any better. There weren't any noticeable spices or good flavoring to it, and it was dry and grey. I barley finished half of it.

For always getting such good reviews of their food, I'd suggest to just stick to their beer. It's simple, and kinda hard to eff up, especially when you order a it in a bottle.

p.s. The spinach salad I got as my side was basically a caesar salad, with spinach instead of romaine. wtf?!

p.p.s. We also decided to try the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cake Brownie for dessert. There was no cream-cheesiness to it at all. It was nothing but a dense pumpkin muffin with a fancier name. Betty, what's wrong?

$$$$$$$$$$$

WINDSOR ARMS HOTEL
18 St. Thomas Street
Toronto Ontario
M5S 3E7
416-971-9666



One of the best burgers I have ever had was at a tiny small town corner diner called Keith’s in Fonthill Ontario.  My parents would pile us into their 1979 Ford LTD and drive up the Escarpment into rural Niagara to see autumn in all its glory (keep in mind that this is during a time when we still had 4 distinct seasons and well before I spent my weekends drinking and playing video games).  The drive would span most of an afternoon and we would stop occasionally for my mother to buy antique teapots or the kids to pick out Halloween pumpkins to carve.  The trip would always end at the same corner in the same pitstop of a town for a burger some fries and a slice of lemon meringue pie. I was only 5 but the memories of that place and time stuck with me all these years and not because of some hokey Norman Rockwell bullshit like  ‘those are the moments that shape you for years to come because my parents loved me and I got to spend valuable family time in the back seat of a car that if you had put a sail on it, the B52’s would have been right and yes it would have set sail.’  No, It was the burger that I crave and remember to this day and not the cheddar cheesy family moments. MMMMM cheddar cheese.

Fast-forward 25 years.  Four overworked (Nick isn’t really overworked but for the sake of the story we’ll keep that a secret), hung over friends had a few hours to kill before rehearsals for their world tour began*.  These four brave men decided to visit North Toronto (yes I use a lot of brackets and yes, to us, Bloor Street is North Toronto) and the palace that is the Windsor Arms Hotel.  Describing this place as a palace is not much of an exaggeration. 4 million dollars worth of cars parked in front, wood paneling, fine flooring, high ceilings with gaudy chandeliers, deadly serious staff that come out of nowhere to help you within moments of entering and the general stench of high society.  I once heard a story from a cousin that she was in the piano bar for afternoon tea and Robin Williams was getting bombed on tequila shots, took over the piano began belting out tunes and then when he was too trashed to play anymore decided to dance on the tables.  Its hard pressed to believe that members of the Royal Family would be prone to public drunken outbursts on this level so I guess my palace analogy is out the window but my new point is that the staff let him do his thing.  No polite interruption, no large security guards escorting him out.  They just let him sing and dance and that’s just the kind of place that it is.

We sat down @ 2:15 which is a down time considering the kitchen closes at 3:00pm.  There was a couple behind us meeting with a wedding coordinator planning their big day and four society chicks with perfect posture sitting at the bar sipping white wine, well overdressed for the time of day.  We wore t-shirts and jeans and I had my sunglasses on.  Ever seen the scene in Blues Brothers when Jake and Elwood go to the fancy pants restaurant to try to convince Mr. Fabulous that they need his horn back in the band**?  Anyways, we sat down, ordered drinks, ordered burgers with cheese (either stilton, cheddar or swiss) and fries on the side.

At this point you’re thinking ‘this guy has written 750 words and hasn’t yet mentioned the burger and included 300 words of him rambling about his childhood, what’s the fucking point?’  Well here’s here it is.  There is absolutely nothing similar between Keith’s in Fonthill Ontario and Prime at the Windsor Arms Hotel in North Toronto EXCEPT that they both have an exceptional burger. I’m not a fancy pants, I do however have a huge amount of respect for an uppity millionaires hangout that can take a simple staple of North American cuisine and treat as just that, a simple time honored traditional meal and not fuck with it like I know some douchebag uber-chef would.  The bread was daily fresh, not heavy and not overly seeded.  The cheese was generous enough to add rich flavor but not too much that it caused nasty grease to drip all over the place. The fixins’ were a full fresh very green leaf of Boston lettuce and a small round of thinly sliced red onion.  Mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise were served on the side.  The meat itself was almost too generous, measuring in the 15oz post cooked neighborhood.  And god damn was it tasty.  Fresh prime rib, ground into the densest and juiciest burger I have ever had the pleasure of destroying.  At one point I had to stop and wipe the juices from my forearms because the burger had bled that far.  Sweet heavenly beef!



The Results:

Burger Rating: 9.2/10.0

Service: 9.0/10.0

Value: 8.0/10.0

The total for 4 people (4 burgers, 2 pints Stella, 2 glasses red wine, 2 Crown Royal, 2 bottles Evian water, tax and tip) =  $184!  Yeah I could get 59 McDonalds burgers and a large Coke for that price but I’d have to listen to some drunken cunts with fake tits talk about how hot they are while I’m in line and I just can’t deal with that shit.  A $17 burger is a bit over the top but you gotta pay for quality.

- MARC MC CHEESE