The Counter Burger

There is something so appealing about the concept of The Counter Burger. Assembling a burger from the bottom up, or should I say bun down has me completely sold. I think its popularity stems from the fact that people love possibilities, and when handed a clipboard and a pencil once seated at a retro-looking booth on a gorgeous sunny day, they feel endless. Steph from Raspberri Cupcakes and I braved track work and rail buses to meet for lunch at the Counter Burger this past weekend. She had been there before, but this was my first time. I’d heard a lot about it, so I skipped breakfast in preparation!



We started off with milkshakes. After hearing so much about the apple pie milkshake, I decided to try that one and Steph went for the Shake of the Month which happened to be Tim Tam. Some of the people I told about the Apple Pie milkshake were sceptical, as there is a real piece of apple pie in there but I thought it really worked, because apple pie and ice cream go so well together. Steph liked her Tim Tam milkshake, though would have preferred more crunchy bits throughout.



Next, the half and half fries and onion strings arrived. The fries had a nice flavour, paprika we thought, and you can never go wrong with aioli and smoky barbeque sauce. The onion strings were battered and fried, and had a nice flavour but were perhaps slightly oily.



And onto the burgers! Steph decided to have a ‘Burger In a Bowl’ this time, which is basically a burger served with salad instead of on a bun. She had the 150g turkey patty with melty Swiss cheese, roasted pimento, dill pickle chips, cranberries, grilled onions and the sauce of the month, which was wasabi aioli. It looked gorgeously colourful, and though she was unsure at first about the combination of flavours, she ended up really loving it. The turkey was flavoursome, well cooked and was lovely with the cranberries. The pickles and pimento added interesting flavours that complemented the turkey.



Mine was a 150g beef patty with sharp provolone, pickle chips, sweet red hot capsicum, tomato, mixed lettuce, honey-cured bacon and roasted garlic aioli on a wholemeal bun. You can’t really see in the photo but the bun had rolled oats on the top, which was quite lovely, and I was pleased to find that it didn’t get soggy at all. The beef was cooked to medium so it was very juicy, but still nicely charred on the outside. I really loved all the flavours here, especially the bacon and the pickles. Even though this was the smallest burger, I couldn’t finish it, so I would have absolutely no chance of ever attempting the giant 450g burger!

I really loved the retro interior, looking like something straight from 1950’s America. Picking the burger toppings was an interesting and fun novelty that I really enjoyed, and the food itself was great. It certainly lived up to all the hype, and I am definitely looking forward to going back and trying out other burger combinations! And I'm also looking forward to having more food related adventures with Steph!

The Counter Burger, 118 Willoughby Road, Crows Nest