THE HAMBURGER HAMLET VERDICT

Wednesday 28 September, 2011 at 11:41 pm / 0 comment

THE HAMBURGER HAMLET VERDICT

The first thing I have to mention about Hamburger Hamlet would be the service. Setting up the reservation for the private room for our party of 20 was quick & easy and our waitress was on point all night. The ambiance of the Tap Room had a very classy feel and an enjoyable bar. The side dishes like the lobster bisque, zucchini zircles, sweet potato fries and french fries were above average.

However, BEU’s main focus isn’t on service, side dishes or ambiance. For us, it’s all about the burger and the ones served at Hamburger Hamlet were disappointing. From the first bite, the people sitting next to me were already complaining about them. Many of us asked for our hamburgers to be cooked medium but the patties we got were well-done. The cook must have taken a nap and let our burgers sit too long! There was nothing amazing about the selection, nor did the taste of these hamburgers have a wow factor at all. I had the Marilyn Burger, which had avocado, jack cheese, tomato, onion, iceberg, pickle and Dijon mayonnaise. The first few bites were satisfying but after a quarter of the way through, my burger was already falling apart with toppings spilling out of the back-end like there was no tomorrow. I found myself spending more time reassembling my burger than I did eating it! My expectations were pretty high after seeing the place, but it didn’t fare well after our experience. In fact, Hamburger Hamlet is our new lowest score. I give credit to the manager however. He at least made an effort to check up on us and give us a complimentary desert.

Let’s start with the good comments from the BEU team members:

“The sweet potato fries kicked ass!”

“The Napa burger was lovely with goat cheese and arugula.”

“For the price, I guess if you break down the cost per burger ratio, it’s ok.”

“The veggie toppings were ok, but might have been genetically modified.”

Here are the bad comments:

“The music is bad.”

“Let’s not return.”

“Crabcake burger = yuck! Had to send it back and get a salad. But they were very nice about it!”

“The bottoms of the bun were soggy.”

“The classic would have gotten a higher score, but the other burgers in the sampler weren’t amazeballs.”

Out of 20 total BEU members in attendance, here’s how Hamburger Hamlet fared: