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Address: 55 Avenue Road, Toronto, On (inside Hazelton Lanes Shopping Centre, lower level)Visited: Saturday September 26, 2009 1:00PM
Ordered: 4 oz Hero burger (x1), 6 oz peameal bacon burger (x1), fries (x2), vanilla milkshake (x1), iced tea (x1)
Total Cost: around $21; I didn’t get a receipt for some reason
Photo from Hero Certified Burgers
Sarah C.’s Review
The Experience
Today I was supposed to go with Dave to the new Gourmet Burger Co. that just opened up on Charles St. W, but tragically, Dave’s work thwarted our plans. To drown my sorrows, I went to Hero Burger with my husband instead.
We currently live pretty much equidistant between Hero Burger and Craft Burger, and I think we eat at both places about equally. To my mind, Craft Burger makes the better burger hands down, but Hero Burger provides very good value for your money and a fine burger experience, as it did today.
The Hero Burger in Hazelton Lanes only provides a couple of tables inside the store proper, but there are more spread out in front. The cashier was friendly and very polite (and also cute, which helps). Our food was ready within 6-7 minutes, which was impressive given that it was Saturday at 1:00 and they were fairly busy.
The milkshakes claim to be "90% ice cream, 10% milk," and I am here to tell you that this is FALSE. The shake was very thin up front. There was a reasonably large deposit of ice cream at the bottom of the cup, but even then, it wasn’t as much as I would have expected. This didn’t bother me a whole lot, as I like a thin shake, but it was definitely not as advertised.
One thing that Hero Burger does REALLY well is fries. They were hot, not overly salty, thick, and substantial. I generally like them a bit crispier, but these were very good nonetheless.
The Burger
As I said, I’ve always enjoyed Hero. Today, however, I was struck by how industrial the burger seemed: perfectly round, perfectly flat, with a slightly rubbery texture. The taste was fine, and the patty was nice and juicy, but I wasn’t at all fooled into thinking I was eating something made from scratch. They have a wide selection of toppings, which they apply generously. This results in a slightly messy burger, which doesn’t bother me as long as there are plenty of napkins to hand.
The Hero burger doesn’t hold a candle to the "gourmet" places, in my opinion, but it’s a decent, reliable, reasonably priced burger, and at the end of the day, sometimes that’s all you need.
Bottom Line
Average rating:
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