Restaurant and food reviews from Perth, Australia

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

V Burger Bar, Victoria Park and Floreat

I have a friend who loves burgers.  He could eat burgers every day.  Mind you he also loves pizzas, Japanese food - actually he just loves food :-)

So with that friend, we make our way to all sorts of gourmet pizza and burger joints, so much so that I often say "let's eat something else".  On this occasion though, we ended up agreeing to try out V Burger Bar for a burger and chips.

V Burger Bar has two branches - one in Victoria Park, the other newer location in Floreat.  Like many other burger joints, V Burger bar is a casual diner with simple indoor and al fresco dining and a counter up front where you place and pay for your order.  Alternatively, of course you can grab a burger or two to go.

Similar to other burger joints, V Burger Bar has an extensive menu of burgers to cater for beef eaters, chicken eaters, fish eaters, and vegetarians (with vegans having the ability to ask for vegetarian options or even the salad options without cheese and potentially the aioli).  The main menu is supplemented with side options such as chips, onion rings, and salt and pepper calamari.  V Burger Bar isn't licensed, but they do have a selection of drinks and soft drinks on offer.

Full Blooded Aussie - $14.50

Take a soft white bun and fill it with a beef patty, melted cheddar, beetroot, egg, bacon, cos lettuce and BBQ sauce.

The burger was what you expect from the combination of beef with fried egg, bacon, cheese, completed with the sweet beetroot and tangy BBQ sauce.  The burger was juicy, to the extent it dripped a lot and was a bit sloppy to eat.  Otherwise, it was a decent take on the bacon, egg and beetroot Aussie burger - just with a lot of flavour with the sauces and seasoning.

Blue Mushy - $15

The Blue Mushy was a soft white bun filled with prime beef, blue cheese, grilled mushroom, tomato, onion, mixed gourmet lettuce and aioli.

I'm sure the blue referred to the blue cheese, and the mushy referred to the mushrooms.  However, upon eating the burger the word "mushy" seemed to take on a different meaning.  From the get-go the burger seemed to be a little sloppily put together.  Picking it up to eat and throughout biting the burger, it dripped constantly - so much that there was a big puddle of liquid on the plate that seemed to also be very oily.

Unfortunately the oil and sloppiness spoiled this otherwise delicious blue cheese and mushroom beef burger for us.

Onion Rings - $5

So out comes this stack of onion rings looking rather impressive.  Most tables on the night I was there ordered the onion rings and they seemed to be mostly met with the same wow and awe at the site of onion ring after onion ring stacked high.  Most tables, unfortunately, barely got through half the onion rings before giving up.

Why you ask?

The onion rings were thickly coated in a crispy batter that was very oily.  The oil made the batter so heavy that it was too much for most people.  However, if you share the onion rings between at least two if not three or four people you should be able to manage.  The batter was crispy and rich - rather nice for the first few bites; and the onion rings were relatively thick and well cut inside.

Battered Fries - $4

Take some medium thick chips, batter them, then fry them crispy. That's the way.

These battered fries were battered and fried such that they were really quite crunchy.  The batter wasn't excessive, but enough to give you that great crunch which made them quite enjoyable.


We liked: The onion rings look impressive (though note what we didn't like below); the burgers we had were made with lots of flavour in the sauces and seasoning if that's the way you like it; large portion sizes.

We didn't like:  Burgers (and general meal especially with onion rings) seemed greasy, with the blue cheese burger in particular oozing with oil; quite a lot of sauce drip from the burgers; greasy feeling after the meal

Other things to note:  If you don't like waste, try not to over-order - the onion rings serve is more than enough for two people; dine in or takeaway; some vegetarian and vegan (with minor modifications) options available; Visa and M/C friendly

V Burger Bar
12/910 Albany Highway
East Victoria Park WA 6101
(08) 9355 3702
http://www.vburgerbar.com.au

1 Howtree Place
Floreat Forum Shopping Centre
Floreat WA 6014
(08) 6161 0322

Trading Hours
Monday - 5pm to 9:30pm
Tuesday to Thursday - 11:30am to 9:30pm
Friday to Saturday - 11:30am to late
Sunday - 11:30am to 9:30pm


V Burger Bar on Urbanspoon

V Burger Bar - Floreat on Urbanspoon