The best burger in Sydney officially unveiled

A few weeks ago the boss of start-up site Airtasker offered to pay $500 to someone who was willing to travel across Sydney and taste 10 burgers in 10 days to find Sydney’s best Hamburger. The results are in.

Food Blogger Catherine Lee took on the challenge and has been publishing her results day to day at her site “TheCattyLife”.

Catherine has sent EFTM a summary of the challenge with a full list of Sydney’s top 10 burgers!

The Airtasker Burger Run, took me to 10 burger venues in 10 days. I was asked numerous times during the course of the run whether it was difficult or if I was getting sick of burgers.

Difficult? Yes, only if you count having to fit my burger eating around a more-than-fulltime job difficult. But I did it.

Sick of burgers? Well, as my Facebook status points out today, “No more burgers. I’m done.” For about two weeks, maybe.

The main question on everybody’s lips, however, is did I find Sydney’s best burger? Well, without making any sweeping declarations, I think I found some great burgers in Sydney. The best? That’s always hard to say because as much as we objectify the task, a love of burgers is often viewed through meat griddled, mustard covered glasses. And as someone wise once said, “To each his own”.

Besides, 10 venues is hardly enough to find the best anything in a city as chock full of burger restaurants as Sydney.

What I can tell you is what was best out of the 10 venues which I was sent to. I didn’t do a scoring system, because knowing how anal I am, I would have agonised over a half a point here or there and where’s the fun in that? I did, however, stick to comparing apples for apples: Beef burger with cheese, chips and a soft drink. So, who came up tops? I decided to call out three winners. Well, two and an overall winner.

Most delicious burger goes to Rockpool Bar & Grill.

Best value meal goes to Moo Gourmet Burgers.

And the overall winner?

*drum roll*

Charlie & Co.

Here are the rankings for all 10, with a snippet review and prices:

Rank	Venue	Snippet	Price
1	Charlie & CoOVERALL WINNER	The burgers at Charlie & Co are good, though I do wish they’d make a standard cheese burger. Their Wagyu & Co burger is the closest, and comes with beetroot relish, gherkin, lettuce, aged cheddar and aioli. This burger is good. Very good. As are the addictive parmesan fries.	Wagyu & Co burger = $16. Parmesan fries = $8 (regular fries is $6). Water = $4. $28 for my meal.TOTAL $28
2	Rockpool Bar & Grill – burger available at the bar onlyMOST DELICIOUS	The brioche buns are perfectly soft and spongy; the thick patty is exquisite and a perfect medium rare. The onion relish is sweet, and the zucchini, which I still find a little odd, they all come together in perfect gastronomous harmony.	Full blood wagyu hamburger = $24. Chips or fries = $12. 1L bottled water $9.50.TOTAL $45.50
3	Moo Gourmet BurgerBEST VALUE MEAL	I was worried about the historically hard, crusty Moo buns, but the bun this time was soft, and I actually enjoyed the burger, despite the cheese not being completely melted and the use of “mixed leaf lettuce”. The chips, however, were awesome. Crusty, crunchy, awesomeness.	Classic cheeseburger = $12. Small chips = $4. Water = $3.50.TOTAL $19.50
4	BenBry	Despite the unmelted cheese, the burger surprised me with each flavourful bite. The patty was perfectly cooked, the salad (which I normally deem unnecessary) actually tasted great and I think the aioli is the secret ingredient. We also had some fries and if you get fries at BenBry? Try the wasabi mayo. Oh My God Delicious.	BenBry burger with cheddar = $8.50. Chips and water combo = $6TOTAL $14.50
5	Burgerfuel	I ordered a 1/3 pounder with cheese, which wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t mind blowing though it was hard to pin point what exactly was wrong with it. The patty was fine, though perhaps could have been more flavoursome. What they did get right was melted cheddar! Yay for someone finally doing melted cheese perfectly!	1/3 pounder with cheese = $9.90. Kumara fries with aioli = $5.50. Water = $3.50.TOTAL $15.75
6	Burger Joint	The taste of the Burger Joint cheeseburger was good but something was not quite right. It might have been that the double layered cheese wasn’t melted fully in the middle, or the patty wasn’t as juicy as before. All in all a good burger but not great.	Cheese & gherkin burger = $8.50. Small fries with aioli = $3. Bottled water = $2TOTAL $13.50
7	Cooper’s Hotel	The Cooper’s burger was… it was ok. The bun looked hard, but it wasn’t, which was good. The patty was all right if not a little salty. The innards were all just fine. But somehow the experience didn’t rate with me and I’m not sure if it’s because the chips were lukewarm and soggy? Because chips, they make a difference. And what else irked me was that the patty was significantly smaller than the bun so at the end, you’re left with a handful of bread and no meat. You know what I’m talking about? Yeah, that. I hate that.	Burger and chips = $18. Soft drink = $3.50TOTAL $21.50
8	Grill’d	The patty was great, the beef was juicy and the complaint I have (if you can call it that) is the masses of salad which kept me from my patty (it took me five bites to get to the meat!). Another complaint is the use of the herbed mayo in the burger. I like herbs, I do, but I don’t understand some people’s need to herb everything – from the perfectly fine mayo to the chips (and the dip) but hey. I wouldn’t have the urge to come back again.	Simply Grill’d burger plus cheese = $10.50. Snack chips plus dip = $4.20. Bottled water = $3.TOTAL $17.70
9	Four in Hand	The Four in Hand burger wasn’t fabulous, mainly because it was too huge (first world problems, I know), with an enormous chunk of iceberg lettuce which I had to evict from the burger in order to eat the thing. I also found the bun too crumbly, despite being soft, and somehow the patty lacked a certain … oomph.	Beef burger with chips = $20. Soft drink = $3.50TOTAL $23.50
10	Burgerlicious	Unmelted cheese, dry bun, dry patty. Need I say more?	Cheeseburger meal (with chips and soft drink) = $11.40TOTAL $11.40

Now – who’s doing Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth?

Check out Catherine’s blog at http://www.thecattylife.com

And you can follow her on Twitter too @Catty

Trevor Long( Editor )

Trev is a Technology Commentator, Dad, Speaker and Rev Head.

He produces and hosts several popular podcasts, EFTM, Two Blokes Talking Tech, Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars, The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, and the Private Feed. He is the resident tech expert for Triple M on radio across Australia, and is the resident Tech Expert on Channel 9’s Today Show and appears regularly on 9 News, A Current Affair and Sky News Early Edition.

Father of three, he is often found in his Man Cave.

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