Cuba St Bistro, Horopito & Lamb - 3/10, Burger Wellington 2012

Minted premium lamb patty with a horopito leaf and caramelised onion relish, brie, lettuce, tomato and lemon mayo with hand-cut fries - $18

Rushed presentation.  Initial disappointment...
The Horopito & Lamb burger from Cuba St Bistro was an absolutely disappointing way to end the Burger Challenge.  This was the worst burger of the lot.  Although the worst thing was, we weren't even meant to go there.  Oh well, its fate.  We won yesterday with Charlie Bill, and this time, we lost.

But I still have to apportion blame.  You could argue that between the four of us one would have taken the initiative and booked a table at Pravda (which is where we were supposed to be for "the Ultimate Truth" burger).  You could also argue that, with four of us, one could safely assume that someone else had booked.  In any case, nobody booked and Pravda was booked out.  No amount of begging could get us booked in.

SO I BLAME BRAD!!


...which was confirmed.  heaps of mayo with cold onion relish.  Untoasted bun...
Now that I have that off my chest we can go on to the Horopito & Lamb burger from Cuba St Bistro.

This is apparently a pretty new establishment.  It looks funky enough and could have some good atmosphere if pumping.  An excellent selection of craft beers.  However, it had better do something about its food if it is to have any hope.

Brad, Hoppy and I were joined by Juliet, who was all excited as it was her first burger (I think) of the competition.  This excitement was dampened slightly as she was a fan of Pravda and was looking forward to going there I know. Good one Brad!!

All of us ordered burgers.

When they arrived, the first thing we noticed was that the buns were not toasted.  Nor were they steamed.  In fact they were dry and slightly stale...and I will continue critiquing from here.  The pattie was bland.  It was probably called a premium pattie because it came in a package that said 'premium'.  i.e. it did not appear home-made.  Nor was the mayo, which was slathered on thick, probably to try to add a bit of moisture to the burger.  It did that, but unfortunately it wasn't a good mayo.  It was meant to be a lemon mayo but it was really a 'lemon' of a mayo.  If by chance it was homemade, I wouldn't be admitting it!!  The tomato sauce also was a house brand.  No not a cafe brand, but a supermarket house brand.  Cold caramelised onion and a slice of brie completed the sorry affair (there was some mesclun as well and probably horopito).
 ...which was stale.

Now we were really worked up and playing the blame game on who's fault it was we were here.  We were prepared to stop up and leave.  Unfortunately Hoppy had already scoffed his burger (he was hungry he said), Brad was enjoying the best thing about his meal (the Croucher ale), and Juliet had just ordered a bottle of wine.

So we went through the motions.  Ate our meal and left.  A sad way to end what had been quite an enjoyable adventure.

Before we left we scored.  The disappointing Surf & Turf we started with at Arizona had been surpassed at the finish.  The Cuba St Cafe's horopito & lamb burger scored a three.

Note: to add to our ire, the table next door received burgers with toasted buns.  This suggests a lack of care/interest in the kitchen!!




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