Not a classic

GALAXY DINER
3320 Henderson Mill Rd.
Atlanta GA 30341


I recently moved to a new part of town giving me a chance to find new neighborhood places to eat, drink, whatever....

Well, being a Sunday after a long night, I felt the need to go check out one of the places to help make me feel a little better. One of my roommates, Kristina, and I decided to check out Galaxy Diner. As we drove up, we were surprised to see the parking lot full of classic and custom cars. Once we got in though, we saw that there was a meeting for members of a local classic and custom cars club that seems to be sponsored by the diner. The interior had pictures to decorate the walls of member's cars that had been given different awards.

Anyways, on to the food...

The menu was huge and had a good variety of dishes. Cold sandwiches, hot sandwiches, breakfast, gyros, pasta, burgers and more. Because I don't think I've had a burger since the last review, I decided to go for the bacon cheeseburger (which I didn't realize until halfway through the burger that they forgot the bacon). Once it came out I noticed it was yet another place that uses the frozen patties. Already kind of a downer in my opinion, but today, it didn't matter. Overall, it was very plain. The bun tasted like it had more flavor than burger itself. I think I'd give the burger another chance due to the fact that we did get there a little before they were scheduled to close, but still let us eat since the car club meeting wasn't going to end for a little while. Next time I go, I'll be sure to follow up to see if it was a one time bad burger. Either way, there's bound to be something good with the American/Greek/Italian menu.

-Bobby!

ACME "A Company that Makes Everything"

ACME BURGER COMPANY
Bloor & Bathurst
500 Bloor St. West
Toronto, Ontario
(416) 850-8499


ACME BURGER COMPANY MISSION:
"We strive to provide the greatest quality of fresh and tasty food, served quickly to the customers, at a reasonable price"

ok....

DEAR ACME BURGER,
We were very excited to have your burger shop move into the Annex. Saturday was my friend Stephen's birthday, and I decided to treat him to lunch there. We were first confused as to where to order when we walked in. Figuring it out, the nice (but extremely pushy) cashier took our order. Priced at $7.99 for a combo is reasonable. We were then directed around the corner to the burger station, where like Harvey's, you get to pick all your toppings, and see them going on your hamburger. The girl working the station was terribly frustrated, backed up with orders, and didn't hide it well at all. On top of it, the man working the grill wasn't communicating with her, so things got backed up more. We waited and waited....

Because there was no designated line or system in place, it turned into a clusterfuck of people hanging around waiting for their order number to be called. When it was, they'd push through the crowd to get to the station window. We got our burgers made (not impressively, at all! I had to ask for more lettuce, due to her putting the wimpiest leaf of lettuce ever on), however our onion rings were not ready --- until 3/4 of the way through our lunch. Uggh.

My Acme burger was a 6oz. Angus beef burger, topped with lettuce, cheese, tomato, ketchup and garlic mayo, on a really soft seasoned egg bun. The first few bites were mostly a charred grilled taste - not bad, but a bit burnt tasting. Near the center it got better. It wasn't awful, but not memorable by any means. Also, it was DRIPPING grease. Wtf? Kinda grossed me out.

In conclusion, after the hype that has been surrounding this new burger joint coming North, I'm sorry to say, but it was nothing special at all. Besides the mediocre food, you absolutely need to hire more staff, implement a working assembly line system and maybe get a rope or something to cue a line.

The word acme means highest level, or top of the line - Acme Burger Company, you do have a lot of potential to be great, but there's tons of work that needs to happen before that can be achieved. Thank you for having me though.

yours truly,
Hamburger Holmes

1/2 sized burgers

LIBERTY GROUP (catering)
25 British Columbia Road
Toronto, ON
(416) 542-3789


I TOLD YOU!! Holiday Parties = mini-burgers!
In this case, they were more like 1/2 burgers, catered to us by the Liberty Group, in Toronto. I found them to be a bit chewy - served with cheese and ketchup, these burgers were under debates at the party as to whether they were ground up steak or just regular ground beef. If they were cooked a little less, they'd have been perfect. Probably the best of mini burgers I've tried though.

If you are feeling fancy (and rich) call on Liberty Group to cater your next party. Besides the hamburgers, all the other food was absolutely amazing!

MMMMMM&M's

M&M's MEAT SHOP
http://www.mmmeatshops.com/


Tasty Burgers from M&M's Meat Shop are juicy ground beef, seasoned to perfection, and sized just right to slap on a bun, load up with the good stuff, and still fit into hungry mouths.

Hermano Darren liked them so much, he ate two!!

East Side Mario's

EAST SIDE MARIO'S
12 Lebovic Avenue
Scarborough, Ontario
416-285-6626

**+100 locations in Canada and 4 in the United States


Last night my family and I celebrated my sister's birthday with a trip to our local East Side Marios. I suggested the all-you-can-eat ridiculousness of Scarborough's Frankie Tomato's, but it was shot down early in the suggestions process. In retrospect I'm glad, because when put into all-you-can-eat situations, it brings out my inner Takeru Kobayashi, and I tend to overdo it. I don't see "all you can eat" as a value, as much as a challenge, and gluttony induced hospital visits are no way to celebrate the birthday of a family member.

So, East Side Marios it was.

I don't go to East Side Marios very often, and every time I go it seems to be different from the last. They seem to be a restaurant chain with a identity crisis. Initially they seemed to be something of a broke-ass Olive Garden, and then they expanded their menu and sort of Jack Astorized themselves. Now it appears they've tried to redact their jackastorism and classy up their menu, a la the Pickle Barrel. The reason I mention this is with all the shake-ups, they've removed chicken fingers from the menu. Chicken Fingers! I think every restaurant in the world should have to serve chicken fingers by law, just for picky children and guys like me. See, I generally enjoy simpler cuisine, so when in a fancy (or trying to appear fancy) restaurant, my unwillingness to try new things finds me defaulting to chicken fingers, which are often found on the secret "bar menu" that a lot of places have. It's pretty hard to mess up chicken fingers, I reason. But in East Side Mario's haste to appeal to classy mall shoppers, they've let them fall by the way side. People often claim that the Chinese character for "Crisis" is the same as the one for "opportunity" (which isn't true, but never let the truth get in the way of a good saying). Those Chinese are fucking onto something!

So with that in mind I ordered up a Burger, iPhone camera in hand, and thought "well, at least I can write a review for Angela's site, finally".

"Quit bullshitting. How was it?" you ask? Hold on, I'll tell you. Relax. Jeez...

It was actually delicious. The meat was juicy and the bun was warm but not crispy, the lettuce was just the right amount to give it crunch but not fall all over the place. It came served with Tomatoes, but I removed them as they're forged in the lowest rung of hell by the devil himself (which, you'd think would make them taste awesome, but I guess Satan has better taste in music than food).

So there you have it, for a place thats generally tethered to a mall and is primarily known for pasta and singing Joe Pesci lookalikes can actually make a good burger.

-Matt

Mini-burgers

December is always packed with holiday parties. Holiday parties = hors d'oeuvres...if you happen to be at a party with lots of hors d'oeuvres going around, there's bound to be mini-hamburgers in the mix. Hamburgler and I spotted these last night - his review was simply:

"WHERE'S THE CHEESE????!" :(

He then proceeded to hound the waiters, and ate 4 more mini-burgers.

Thank you.

PATRICIAN GRILL
219 King Street East
Toronto, ON
(416) 366-4841


Last night was a mission to find Lindsay Lohan in Toronto. During which, we drank a lot...rendering me completely hungover today. The office has started this new thing where we have Family Lunch Day once a week together - thank goodness we chose today to do it!

We decided on cheeseburgers from the Patrician Grill. It's roughly a 3 minute walk from the office, so Rita and I went to pick lunch up for everyone. The place itself is a super retro, authentic diner, complete with old menus, brown bench booths, and a beige rotary phone. The menu stated that all their hamburgers are homemade, and grilled - and are they ever! It was super tasty, flavourful, and so filling. Though topped with processed cheese slices, I found it to be rather delicious.

This cheeseburger turned my feeling like a 4, into feeling like a 7. I still don't feel amazing by any means, but this surely boosted me up for sure! :)