Restaurants
The Burger's Priest (Yonge St.)
The Burger's Priest has, without any irony, developed a pretty ardent cult following. Opened in the summer of 2010, Shant Mardirosian's local paean to flat top franchise In-N-Out has conquered Toronto's burger scene in just one short year.
Openly aping In-N-Out's fresh, never frozen beef philosophy (also: the franchise's secret menu), the Priest has attracted a steady stream of burger fans from across the GTA willing to make the pilgrimage to Queen and Coxwell.
The fast food restaurant caused a local frenzy when news broke it would be opening a more subway accessible second location on Yonge Street north of Lawrence Avenue (you'll still have a bit of a walk from the station). After some initial delays, the highly anticipated expansion debuted roughly a week ago, and it hasn't taken long for the new Priest to attract a flock.
Two days after opening, a weeknight visit finds the restaurant so full we can't even squeeze ourselves into the door. From afar it looks as though the small storefront is trying to set a Guinness World Record for most patrons rammed into a single hamburger joint.
A return trip on Friday afternoon proves more manageable. There is still a steady stream of customers filling three quarters of the room, featuring an eclectic mix of business types who've made the lunch trek from Sheppard or Eglinton, and local kids in school uniforms.
Substantially larger than the Priest's original restaurant, the uptown expansion projects much of the same spartanism as its predecessor. A plain white counter wraps around two sides of the long and narrow room, seating roughly 15 patrons on bar stools — a modest but relatively spacious improvement over the decidedly take-out targeted trappings of the Queen St. locale.
The casual, contemporary vibe is accentuated with a black tin roof and white, exposed brick accent wall that provides stark contrast to the dark ceiling and paint. Perhaps the most glaring upgrade however is functional rather than aesthetic: the new location has washrooms. For customers to use. Hallelujah!
We order one Priest ($9.99, a single beef patty topped with fried portobello mushrooms and processed cheese) and a Noah's Ark ($11.28, a Priest, slathered in chilli cheese sauce). We pair up our burgers with regular fries ($3.29) and a strawberry milkshake ($4), the drink a new menu offering currently exclusive to the uptown location.
The cashier taking our order is friendly enough, but we notice a bit of a kink when she asks if we'd like our meal as a combo despite a lack of pricing for this on the hymnal board menu. This is a minor service nitpick, but indicates that despite a constantly packed house, the nascent expansion is still going to suffer from a few growing pains.
I can safely report, however, that the burgers are still very, very good.
The signature, freshly ground beef patty is griddle cooked to perfection, slightly pink on the inside, crumbling just slightly and sopping an appropriate amount of juices into the simple white bread bun. Our fried mushroom topping stuffed with cheese is perfectly crispy on the outside, revealing a delicious and gooey blob of dairy with every bite.
The strawberry milkshake is also an above average offering, served in a no-frills dixie cup and viscous enough that sucking it through the provided straw is no simple feat. It isn't a gourmet shake and has the signature taste of artificial strawberry flavouring — but that's expected and it delivers in the best of traditional diner ways.
The fries, however, leave something to be desired. Usually a well seasoned, perfectly crispy treat, the potatoes we get this meal overly cooked on the outside and slightly undercooked on the inside. The spuds aren't atrocious, but they're definitely not good. Certainly they're not up to snuff compared to past experiences at the restaurant. Again, the chewy potatoes should be chalked up to a new location still getting its legs under it.
At $33 dollars for two cheeseburgers, one serving of fries and a milkshake, one would hope every experience at the Burger's Priest is exceptional. It's earned more than enough goodwill to earn the benefit of the doubt, so I expect these wrinkles will be ironed out as the new outpost settles in.
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I hope this location doesn't fall into the same mediocricity of the rest of that strip of Yonge...
It would be incorrect to call BP the same. Thanks for catching that!
My only complaint is that, given how insanely busy it is in the place, you can't really eat your burgers in the restaurant, and by the time you get them home they've cooled off a little bit. But, the crowds in the restaurant add to the 'event-like' atmosphere - don't go if you're not prepared to be smooshed like sardines, and to make friendly chitchat with the people around you in line. If you want a quick, antisocial burger, there'sa McDonald's across the street.
Also Burger Priest is not trying to emulate In-N-Out (like they claim), they are clearly trying to imitate Shake Shack. And you don't have to go far, the option is a clear rip-off of the Shroom Burger. Priest uses green leaf lettuce like Shake Shack (In-N-Out uses iceberg).
Wrong.
Five Guys is a blatant rip-off of In'n'Out, which filled the franchise void that InO refused to fill. Burger Priest does seem to be chasing the Shake Shack uber-cool model more than the red-and-white tiled In'n'Out/Five Guys. Two cheeseburgers, fries and a shake will run you a big line, lots of pretty people and about $17 at Shake Shack, so I still don't understand how Torontonians put up with those BP prices, but it's a closer fit design-wise.
For my money, you still can't beat Webers on Highway 11. Damn but those burgers and seasoned fies are tasty when eaten roadside. And not nearly as expensive as they once seemed.
The Priest is my favourite burger in the city BUT in general BP is so overrated its not even funny. The Priest is the only reason why I don't cut them out and go to Holy Chuck instead (and Holy Chuck is pretty expensive too).
I've been putting off the Burger's Priest for a while and with this new location there really is no excuse. But the fries and shakes do look like they could use some work.
no way i was going to wait that long. The owners must be scouting another
new location already. Good for them, hope it works out.
I've had a few burgers in my day, Shake Shack (awesome), In-N-Out (really good), Holy Chuck, Golden Star, Craft, Burger Cellar, Burger Shoppe.. all very tasty. But I still rate Burger's Priest at the top. The flavouring of the meat can't be beat..
Now that the writing is literally on the wall, I don't know if I'm ordering a burger or getting converted.
No one's holding a gun to face, and I'm sure they won't miss one customer but it seems a little ridiculous.
Good news is you can get them in your grocer's freezer.
Your one of those guys that votes PizzaPizza as the best pizza in the city arent you?
That's a hell of a lot of attitude for an overrated burger place that can't get their orders right.
NEVER AGAIN.
-Orgrod.
The next visit, the staff we too busy messing up all the orders because they were screwing around. Everyone was upset.
So 3 strikes your out. What was our go-to burger place, got knocked off the list.
This seems to happen a lot in the Beach. A place opens, has great food and service. After a couple of years the staff don't care any more.
Casa De Georgio fell into the same hole.