Address: 542 Church Street
Website: http://www.fresh-burger.com/
Fresh Burger recently opened their second location downtown and to mark the occasion not only threw a media party, but also gave out free burgers to anyone else! I'll admit, I felt guilty sneaking past the long line wound around their building ... but then the promise of warmth and comfort food got the best of me.
They have a simple menu with two sizes of burgers - a "fresh" (4 oz) and a "prime" (6 oz). If that isn't enough meat, patrons can also order double patties as well. Each are dressed with lettuce, tomato, cheese and their special sauce. You're also welcomed to add onions and pickles (free of charge) or caramelized onions, bacon, sautéed jalapeño, mushrooms or other cheeses for an extra $1.
For my first experience I decided to keep it simple and have their Freshburger combo - a 4oz patty with the classic fixings. Admittedly, it's a little plain, I'd suggest at least adding the pickle and onion to it. The combo normally comes with fries but the smell of their poutine was intoxicating so I had to make one upgrade.
The patty was tender and beefy thanks to the lean Canadian AAA sirloin they use. The fresh version was a decent amount of meat, but for the bun I think the prime version would be more suitable. I personally enjoyed that they didn't add too much spice mixture on the meat so that its natural flavour was pronounced. The bun was soft and fluffy, unfortunately its delicateness makes it look manhandled after I took it out of the wrapper.
I thoroughly enjoyed the poutine. Piping hot fresh fries, copious amounts of gooey cheese curds and layered gravy so there was plenty on the top and bottom of the container. It's well worth it to add the extra $2.99 to upgrade the fries. Like their burger, the portion size is huge and can easily be shared amongst two.
Indeed, you can tell their fries are freshly cut in house. If you can't tell from the potato taste, the skid of potatoes by the cash register surely will help.
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