Hooters - Humble Texas

After a massive shop at the nearby Best Buy and still a few hours before I had to be at the airport, I thought squeezing in an all American classic burger would be a great way to relax and settle into my buyers remorse. I whipped out Google maps and had a look around, just a few hundred metres away was a Hooters, talk about a classic! I've only been to Hooters in Australia, so was keen to check out what it'd be like here where it was born.

Greeted at the door by probably a manager, as she actually had full clothing on, I was immediately complimented on my accent and how much it was loved. Shown to a table I sat down and my Hooters waitress came over and made me feel quite welcome. I created my own burger which was just a cheese burger, but added jalapenos and chose Texas toast instead of the brioche bun. While waiting, somehow the table behind me found out about my accent and where I was from and engaged me in conversation for a quite a while about a few different things.

Scintillating as the conversation was my beef sandwich had arrived. My first impresion was that the tatter tots were slightly over done. The burger however looked big, a well done patty (done this way by default for health reasons) the cheese was melted nicely the onions looked plentiful, unlike the lettuce. I put on my own combination of mayonnaise and ketchup closed it back up and started to feed.

I gotta say this burger was bloody delicous, and for one reason, the beef. It was so beautiful in beefy goodness, such an intense flavour, I loved it, the cheese and onion also went wonderfully with this meat, everything was pretty much irrelavent. I had the occasional hit of heat from the jalapeno but nothing overpowered the amazing beef. The pickle on the side was also nice to munch on between bites just to freshen the mouth to experience that beef again for the first time. Turns out the tatter tots were not that over done at all, and the toast was actually a great container for this burger.

Beef - 9 | Bun - 7 | Cheese - 7 | Sauces - 7 | Salad - 4 | Overall - 8

Prague's Best Burger - Restaurace Jáma - Praha 1 - Czech Republic

Jama is a pretty typical chillis type joint, offering steaks, burgers, and tex mex fare with good 'ol ice cold Czech beers. After googling around a little bit I found it on a few sites with the rather huge claim of 'Prague's Best Burger'. Had to check this out.

The burger arrived kinda open, and had everything on the side, even the sauce, given the comfortable seating and big tables this wasn't a problem at all, infact it was preferable, I could put on alot of lettuce or none, I opted for the latter. The cheese was the exception to this, it came melted and wrapped around the pattie, which was excellent, it was like a big meat and cheddar ball. The meat pattie was also the thickiest I have ever had.

I loved the grilled onions, there was a heap of them and the sliced fried potatoes were also delicious. The bun was great too, like a crusty type bread bun that was toasted really well, standing upright this was one really tall burger. I don't know how the salad went along with it as I didn't touch it, the burger was very filling with the potato sides. The beef was a tad dry but moister than you would expect when you see the thickness of the pattie, the mustard was a great addition, melded with the onions, cheese and beef it was a sensation meal that will be had again next time I'm in old Prague town!

Beef - 7 | Bun - 6 | Cheese - 7 | Sauces - 7 | Salad - n/a | Overall - 8

Mexican Czech Maccas - Czech Republic McDonalds

Having been to the Czech Republic a few times now I think it's time to start adding some food adventures from my travels there. Usually the first meal we have when I arrive is Macca's, we're tired, lazy and I just wanna go unpack and settle in, that and I love the white paper takeaway bag, reminds me of Maccas down here when I was younger. OK, enough justification, anyway I was pleased to see that the McDonalds there had a promotional burger, it was part of a bigger promo called 'Fiesta Mexicana'. I thought i'd try the McRoyal Jalapeno which looked like a McOZ with no beetroot but with bacon, jalapenos and hot salsa.

I ordered one, minus the bacon, along with Chillitos instead of chips, also part of the promotion, they were like deep fried cheese with chilli. As usual upon opening the burger box it looked nothing like the promo shot, nearly qualifying for a farce write up, anyway starving and tired I tucked right in, and was pleasantly surprised, this burger was pretty tasty, I loved the salsa, although it was more tangy than hot, and the pattie was of quite a reasonable standard for a McDonalds burger.

Happy with how the burger was going so far I thought I'd try the Chillitos, after biting into one, I had to wait a few seconds for the oil to subside, I could then taste the mild warmth fromt he chilli, the cheese or whatever it was was quite disgusting and had the texture of off cream. After finishing one, I quickly returned to my burger, at which point I got a jalapeno in the next bite, I really like this burger.

I don't quite see what's so Mexican about the McRoyal Jalapeno, but either way it was quite nice, I guess that's where McDonalds always have the advantage, my expectation of their burgers is so low that getting one that isn't just medicore is a nice surprise. If I had one complaint I'd say the burger needed more jalapenos.

Beef - 5 | Bun - 3 | Cheese - 5 | Sauces - 7 | Salad - 3 | Overall - 6

Turkey Bacon - Singapore Burger King

I love Singapore, and I love the airport alot too. You almost want to be stuck in transit at Changi. On my latest trip I found myself starting my holidays with a solid 6 hour stay here. After a few purchases I headed up to the standard issue Burger King. Despite being hassled by pig to try something else, I was going to go for my usual Swiss cheese and mushroom double cheeseburger, however as I stood there, looking at the menu, I could hear pig in my head, telling me how important it was for me to try a different burger here, after all I had the mushroom one many times, and it's already here in the review, and this turkey bacon, well I don't know where else you would find it, so I took the plunge and got the double cheeseburger with turkey bacon and a side order of cheese chicken sticks. I found a quiet little corner in the 'dining' room and prepeared for the test. Looking at the burger it seemed a fairly ordinary double cheeseburger with some really dry bacon, almost looked like beef jerky. Under the hood we can clearly see just how dry and stiff this turkey bacon looked, the meat pattie didn't look that great either and I'm not a fan bbq sauce on burgers with only meat and cheese, anyway gotta eat this thing I suppose.

The first thing I thought when I bit into this was how much better the swiss cheese and mushrooms would be. The burger definitely did have a smokey flavour to it, the bbq sauce wasn't too bad, the cheese was standard and the meat was reasonable, but the turkey bacon, it really did have the texture and feel of jerky, it was hard, dry and chewy. I immediately got stuck into another bite in a desperate attempt to moisten my mouth, I had no drink you see, this of course intensified the smokiness, which wasn't a bad thing, but also increased the amount of these rubbery thin dry turkey strips, after eventually swallowing I decided that I wanted to try and enjoy the rest of the burger, so after stripping out the remaining turkey bacon, I added some tomato sauce and finised it off. The chicken cheese sticks were a different story all together, an excellent combination of chicken, cheese and crumbs, deep fried, it makes a great snack, I only wish I had more of them, it was a welcome change from the turkey bacon thats for sure, the chicken, while probably not being breast, was still fairly consistent throught the stick, very meaty, no hard bits, and no bits of the stick without chicken. The cheese is ever so delicately added to the chicken and is not overpowering at all, infact if it wasn't called chicken cheese sticks I think most people wouldn't have even known cheese was involved at all.

Overall I'd say, without a doubt, stick with the swiss cheese and mushrooms double cheese burger, particularly if you're a bacon fan as this will definitely disappoint you. I should point out that they have 'normal' bacon on the whoppers, it just this one, for some strange reason, features turkey bacon, and pretty bad turkey bacon at that.

Beef - 4 | Bun - 3 | Cheese - 4 | Sauces -6 | Salad - n/a | Overall - 4.5

Swiss Cheese and Mushrooms - Singapore Burger King

Ahh Singapore, the perfect east meets west city, when your there next you have to go to a Burger King and try the mushroom double cheeseburger, this burger is just fantastic.. The mushrooms aren't fresh, the swiss cheese probably isn't even swiss, and the meat is just the standard BK pattie, but the flavour in this little package is unbeatable. The size of this burger is pretty much a double cheese burger from Burger King, the patties take up around 95% of the standard, sugary, seasme seed bun. Interestingly this burger does not have any sauce as such, there is no tomato or bbq sauce, neither is there any mustard, instead this burger relies on the juiciness of the meat and the moistness of the mushrooms, and it does remarkably well, the burger is definitely not dry or rubbery, it's just perfect I think, once I did try and squirt some packets of tomato sauce from the Burger King counter onto it, and it completely ruined the distinct flavour of this burger.

The burger also has the typical rehydrated dehydrated onions that are oh so famous from the fast food burger giants, and the mushrooms, are at a guess, the button variety sliced, obviously I'm not suggesting there are actually sliced in the store, as, like I've mentioned, they don't taste too fresh. Anyway, even if you're just transitting in Singapore there's a BK located at Changi airport, so there's really no excuse for not trying one. and after you fill up on this you can roam around Changi's countless outlets working up the appetite for another one! Why can't the Burger King or Hungry Jacks down here have these?. Despite the ordinary scores for the ingredients (after all it's just stanrdard fast food stuff) this burger's overall taste is great!

Beef - 5 | Bun - 3 | Cheese - 4 | Sauces - n/a | Salad - n/a | Overall - 6.5