Location: 190 King George Rd, Brantford, ON N3R 5L3
Website: http://www.zanders.ca/
Price: $14.99
What We Ordered:
- The Trooper
Burger Review:
I was driving out of town when lunch struck me as a necessity since I had 2 hours to go before reaching my destination. I asked my GPS to suggest some restaurants near me. Zander’s was not far from the highway and had a 4.5 rating. So I thought I’d give it a go. The menu is extensive and took me a while to decide what to get. I asked the waitress what she recommended. She said “….everything is good. Our owner is Greek so anything Mediterranean is a good choice and we’re known for our burgers.” That last statement was all I had to hear to know that this place was going to turn into a burger blog post.
They have 15 burgers on the menu. Everything from your classic cheeseburger to a pulled pork monstrosity on a triple bun. I went for The Trooper, which is cheddar cheese, onion tanglers, bacon and BBQ sauce on a potato bun with a side o’ fries. They all sounded good, but failed to deliver. The bun was too heavy and the patty was sub-par. The bacon was delicious but it wasn’t enough to rescue the burg. I felt gross and stuffed for hours afterwards, even though I barely ate half.
Meat: The patty is “made in house from 100% pure chuck”. Normally chuck is a good choice, but this came out like one of those frozen banquet burgers that are kind of chunky and way too dense. It was cooked well done, but I bet this meat comes out grey at any doneness. The seasoning reminded me of meatloaf and I took it out about 1/2 way through to make a bacon sandwich with the toppings.
Toppings: The burg comes with orange cheddar cheese, chopped iceberg lettuce, sliced tomato, dusted and fried red onion strings, thick-cut bacon which had a nice maple flavour, BBQ sauce, and I added pickles because pickles. The fried onions were made of red onions which means they have that tart taste red onions have. They should use sweet onions when doing their tanglers. The bacon was good, but not enough to rescue the patty and bun.
Bun: It’s a potato bun, which I have had before at other burger joints and enjoyed elsewhere. But this potato bun was huge, stale, and heavy. It was just too much overall and ended up costing this burg points on the delicious scale, sending it crashing down to a 2-star burger when combined with the patty.
Other Food:
Fries were thick cut and I’m guessing fresh made in-house. They lent themselves well to malt vinegar and salt. Very yummy but I could barely eat half of them there were so many.
Atmosphere & Staff:
The interior is decorated in guitars, motercycles, paintings of rock legends, and TV’s . Like a family-friendly version of a biker bar. There is a worn feeling to the furniture but overall it felt clean with a mix of booths, tables, and hightops. The baseball game was on the TV while rock n’ roll quietly played in the background, barely noticeable over the din of conversation from the many other patrons. Most people were over 50 years old having the wing special that day. Including an elderly woman who chowed down on her wings like she’d been looking forward to it all week. The staff was nice and there’s free parking out front.
Final Verdict:
2 stars
Take a hard pass on adding this stop to your Canadian Burger Tour. I’m sure there are great things on the menu, but the burg is not one of them.