Craft Burger Keeps It Simple
573 King Street West
Phone: 416.596.6660
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I think winter might just last forever this year. It honestly wouldn't surprise me the way things are going right now. But whether you're someone who either loathes or embraces that sentiment, I think there's one thing we can all agree on: a warm and hearty meal tastes about a hundred times better after coming in from a cold, windy winter's day.
So far, my favourite meal to beat the cold this year has been a Craft Burger combo. Fresh and tasty ground beef, served as simple as possible, with a side of crispy, salted fries.
I'm feeling warmer already.
So what does Craft Burger do so well you ask? Well, first of all, they choose some really good beef. Top quality Ontario AAA beef to be exact. On top of that, they make a point of sourcing their toppings and side dish ingredients from Canadian growers (always a plus in terms of sustainability and quality).
Looking at it more from a food enjoyment perspective, in my mind, there has always been two main ways to make a really great burger...
The first is a really interesting seasoning blend for the beef (more along the lines of a Utopia or Czehoski burger). The second is a super simple, lightly seasoned but incredibly fresh and locally sourced, patty of beef. Craft Burger, at its best, definitely falls into the second category and that's exactly what makes it a favourite of mine.
One main rule I tend to live by when choosing a restaurant is probably the simplest one possible: if the place is packed with locals, they're probably doing something right. This is definitely the case here. Walk by on a weekday afternoon and you'll probably find a line running right out the front door. For this particular meal though, I decided to avoid the elbow-throwing crowd by grabbing a late lunch on a Saturday afternoon.
When you walk in, you'll notice a giant chalkboard with a few different burger options. My personal favourite -- and my choice for Saturday's lunch -- was the Organic Beef Burger Combo. The organic beef comes directly from The Healthy Butcher just north on Portland along Queen, which is exactly the type of local relationship I love to see in a Toronto neighbourhood.
Apart from the Organic Burger, and straight up original Craft Burger, they also have a couple more dressed up choices, like the Craft Bleu (topped with blue cheese and avocado) as well as the Craft Spicy (with caramelized onions and spicy chipotle mayo). And of course, any of these can be ordered in a combo, which consists of either fries or onion rings (both of which are crispy and delicious), and a pop or bottle of water. For a little bit extra though, you can substitute the drinks for an old-fashioned vanilla or chocolate milkshake.
Being a sucker for a vanilla shake, I couldn't resist. Yes, you might consider the shakes a little pricey $3.95, but they're still a nice treat when you need something soothing and sweet.
Craft Burger has definitely become a local staple for myself, as well as the King Street neighbourhood that it serves.
That said, I should warn you that they do get very, very crowded for lunch on weekdays. So if you're a little claustrophobic (like I am) you might want to consider phoning in your order and picking up. They're also in the midst of setting up an online ordering system, so be sure to check back at their website for that.
Comments (32)
I don't suppose this one has something other than white bread for buns? I'd love to be able to eat a gourmet burger someday without having to do in my doctor-ordered whole-grain diet.
i've found them pricey and disappointing with the poutine being quite bottom of the barrel.
interesting to note that the owner of craft was associated with the burger shoppe and the menus read very similarly.
A good burger, but waaay too expensive. Knock prices down a buck or two, and it would rank much higher in my books.
I've tried it myself and wasn't that impressed - it's overpriced, overcrowded and the fries are overcooked.
El Penco was much tastier, much more affordable and always had a friendly face greeting you. Too bad Craft(y) Burger took it's place!
this post is getting somewhat bipolar... we're getting a bunch of negative mini reviews in the comments, but a still a load of recommendations on the main page. guess the jury's still out on this one...
oh well, i still love the place :) friendly people too.
Maria: i linked to their website, which has all their menu info. check it out here: www.craftburger.com
its funny how petty some opinions can be ; and even funnier when people don't realize when they have found something amazing. how many places have an owner present at all times ? who worries about the quality of the meat ? who chooses to use natural pops instead of crapcola ?
Fraft burger is the best burger in the downtown area , sure it can be crowed (i don't go or trust empty places) and you pay for a premium i just hope people realize what an amazing concept and product they have . just like Hall burger did
I have to say I don't like this place either. The burger I had was dry, the onion rings were straight out of the fryer - way too hot to touch until I had finished my burger and way too greasy (yeah, I know, whaddayaggspect from onion rings, but still this was gross), there wasn't enough choice for toppings and it was all much too expensive. And the hipster vibe doesn't help, either.
Would be a good place if the prices weren't so high. A hamburger combo shouldn't cost $10-$12. Otherwise, the organic burger was great, as were the fries.
don't like the service and when it is crowded you do not want to be in there...the service... can't even put it in words..it stinks...my burger was burnt on the outside and raw on the inside....ugghhh...and i asked for medium welll....don't think i'll go back there...not sure...may just go back there just for their fries...ymmmm...
The best burgers in the city.
I if you can't pay 5-6 burger, maybe you should not be eating out.
love burgers
Craft Burger cannot be beat for food or prices.
The price of a combo meal at a fast food chain comes close to the prices at this restaurant - the BIG difference - everything is FRESH. Top notch. I hear they just opened another location across from the reference library on Yonge (Yonge and Bloor).
I just ate there and was not impressed. Burger was cooked earlier in the day and was just warmed up when it was served. Cheese on burger was rubbery and tasteless. Onion rings were devoid of any flavour.
McDonald's tastes better and is much cheaper
As employee who used to work at the other location. I must JB you are wrong about. Each burger is cooked to order. Your burger could not have been cooked earlier in the day. Unless you saw this with your own eyes. How could you make a statement like that. It's uneducated foodies like you that don't help our small business.
If you don't like the place don't go there but you don't need to make statement like that period. I moved out of Toronto otherwise I would still be working there, great food and a great place to work very honest owner.
thank you Toronto.
The best organic burger I've had in years. Fries to die for, oh my gawd! Now here, here, all you have to do is substitute the white bun for 100 WHOLE WHEAT BUNS and french fries for BAKED SWEET POTATO FRIES and then we can EAT HERE ALL THE TIME. Get with the future of things, pretty please and you'll improve you're already great eatery.
This place is phenomenal. I have no idea what the people up thread are talking about. My wife and I went to the Yonge/Bloor location last night, and it was all kinds of good. I haven't had a burger that tasty in a while. And paying 12 bucks for a burger combo might suck, but this place is at least $6 more awesome than McDonalds, so I have no idea what the cheapskates are complaining about.
And jb has to be talking out of his ass. The onion rings were crunchy and awesome.
I used to go to El Penco, because it's close to work. I was sad when it closed and pretty disappointed with Craft Burger when I first went there. Like most new restaurants they were disorganized, the staff were stressed and not very nice. Like others have said, the onion rings are not very good. If anyone from Craft burger is reading this, try the Banknote down the street! Their onion rings are much better, crispy, tender and slightly sweet, with lots of onion flavour.
Now though, I go there about once a week and the service has much improved. The staff have hit full stride, there are about five of them in the food prep/grill area and it's a lot of fun to watch if you're sitting on one of the swivel chairs at the counter near the end of the grill. There is also a "den mother" who really facilitates the order taking and efficiency during the lunch rush and meets people as they come in, often taking their orders as they wait in line to pay. The lunch rush is a crush of people that would make any fire marshal rub their hands together in glee. There are people standing along the walls and in every available space, waiting for their orders. The tables are always full. The orders do come quickly now though. They have about twenty burgers on the grill at any given time and I'm amazed at how much faster they have become.
Some of the food has also dramatically improved. They've started adding a very tasty seasoning to their hand-cut fries. An aioli mayo dipping sauce would be a great addition for the fries, the way that they used to make it at Insomnia on Bloor. They also put guacamole in their bleu cheese burger now instead of just avocado. The limey zest gives the burger a zing instead of it just being heavy and soggy. I will agree that sometimes the burgers are burnt or undercooked. They still have to work on that.
I've only had one really memorable bad service experience there, where a friend and I ordered a couple of combos for takeout because there wasn't any room to sit. When our bags-o-burgers were ready we saw two open seats at the bar and grabbed them. One of the owners(?), a guy with glasses and short dark shaved curly hair came up to us from the grill and addressed us sternly saying that if we wanted to eat there we should not have ordered takeout. I told him that we took seats when we saw them and ordered takeout because there was no room to sit. He scowled and walked away. Not the best guy to have out front for customer service and he's conspicuously absent most of the time now. Hopefully he was just having a bad day, but my friend likes to joke and say "No buhrrrger for you, ONE YEAR!" whenever we talk about that experience.
The girls on the counter are great, and very smiley now that they're relaxed and in the groove. Overall, it went from a disappointment to a favourite work hangout. Over 15 bucks for a burger and shake combo is pretty steep, but if you're in the mood and they do it right, it's worth it.
I ate at Craft Burger in the fall and really enjoyed it.
Raved about it to a couple of buddies last night and we placed a phone order for pickup.
I am pretty embarrassed I told my friends about it. They told us it would be ready in 10-15 minutes. We got there exactly at 15 minutes and had to wait another 10 minutes because the order was not ready. They provided 2 complimentary cans of pop as an apology.
I am a 5 minute drive away. When we got home, the fries and poutine were stone cold. They must have made them and then had them sit for 10-15 minutes while they tried to catch up on the burgers. The burgers were definitely not as good as I remember.
The veggie burger did however get a thumbs up from one friend. But he 2 regular burgers were not very good...for that price point anyways.
Maybe just the ordering out is risky. When you eat there, I guess you can easily complain and get hotter food. When you pick up and find out at home, there is not much you can do about it without maybe waiting another hour to eat.
Went to Craft Burger for lunch today. Wow this place Rocks.
We had 2 combos, mine was the spicy with fries. Cooked perfectly.
Best burgers in the city. We will be back.
the beef is tasty and juicy. the onions rings are awesome. but they are a little bit heavy on the sauce.
The beef is tasty? What planet are you from?? The most bland burger I have tasted in a long time! I hate to admit that the McDonalds I had 5 years ago was tastier.
Craft Burger has pretty much hit it's stride now. I work close by and have been a few times. Can't say I'm blown away but it's a solid burger none the less with great fresh-cut fries. It's hectic at lunch and they're prone to some disorganization given the volume of folks and orders coming in - avoid the lunch hour on weekdays.
What's with all these "high" end burger joints and really dry meat? I don't get it. Don't they know that you need the right balance of meat and fat for a nice juicy patty?
Their fries, on the other hand, are great. Love the texture and taste.
Oh, btw, why is it that everyone who works there is Chinese? Just curious. Is this joint Chinese-owned?
Gloria what a hick statement. How do you know if they were chinese, korean, filipino? You mean Asian right? But I'm assumming you are White? lol.
I love this place. The staff is fantastic. Burgers are top-notch. Quality ingredients. One of the best burgers I've had in TO. Also, a total bonus but sometimes there's a short red-headed girl who stands on a milk crate to oversee the line. This is the cutest thing I've ever seen. Just another perk. :)
Tried it on Saturday night, we got a Craft Spicy and the Craft burger with mushrooms and shared a poutine. I enjoyed the food, the burger was filling and flavorful.. the poutine was decent. I like that they serve Boylans sodas instead of the crap other burger places serve, and it was not expensive. Dinner for 2 with drinks, and 1 shared milkshake was only $31.00 and being within walking distance from our home never hurts. Definiately worth trying again.. this time onion rings are a must!
Jb seems coming from kandahar.craft burgers are very good!nice place.how can a burger be cooked early in the day,and it s served very juicy?you know Jb people like you should be milking cows in tura bura.
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