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Best Burger

Craft Burger can be pretty hit or miss. I've had both great and so-so burgers at both locations.
Apache is a great one.
I'm surprised that nobody mentioned Oh Boy! Burger Market on Queen near Bathurst, love that place.
Ditto for Burger Shoppe Quality Meats on Ossington.

I've also had the pleasure of having the burger at Nota Bene. What a treat that was. Practically melts in your mouth. Goes great with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. Just be prepared for odd looks from the theatre crowd, probably wondering if its worth $40. It is. Hopefully the Bymark burger is just as good.
 
I enjoyed the burger at The Stockyards.
It's not grilled, it's done a griddle, smash style.
 
I prefer home-made using a charcoal grill ( time permitting)

The recipe here is based on Michael Smith's Argentinean Burger with Chimichurri Sauce:

Yield: 8

Ingredients

Argentinean Burgers


  • 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
  • 8 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
  • 2 to 4 jalapenos, minced
  • 2 tablespoons ground cumin
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 4 pounds ground beef
  • Salt and pepper
  • Chimichurri sauce
  • Sliced avocado
  • Sliced red onion
  • Sliced tomatoes
Chimichurri Sauce


  • 1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • small onion, peeled and sliced
  • 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, minced
  • 1 teaspoon chili flakes
  • Salt to taste


Directions

Argentinean Burgers


  • Preheat your grill to its highest setting.
  • Sauté the onion, garlic, jalapeno and cumin in the vegetable oil until the vegetables soften. Cool slightly. Toss the beef into a mixing bowl along with the cooled onion mixture. Season well with salt and pepper and mix well. Form into 8-12 hamburger patties. Grill until cooked to your favourite doneness. Serve on hamburger buns with Chimichurri sauce, avocado slices, red onion slices and tomatoes.
  • For best results form a divot in the center of each burger before cooking, this helps them cook evenly. Also never press on a burger while it cooks, you’ll get some flame and smoke but only at the expense of losing juice that belongs in the burger. Yield: Makes eight large burgers, 12 regular
Chimichurri Sauce


  • Whisk everything together. You may serve immediately but this condiment is at its best after a day or two of refrigeration.

 
and the Just An Olde Fashioned Butchery and Seafood on Lakeshore Rd E Oakville has an excellent grilled fish sandwich.
You have the choice of salmon, halibut or ahi tuna and it is made only after you place the order. They use the buns from Cobb's bakery.
 
I've not been impressed with any of these new burger shops. Lick's is still the best burger in town.
 
Tried W Burger Bar yesterday. Good burgers (and I like that you can get lamb, bison, etc.), but to be honest nothing about them really blew me away either. It's also table service unlike most of the other new joints.
 
Not a dedicated burger shop, but the lamb burger at C'est What! is pretty good. I am a big fan of lamb burgers, and lamb in general though. Of the new burger shops, Great Burger Co. is my favourite to date. Still need to try a lot from the looks of this thread though!

I will second homemade though, I make a pretty mean burger. Garnish with whatever toppings you prefer, and a bit of chipotle mayo. An ice cold beer is a must as well. Nothing like it on a hot summer day.
 
Tried Craft Burger couple of weeks ago. While tasted good, it's hardly a special, out-of-the-world speciality. Atmosphere = fair. Queueing though, is awful in such a small restaurant. And it was overpriced (the price was $11'ish for a cheese burger, onion rings and a bottle of water). It should have been at least $9.00 for that quality.
 
In my ongoing search for the best Toronto burger, I do occasionally eat some bad ones. Today, I finally tried this old school Bloor Jane diner in BWV, after walking by it for years thinking "eww what a gross place it must be with its Toronto Maple Leafs theme and grouchy old men hanging around." As I found out today, you can indeed sometimes judge a book by its cover! I nominate the Bloor Jane effort "Toronto's worst burger." Yep, worse than a Big Mac. The fries as well were appalling. For $10 including a coke, I felt ripped off. The patty was a fatty greasy pre-fab frozen looking thing. The fries looked like they'd been in the freezer since 1988. The bun was stale and the toppings minimal.

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(I'd just read a review on BlogTO under best diners of Toronto. Well, I now know their list has holes in it!) The restaurant itself is dirty and the steps leading to the bathroom feel like the whole place is about to fall in on you!
 
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The lamb burger at Hot House... Front @ Church. Comes with mint yogurt dip, yummy! They change their menu often so not sure if its still available.
 
Sunday I ate a burger at Parkdale's Stampede Bison Grill. After waiting an agonizing 45 minutes I finally was served a fairly puny burger--grilled burger that was too burnt for my liking, a tiny piece of lettuce, 2 tiny tomato slices, but the house made spicy mayo was darn good. Also had the poutine--I've yet to have poutine anywhere in Toronto that matches my Montreal experience, and this place let me down as well. The vegetarian gravy was boring, the fries were okay and the curds were okay, but doesn't anyone in Toronto understand the curds are supposed to melt into a gooey mess with the gravy before being served? For a few days after this meal I felt sick to my stomach. Not a good burger experience, and 45 minutes of waiting in this sweltering heat sink isn't time well wasted either! Stay away!

Mind you, the poutine is a very reasonable $3.75--the cheapest I've seen in these "trendy" poutine/burger joints. So overall, if you order ahead of time, I suppose the poutine is passable. If I ever go here again, I'll try the bison burger with more toppings.
 
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So I tried Grindhouse. I have to say it's really awesome! Very tasty stuff. Love that everything is made in house. They have their own ketchup and mustard. Didn't love the soda the server recommended though. Birch beer. Nasty! Sucks they don't serve coke or milkshakes. Oh, and their fries are very awesome. Have to try the onion rings next time.
 
The rings at the Grindhouse used to be somewhat bland, but I had them a few days ago and they were actually great...I think they just needed a bit of salt. Also, the burger was great, as always. The Grindhouse remains my favourite of the new burger places in the city. I wish they had their take on the big mac as a regular menu item...it was amazing when I had it. Grindhouse is the only place I've been to recently where the burger itself (ie the meat itself) stands out as the main taste, and it's delicious.
 
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