of mojitos and other madness: the handle on the handburger

opened by the folks that run the mean operation over at the soup spoon, the hand burger has been on my list of places to try since they opened. with the cool branding and concept, clean deco and decent reviews to date, i jumped at the chance to have sunday lunch at the city hall outlet...even though i knew it would be a heavy lunch and we were going to have a big dinner later that same day!

the menu - served on a neat wooden block, had quite a variety of burgers ranging from the classic beef types to burgers with salmon and duck confit. deciding was hard, just because everything sounded really good. choosing the appetizers was straightforward though, as g had his eye set on the chilled tomato soup. it was a good call as it was a nice shot glass sized portion of freshly pureed tomato with a touch of avocado and salsa adding a unique dimension to the cool concoction. as with all burger joints, a side of fries is a given but with onion rings also being served, we tried to get one of our two sides switched. unfortunately, they were quick sticky about the swop so we ended up ordering a separate serving of rings. the rings were pretty good...think nicely battered rings of sweet white onion, accompanied by quite an outstanding homemade relish mayo dip. i found them a tad too oily and given that we had the heavy burgers pending, we ended up doggie bagging the lot! all good though as we had them for tea the next day after reheating them up in the oven and they were still yummy!

burger-wise....i was torn between the portobello mushroom burger and the chicken caesar but finally decided to go with the chicken caesar becuase i figured the salad dressing twist might be interesting! presented on a custom-made wooden tray (which i thought was pretty cool!), my burger arrived looking piled high with flavor. abandoning my utensils, i tucked into my burger using my hands (the only way burgers should be eaten by the way!). the flavors were definitely there, from the homemade caesar dressing, creamy mozzarella and toasted sun-dried tomato and olive bun. however, the grilled bacon wrapped chicken breast was a little too over cooked and the basil pesto mushrooms were as a result lost in the shadow of the chicken. g's sirloin tataki was a little better composed....from the thinly sliced marinated sirloin steak strips in black pepper jus, topped with sweet grilled onions and mushrooms to the freshly fried renkon crisps, sandwiched between the same yummy sun-dried tomato and olive bun, the east west flavors and textures definitely came together more synergistically in this one.

whether i would head back to handburger to cash in some calories, to be honest, i would save the calories and detour further west to relish at cluny instead. maybe it was my burger choice this time around, so i just might give the place a second shot with another burger (maybe the portobello) but i have to admit, it is going to be quite hard for the handburger to truly satisfy my burger craving.