Burger House

A fancy burger joint opens up at JBR 3 Reviews

© ITP Images

The menu for Burger House enticed from the start. With a large range of exotic burger combinations, including one stuffed with basil and parmasean, it seemed the Burger House was going to deliver what many have promised in Dubai and few delivered: the gourmet burger. For starters, these patties came from humanely raised cattle – a fact that made me and my date hopeful.

The menu was written out on the place mat, and some items undermined the upscale vibe the place was going for (the cheese-smothered baked potato starter just didn’t scream haute). As for the burger, there were about 10 to choose from, with vegetarian, fish and chicken options as well as the obligatory beef. What was odd about the choices was that they each seemed to encompass an awful lot of ingredients. The Mexican-style burger, for instance, had nachos crushed inside the meat. I went for the Up ’n Smoke burger – classic beef patty, onion ‘sticks’, tomato, lettuce, cheese, beef bacon and barbecue sauce – and the crab burger with orange rinds and cocktail sauce.

The beef burger was tasty, but the whole thing suffered from soggy, browning lettuce and a merging gooiness of ingredients. The crab burger, which held so much promise, was just plain weird. Rather than orange rind, there were actual orange segments imbedded in the crab. The citrus flavour was so overpowering that I couldn’t even taste crab.

My date caught glimpse of the New York style cheesecake at the start and was eager to have it for dessert. However, when the waiter put down the dessert, we assumed he brought the wrong one. Instead of a cheesecake the plate had two scoops of ice cream, sliced bananas and some nondescript deep-fried balls.

‘Oh, that’s our special cheesecake,’ he responded.

We cut into one of the deep-fried balls, and sure enough it was filled with cheesecake, along with some apple sauce and cinnamon. It seemed that Burger House liked the concept of getting as many flavours as they could into one dish. The result was a sickly sweet pudding.

While the Burger House didn’t live up to our expectations, it serves a strong purpose in JBR. The service is swift, the staff friendly and there’s a kids’ menu decorated in puzzles. The venue would make a good pit stop for the family on their way back from the beach. To become a hit with the rest of JBR, though, Burger House needs to refine its recipes. Sometimes simpler is better.

The bill (for two)
1x Cola float Dhs15
1x Fresh orange juice Dhs17
1x Up ’n Smoke burger Dhs43
1x Crab orange rind burger Dhs50
1x NY style cheesecake Dhs28
Total (excluding service) Dhs153

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