tummyrumbles.com » burgers

Misty’s Diner

mellie — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:57:00 +0000

103-105 High Street Prahran 3181
Phone 03 9510 0033

Comparisons with Happy Days are unavoidable as you walk into Misty’s Diner, a 1950s style eatery and car wash (uh huh). That’s right, bring your car in for some sprucin’, and chow down on diner-style fare in retro surroundings; leather/laminex booth seating, coin slot tabletop juke boxes and the smell of grease and fries. There is a hefty amount of patriotism here, not only in the proliferation of American candies and soft drinks on offer. All dishes come with at least one American flag, and some of them, even two!

I kept it simple (or so I thought) and ordered a cheeseburger with gourmet fat fries (yes, that IS what they are called) cooked in cottonseed oil. Actually, the fat fries were darn tootin’ tasty! The burger came skewered with a pickle, which I absolutely adore (my time spent in Canada provided me with appreciation for such things). The burger…well, it was…okay. I expected a juicy flame-grilled meat pattie, but instead got something I think had been grilled earlier and just pre-heated. It was a little on the dry side.

Dan went the Misty’s American Style Burger, which came with cheese, egg, bacon, sauteed onions and Misty’s special sauce. On the side, a mountain (and I mean MOUNTAIN) of chilli cheese fries; chips topped with a mince and red bean chilli con carne. Oh my…I can feel the arteries hardening now.

If you’re not completely full after all that, you may want to sample their Oreo thickshake, or their behemonth of a brownie. My second stomach, which is usually good for such things, couldn’t even attempt it after that burger and fries! A hearty feed indeed.

Tabet’s Bakery

mellie — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 10:11:00 +0000

607 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Phone 03 9387 3461

A leisurely walk from the CBD to Sydney Road, Brunswick is certainly deserved of a spinach and cheese pie at A1 Bakery, one of my all time favourite snack stops. Alas when EG and I arrived there (it was Easter Monday), we found it was closed. Arghh. I had been looking forward to a pie for every step of our just completed 6km journey.

Luckily not too far away we spotted a rather busy little shop, Tabet’s Bakery. I had never been there before, but yeah…I think this would probably satisfy my craving

This is the spinach and cheese pie – a lovely little triangle of yeasty bread, filled with cooked spinach and salty curd cheese. It was very moist, but having just come out of the gas pizza/bread oven, was still firm (they can tend towards sogginess once the juice starts to flow and they cool down). Mmm….it was goood.

EG and I also shared the oregano pizza with salad, a doughy base generously slathered with an oregano overdosed olive oil, stuffed with fresh tomato, green peppers, onions and large salty black olives. This too was also very good – fresh and tasty, and cheap at only a few dollars.

Speaking of which, I was amused to see the most expensive item on the menu (which runs with traditional Lebanese meat/sausage pizzas, oregano pizzas, cheese pies, untraditional hamburgers, chips etc.) was the fruit juice cocktail. Uh huh, it was $6.50.

Embassy Taxi Cafe

mellie — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 13:14:00 +0000

547 Spencer Street, Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9328 1830

The Embassy Taxi Cafe is one of those places heralded as THE spot in Melbourne to get a great burger. Operating 24 hours a day since 1962, the cafe has been feeding tired, hungry cabbies (and tired, hungry nightclubbers) in a setting somewhat akin to an old school fish and chip shop circa 1970. Linoleum flooring, vinyl seating, fluoro lighting, packets of ciggies, TV with bad reception, girlie bar flyers, vibrating massage chair, pinafored waitresses and a buzzing bug zapper all add to the ambience. As does the elderly couple eating a plate of ham and salad in front of the tele, the loutish Brit backpackers with their order of fish and chips, and the multicultural cabbies, hankering for a fatty feed.

But, to the hamburger. Yes, it was a nice. The bread was firm and toasty (and not of that squidgy sugary variety served at Mc*coughs*) and stuffed with a wonderfully grilled plain beef pattie, fried egg, crisp bacon, lettuce and tomato. And therein my friends lies the problem. The tomato.

Who in their right mind would allow such travesty as the placement of a juicy slice of tomato on the BOTTOM of a burger? I was appalled. The tomato had released all of its fluid into base of bun, saturating it to the point of disintegration. You don’t need a friggin science or chefs degree for this one – Hamburger Making 101 – put lettuce on the bottom, or at the very least, the hamburger pattie. One must ensure the integrity of the bun at all times. This is essential to a good burger experience.

EG decided on the steak sanga, which again was nicely served between two slices of sliced white bread. But as you can plainly see, the tomato is on the bottom. What the?

Whilst I very much enjoyed my Embassy Taxi Cafe dining experience (…nostalgic ambience like this is pure gold), I lament the sloppy hamburger assembly, which is a shame considering the rest of the ingredients were so darn good. I’ll be back to test their assembly techniques again