Charlie & Co Burgers, Westfield Sydney

I know this place has been getting a flogging on the blogosphere of late, but I just couldn't resist!


FH Alphie and I were in the CBD last Monday, searching for a suit for him in what remained of the boxing day sales. Once that mission was complete, I had the obligatory rummage through the shoe section of DJs, but nothing I was interested in was on sale (why is that always the case?), and FH Alphie decided it was time for lunch.

Remembering that the new Westfield development had made quite an effort to attract some of Sydney's finest chefs to their level 5 'dining precinct', I headed there (with maybe a brief stop at the new Christian Louboutin store - sqeeeee!), and as soon as I saw Charlie & Co Burgers, I had made my decision. Somehow our timing had been impeccable - I have heard reports of looong waits for a table, but we were shown to a table as soon as we walked up!

phoenix organic cranberry & lime soda, and lemon lime & bitters

I had a hard time choosing which of the 7 delicious-sounding burgers to have, but eventually culled it to two choices - luckily the same two FH Alphie was trying to decide between (!), so we ordered both, and shared.


I started with the chilli crab burger, which was delish! A thick meaty crab patty, with cucumber, a lime aioli/mayonnaise and sweet chilli sauce, in a fresh artisan, house made bun. My only complaint would be the inclusion of uncooked bok choy as the 'asian salad' component.

The hand-crafted chilli crab burger ($17)

Half way through, we swapped burgers, I go a taste of FH Alphie's choice - the Wagyu & co burger. This is a take on Justin North's signature burger (see Plan B), a wagyu beef pattie with gherkins, beetroot relish and aged cheddar, but unfortunately neither FH Alphie or I loved it. It was a good beef burger, but after the punch of the chilli crab, I just couldn't get into it.

The Wagyu & Co burger ($18) and parmesan & truffle fries ($8)

The parmesan and truffle fries were another matter entirely. FH Alphie finished his share of the burgers before me, and really got stuck into these, and had to make a concerned effort to leave some for me! The combination of parmesan and truffle, on freshly cooked thick fries was just unbelievable - just thinking about them now is making my mouth water!


The real test is, would I go back?, and the answer is yes. There has always been a shortage of good places to eat in the CBDs shopping precinct, and the delicious fries are enough to have me going back again and again! (And it helps that there's some great shopping on the floors below!)

-Alphie

The Burger Bistro, Perth

The end of my first week (well, half-week) in Perth arrived, and my WA-dwelling sister was driving to Perth to collect me for the weekend. Once she had navigated the one way streets of Perth's CBD and found a park, I convinced her to stop for dinner before we started the drive back to Bunbury. Burger Bistro is about 2 blocks from the hotel I am currently staying in, and I had a read about it on Vogue Forums. The idea being that burgers (albeit, gourmet burgers) would be a quick dinner before the return drive.

Belle of the ball

I went with the belle of the ball, a beef burger with field mushrooms and tomato relish, simply because it had mushrooms (I looooove mushrooms). While my sister, let's call her Ms Red, had the chickpea chow down, a chickpea, zucchini and carrot patty with sour cream, because, well, she always gets a chickpea burger.

Chickpea chow down

The burgers were huge! I decided to cut mine in half so I could get a better go at it, and it backfired, I ended up with mushroom juice and relish dribbling down my arms. So while delicious, the burgers are quite hard to eat. Ms Red did the same, and while she didn't have the same issue as me, the chickpea patty was quite squashed by the time she'd finished cutting it. And, (call the doctor!) she was unable to eat all her chips as she was too full, so I had to finish them for her...

There was a huge selection of burgers, each falling under one of three categories; chicken, beef or 'other', which includes the vegetarian options (there was also a lamb and a chorizo option when we were there). There were also the obligatory sides; chips, and two salads. All burgers come on a sourdough bun, although they can be ordered 'no-carb', to be served as a salad.

That concludes my first WA post, and there are more on the way (I have a bit of a backlog at the moment).

-Alphie