"History will be kind to us, because we will write it"
When asked about reviewing something south of the lake in his $10 lunch reviews Johnboy said “When I find something good south of the lake I’ll let you know about it.”
He’s making me write about Brodburger. Draw your own conclusions about that.
So Brodburger is apparently a thing. Everyone has heard about about it. Well, everyone except me it seems. I had not heard about Brodburger until this morning which inspired Johnboy to take me there for lunch. On the drive down south he filled me in on the history of the Brodburger, its humble beginnings, through its troubled days at the park, and onto its new home at the Glassworks.
I was rather excited as we pulled up. The place is really trendy, the staff were nice, the rest of the customers were rather excited, and it felt like I was playing a part in something much larger and more important than simply having lunch. This was a THING. I was having a great time. The lady said my burger would take 20 minutes and it did pretty much exactly. That’s awesome, I’d been told tales of people waiting over an hour for their burger. Everything was going my way…
It’s a shame the burgers are powerfully average and extremely overpriced.
Ahh well.
Loading ...
The onions and the aioli that you skipped might have made all the difference.
Next time try the chicken with blue cheese or brie.. and you definitely can’t skip the aioli.. What were you thinking!?!?!
Finally, a review about this place I agree with.
Had been hearing about it for quite a while, and how amazing the burgers were. When I was finally in the area and somebody suggested going, I was completely disappointed. The burgers want to be a hell of a lot better than they are (average at best) for the price, and having to wait about an hour for it to show up. I honestly don’t understand all the praise this place gets.
Grimm said :
+1 – also rejoiced at barcham’s excellent piece…
You guys probably don’t have taste buds, therefore I suggest Grill’d, where the burgers taste like nothing
Solidarity said :
If I didn’t have taste buds, wouldn’t it not matter where I ate my burger?
Barcham said :
Yes, price.
Solidarity said :
It’s not just about the taste. I started going there when they were in the van and the burgers were good. Not exceptional but good.
However, when you factor in the price, they simply don’t stand up. Value for money isn’t there.
As Barcham says, I think you’re paying a premium just because it’s a THING.
chewy14 said :
You just have a lack of things. Tastebud things.
If there was any “thing” associated with Brodburger, it’d be those people who dress is weird clothes, listen to weird music and use the Apple laptops. That certainly isn’t me.
Has anyone else had the baby cheeseburger from BB? For all the criticism of the place, their cheeseburger is some damn good s**t. I don’t know if I’d go every week, and I don’t think I’m game enough to try going for dinner there, but the wait during lunch time has been no more than 15 minutes on the three occasions I’ve been there.
Don’t get me wrong… I’m a fan of the Brod…
But since when was a take-away burger a ‘thing’?
Burgers are as common as deep fried chips… (and just as bad for you if you eat too much of ‘em)
DrKoresh said :
I’m making an assumption, I admit, but I would hazard a guess that at least one other person has had it.
agree…the food is average, the service is terrible and the pricing is too high…such is canberra. some of the staff there are batsh** crazy frankly. and some of the wait times are unacceptable.
if the burger was excellent (like say Fergburger in NZ) i would happily wait and pay a premium price…but they’re a LONG way off that
So much emphasis on the travelling there and the environment of the Brodburger palace. Then you don’t tell us what you ordered and you don’t tell us what you liked or didn’t like about it.
If you’re going to do another food review, it’s important to tell us about the actual food.
But since you think the Brodburger is “powerfully average” (what the heck does that even mean?), perhaps you could point us in the direction of burgers that are better.
Will think twice before reading another Barcham article. The byline is poisoned now.
Well it’s been a while since I’ve had a brodburger so I will have to check them out tonight and see if the standard has dropped since I last went.. (before the big move)..
How is this a review? Doesn’t say what you had or how much it cost?
P.S. I’ve never been there but agree it’s a thing. Unfortunately “things” almost never live up to the hype.
This lovely little review made me giggle…the journey into the far-flung South-lands…the induction of the acolyte into the Way of the Brod by the Beef-Meister…acolyte’s foul apostasy in questioning Holy Writ…
And the ginger beer on the table!
Next Barcham will voluntarily mention the vegetarian options.
A large part of their success seems to be attributable to cognitive dissonance kicking in after a 60 minute wait. Or beer.
johnboy said :
Eh, I understand skipping onions if you’re worried about pashing on with someone later in the night – but who the hell skips aioli? FREE AIOLI.
People like Brodburgers a lot it seems.
For the record I ordered a standard Brodburger, with blue cheese, and no onions or aioli. I’m not going to say it was terrible, because it wasn’t. It certainly was a good looking burger if that’s important to you. But the actual beef content was rather tasteless. The bun and salad content could not save it. Maybe the aioli is spectacular and that’s what what missing but I’m not a fan of aioli so… I’ll admit I may have had unreasonable expectations, partially due to the high prices.
If I were buying a burger from a takeaway store for $6 while hungover I would probably have been satisfied. If I were stopping buy a food van on during a night on the town and spending $8 I probably would have been happy. However I was buying a fancy burger for lunch at a premium price from a place with a big reputation, and it was powerfully average.
Actually to be completely honest Johnboy paid for the burger… so I should stop bitching.
zorro29 said :
LOL, sounds a little too close to “furburger”.
Barcham said :
You are dead to me.
Also, Brodburger is spectacularly s***. Huxtaburger in Melbourne is epic, try the Theo.
cmdwedge said :
I’m not proud.
I swear that the same crowd that are turning their noses up at Brodburger now suffer from the same phenomenon that sees people dislike a band once it becomes too common. ‘That bands rubbish, their old stuff was better’. In some cases of course that can be true, but it’s also true that a lot of people enjoy the sense of exclusivity that comes from being part of something fairly unknown and even a bit underground. I don’t know whether Brodburger has changed since being in the van, but I take the chorus of criticisms in this thread with a grain of salt when I take into account the pretentious, tosser factor.
Solidarity said :
Doubt it. If anything I’m more of a foodie, and I’m willing to admit that food experiences can be about more than the food served. I think that’s what occurs here.
I just can’t see the value for money in what’s served at Brodburger. Even so, I still go there occasionally (I like wasting my money).
lumnock said :
I think you may be pointing the pretentious tosser factor in the wrong direction. I thought that was a fair slice of their clientele?
lumnock said :
But what will we all ride now that our vintage-retro-fixies are all back at revolve?
chewy14 said :
How can you be a foodie? Your tastebuds are broken!
Brodburger is hugely over rated. It’s good but not that good. Defo not worth the prices you pay. They have the salads and aditionals down but the meat is no better than a average take away. So easy to make better at home.