Baagi and I were sitting around one day, sipping a coffee at the Coffee Corner in the Grandkhaan Irish Pub where they seem to have managed to overcome the altitude problem and serve a hot cappuccino with a suitably thick (but not too thick) milk froth on the top. We were discussing cheeseburgers, as you do straight after lunch. We then started talking about the best cheeseburger in Ulaanbaatar. Was it at Dave's Place - Baagi's first choice? Thomo countered with the cheeseburger at Millie's. Baagi agreed that is was good. Baagi then mentioned the cheeseburger at California and presto, we had a top three list. We had also considered other cheeseburgers we had eaten but they did not rate as well as those three.
I then published my list of the three best cheeseburgers in Ulaanbaatar on my Blog. This resulted in some comments from readers of the blog. The one that caused me to consider the whole question of cheeseburgers was the woman who said "what about the cheeseburgers at Strings?" Sigh! We had not had one so we felt now that it was time to apply a more scientific approach, sample each cheeseburger and rate it.
Ratings, of course, are a very subjective thing and you may well ask, what qualifications do Thomo or Baagi have to embark on the equivalent of a Michelin Star review of all Ulaanbaatar cheeseburger purveyors. All I can say is to check our girth. Neither of us are tiny and Thomo in particular is described as having a more fulsome figure.
What will appear here? Well, under the line here we will review a cheeseburger. We'll comment on it and its flavour. You'll get the picture as your read it. Later we will provide a ratings list, probably based around cost - along with an overall ratings list. To be fair as well, we are starting this with a blank slate so the first burger reviewed will hold top dog position for a while.
There will be an archive available of all reviewed burgers as well - just so we all remember.
Some more updates:
Dave's Place:
Baggy took in a Cheeseburger the other day from Dave's Place and noted that the quality there was just as good, if not a shade better than before. I have taken a burger from California recently and it was not up to the same usual standard. That, coupled with the falling quality of the UB Deli burger has led to a reshuffling of the list. There is aslo some new inclusions coming up over the next few weeks (we have been busy cruising for burgers, ahem, as it were).
Featured Cheeseburger
The featured burger today is from: Detroit - Restaurant and Bar
On Seoul Street at the western end - you can't miss it, it is underneath BDs Mongolian Barbeque and it appears to be run by the same company.
Website:
Detroit (along with BDs Mongolian Barbeque) was opened in the summer of 2005. It appears to be more of a night spot than a lunch location and the bar area inside, even in the middle of the day, is suitably dim and dark. The menu consists of a a few different dishes, kind of a fusion between American Bar style food and Mongolian dishes (and no, no Mongolian Barbeque thankfully).
Now the Burger. Firstly, as it was lunch, I had it with a glass of Fanta. The burger itself is fairly standard, consisting of meat patty, cheese, tomato, pickles, lettuce and is served with a serving of French Fries. Baggy opted for a mutton dish this lunch time ... and regretted the decision feeling the burger was maybe a better option after all.
The meat patty is beef and it has a average taste. Nothing special, except that I think they have added some of the Chinese Five-Spice mix to the meat patty as there is a slight spiciness to the taste. The cook manages to keep it juicy whilst ensuring, in Mongolian fashion, that it is thoroughly cooked through. Whilst the bun was a sesame seed bun, it was dry. The garnish for the burger was minimal (as you can see from the photo). Fries were good though and the burger was certainly not the worst one we have eaten.
The meal cost arounf MNT 5,000 tugrigs for burger and Fanta (although I think I had a couple of Fantas). Recommended as a night place to go though - I think it looks an interesting bar and one best seen at night.
Top List
The top list is split into three. The split is based around price and then there is a combined list. We may eventually make 4 lists, separating on both price and the local equivalent of the fast food joint ... that is food to consider though. Note that a recent burger from California and we are swapping the relative position of California and Dave's Place. There really is very little at the top of the table though, to be fair.
Links to all previous reviews of burgers are included here. For simplicity (and because I am an incredibly lazy sod <-- Thomo is doing the page) there will be one page per burger.
There is also a Photo Archive - that is, a page where you can see ALL of the cheeseburgers at the same time. Click on a burger and read the review.
A Note on the Photos: All the photos shown here have been taken on the camera that is built into my Sony Ericsson K750i mobile phone. The camera is a 2 megapixel phone camera. It's easier to take a quiet photo of a burger this way. I must admit to having been quite surprised at the quality of the phone camera's photos.
Copyright crap, safe surfing icons, the odd link from here and there and the almost obligatory page counter all will appear here or are already here.
