Counter Burger

Restaurants are always coming out with highfalutin mission statements: ‘We stand for organic’, ‘GM-free’, ‘hand-crafted this and that’, blah blah blah. Why do they never stand for things just being plain tasty? That’s the kind of philosophy we’d get behind.

Their own mission statement aside, the idea behind Counter Burger, an American chain established in 2003, is a novel one. You’re given a clipboard with a series of choices (meat, fillings, bun type) so you can build your own burger.

It’s tempting to go extreme and order the 450g turkey patty with dried cranberries, Danish blue cheese, jalapenos, guacamole, a fried egg and apricot sauce on an English muffin; but we stick to something a little more classic: bridging the gap between Australia and the US we share a 150g beef patty topped with American yellow cheese, lettuce, beetroot, bacon, grilled onions and roasted garlic aioli on a burger bun.

On our other burger we get a Tex Mex with the corn and black bean mix, jalapenos and guacamole, but the result is a little dry. We dig the half’n’half concept – a plate half filled with fries, half with onion rings (the onions win).

However, it seems all these custom-built, super-sized, super-cow gourmet burger joints all forget the importance of basic things, like seasoning the meat. And sure, serving the sauce on the side might be part of the DIY gimmick, but it’s annoying to have to dismantle your burger to add it.

While you might not cross town for one of the burgers (they’re actually fine if you build your own, or stick to the simple ones such as the ‘old school’: beef, cheddar, lettuce, tomatoes pickles and relish), you would for one of their shakes. These bad boys are thick. We order the apple pie shake – just like an apple pie and ice cream, only in drink form – as well as a peanut butter shake. One of the girls behind the bar told us the staff favourite this month: chocolate, peanut butter and malt. Holy mackerel! They’re also licensed, with Coopers Pale on tap as well as Kirin and Corona by the bottle and an OK wine selection.

Counter Burger is a little bit like the way you might imagine The Restaurants of the Future looking when you were little – plasma screens on the walls and lots of slick metal. But given the choice between this and the grungy milk bar, old school always wins out.