Handmade Burgers, Kingsland

Two things immediately stand out about Handmade Burgers. Firstly, there's a kind of drive-thru arrangement on the forecourt, so I think in the mornings you can, er, drive through it and pick up a coffee on the way. Nice idea, not sure about it in practice. Secondly, the look and feel of it is nicely styled, but possibly in the way grown-ups think is down with the 'youth'. Being more the former than the latter, it's hard for me to judge.

Anyway, all in all it looks pretty quirky, in a good way. Seems cool enough.

The menu, though, is a bit of a challenge. There's a train of thought somewhere in the catering industry which seems to think that a dish is not a dish until it has at least 15 components all screaming for attention, and unfortunately Handmade Burgers ploughs this field like you would not believe. The descriptions sound innocuous enough, until you read the small print that explains that when they say 'salad', they mean red onion, spring onion, capsicum, cucumber, tomato, and a ton of iceberg lettuce. Too much, guys, especially when you seem incapable of removing any of these bits when asked.

My other problem with Handmade is simpler. Every single burger on their menu comes with plum sauce. Seriously. Plum sauce. So your basic cheeseburger comes with plum sauce by default. I tried this, just for fun, and it turns out it's not actually the tangy plum sauce as you'd find in a Chinese supermarket, but more like a sickly sweet kind of jam. JAM. On my cheeseburger.

A daring, forward thinking new taste sensation? No, vile. Utterly, utterly vile.

This was a shame, because the burger itself (or patty, if you like) was actually pretty good. Overcooked for my taste, but far from ruined, and still showing loads of flavour and decent quality beef too. The bun was as it should be - soft, white, sesame seeds, simple.

So on the whole, Handmade Burgers is a bit of a saddening experience. Buried in here somewhere are the makings of a great burger bar - good basic building blocks, some great sounding burger combinations, but it's ruined by crap, over-fussy salad garnishes and that bloody jam they insist on putting on everything. I will be going again, but I'll be ordering more carefully next time, and if the grill monkey even looks at that jam pot...


Handmade Burgers

455 New North Road,
Kingsland
Auckland

(09) 849 4590