Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Big Boys Burgers, Pickering

I stopped by Big Boys Burgers (located in the Lone Star Plaza at Whites Rd and Kingston Rd in Pickering) this afternoon for lunch.

Driving up, the place looked busy. Entering I was met with bright yellow painted and diamond plated walls, stools lined up along a bar top on one wall and racing seats in booths with folks seemingly enjoying their fare.

Looking over the menu I decided on a Big boy burger combo, an 8oz burger with fries and a can of pop (I added a slice of processed cheese for $0.65). After taxes the meal came to $10.67. Yikes!

The burger was par cooked on a flat top griddle and then held in a stainless steel tray and finished on the charbroiler. I don't know why places have started using this process. How much time do you actually save par cooking the meat, a minute or two? I once again find this unforgivable. My second peeve is that the cook broke the patty in half to ensure it was cooked. If you have any experience at the job, again, why?

You have the option of dressing your burger as you see fit and I chose, mustard, mayo, lettuce, onion, pickle and hot peppers.

The burger arrived and I must say it looked impressive, nicely charred on the outside and oozing juice onto the foil it was wrapped in. At first bite it hit me. This bad boy was full of filler, the meat had a pasty texture to it. I'm almost positive the patties have got a commercial hamburger binder mixed into them. The patty had the flavour profile of a Harvey's burger (but didn't have that cardboard texture that Harvey's patties seem to develop). The bun was a kaiser style bun available from a few bakeries (such as Toronto Bread) in the GTA. It held up well to the patty and was soft and fresh.

From there I moved onto the fries, at first glance they appeared to be moving in the right direction. They appeared hand cut and crisp. Biting into a few of them revealed an odd leftover potato taste. As a kid, my mom used to boil potatoes to go along with dinner and try to pawn off the leftovers on me the next day. I always hated how those gummy next-day potatoes tasted. These had a similar vibe..... To make matters worse, they weren't really crisp, some were, some were crispy fry imposters, limp and leftover tasting......


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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love your post! Thought I'd share my first experience at Big Boys Burgers with you. Today, my friend and I wanted to try something new for lunch and so we decided to check Big Boys out. Walked in and thought it was decorated pretty cool! Loved the racing seats and diamond steel panels throughout! Checked out the menu and I knew exactly what I wanted... I had a huge
hankering for a steak on a kaiser, ordered medium with mushrooms and cheese. My friend ordered the back bacon on a kaiser and we decided to share an order of fries with a side of gravy since the cashier boasted about their homecut fresh fries. To start... It looked amazing!!! One bite into the steak.. I knew it was a little overbooked ... No pink inside at all... but I didn't complain because it was tender none the less. Mmmm nice thick cut of steak and a pretty large piece! No skimping on the size that's for sure! Thought I'd make a great decision on getting mushrooms ... They tasted great... and then it hit me! Aaaahhhh! PROCESS cheese! Oh crap... I never thought to ask if they use REAL cheese! Lol Well I got my answer! :( Sadly it ruined my steak! With every bite, I tasted cheese wiz...and the cook didn't skimp on it either! I tried wiping some off but it was difficult since it was all melted. Ok so that was a bust... but at least I have the fries... with side gravy! One bite of the fry and I was hit with a overly crispy rubbery fry... one that tasted as if they'd peeled the potatoes and pre-cooked the fries days prior and RE-FRIED them today! As for the gravy... it tasted like powdered gravy. Yuck! I don't get it! Do you know how EASY it is to make a homemade gravy??? Well if you don't... Take my word for it .. IT IS! Lol Like wtf?!?! So much for my idea to try something new! What a disappointment that was! You go into a place like this with an expectation of home-cooked, fresh cut food and in exchange... you expect to pay a little more for it... but know it'll be so worth it and yet sadly it was not. As for my friends back bacon on a bun... Nice thick cut of back bacon... Two large pieces... with lettuce, tomato and mayo... On a nicely toasted kaiser... And the first bite into it was spoiled by the sour taste of the salad dressing disguised as mayonnaise. Something my friend couldn't
get past, forcing her to ask for a new bun and having to
wipe down the back bacon of it's white imposter.
Needless to say ... $15 later... I will definitely think twice about going back, and if I do go back .. It would be for just one thing... The steak on a kaiser with ONLY mushrooms and nothing else! At least our ride back to
work was interesting... Filled by a conversation of what
we would do different if we owned the place! :)

Anonymous said...

I was there today, and i had a completly different experience. The frys to start off with were amazing, i was talking to the friendly staff and we spoke about the fry process, and they are cooked daily, you two have just been there on the wrong day. The chesse i recieved was real cheddar, so i am not sure of the processed chesse you are talking about. My steak was amazing, and it was a good cut. i hate the thinly sliced steak sandwichs around that is just low quality, they must have given me 8-10 oz prime rib steak cut amazing for the price.I think this place is very good and will definitly recommend it and go back.

Anonymous said...

BEWARE FOOD POISONING!!!

Ordered chicken souvlaki and was over the toilet for days..

I will never venture out to any of the establishment under the name big boys burgers! Especially this one off of whites rd.

Anonymous said...

I rather eat at McDonalds!!

Anonymous said...

By far the worst place to eats. Also be aware of using credit card or debit ...