Saturday, August 24, 2013

Elevation Burger Dubai, review

And here we are again... The next heart busting review....
Yes, another burger, yum!

Elevation Burger is the victim today. Located at Sheikh Zayed Road, besides of Crown Plaza it is not hart to find, but I've heard, that they've several other locations as well.

They say, that they're ingredient savvy ('ingredients matter') and that the meat is organic grass fed, free range. I love it when my food was happy, before it got the bullet...

One personal badge: they offer Coca Cola - free refill! Haha!

Anyway, I had to wait a bit for the food - 8 min after my order the burger arrived, though there might was some confusion as the server asked me of my other order - but my salad arrived only 2 minutes after the reconfirmation.

The order:
Elevation burger - custom toppings (red pepper relish, ketchup, mustard, roasted onion, lettuce)
Elevation salad - ranch dressing.

The staff is super friendly, mostly Asian (Filipino I guess)- the only down is, that they give number tents to wait and then call out the number (even though they directly find you without that you have to wave) - maybe they should learn from Shake Shack!

The burger
It was rather small. I guess the diameter is smaller than a McD hamburger... But two patties make sure, that you still get your carnivore fix. The meat was crumbly, toasted and well roasted. Nobody asked me for the doneness of the burger, but if it is always like that, there is no need for it!
My only complains: the bread roll was cold and untoasted and rather uninspiring. Think supermarket burger rolls. Not convincing. 
The taste though is. The bread obviously is overthrown of glorious meat and condiment taste. Almost very good.

The salad
I got a round transparent plastic box with romaine lettuce with a ring of mandarin segments and pecan nuts on top. They gave two small plastic bowls of ranch dressing.
The dressing tasted, as it was commercial off the shelf ranch. The mandarins, again uninspiring. While I always use to have a can of those in my cupboard in case of forbidden cravings, I don't think, that they should be on any restaurant menu (did you know, that they apply acid to corrode the skin?).
Still the salad tasted nice due to the nuts and fruitiness- just not really convincing). 

I wanted to leave, but seen house made fries on another table... Here we are again... cheese burger, this time and the fries. 

The fries, were almost matchstick thin, looked crispier as they were quite greasy - unfortunately they also underseasoned the fries. Not so good. As I asked for extra salt, they tasted better, but still too greasy (please check in the Internet how to make very crispy fries - Heston Blumenthal and other culinary masterminds share a trick or two openly). The cheese burger was as expected - good meat and toppings, bad roll...

Did I mention the free refill coke?

Lets get to the rating:

Yay or meh: more yay
Restaurant comfort: 7 (soda fountains besides of slightly smelly toilets are taking one point off)
Service: 7
Food and beverages: 7.5 (burger alone a 7.5- also plus for free refill)
Value for money: 6.5
Overall: 7
 Would I come back? Definitely!

Verdict: elevation burger has a lot of potential though disappoints in some areas. For the concept, I would not expect ingredients like industrial produced dressings, rolls. The signature burger is also surprisingly small! and lets not talk about the fries (for all who complain about the fries at Shake Shack: they are definitely better than most fries i had lately in the other joints). But the meat quality elevates it directly underneath Shake Shack and Johnnie Rockets!

And: did I mentioned the free refill?



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