Restaurants
Holy Chuck Burgers
Holy Chuck Burgers wants to satisfy. no, stuff its customers. Even their bovine logo is in on the action, literally offering up his head on a plate. A little morbid yes, but with that big goofy grin he at least looks happy with his decision.
Located in the space that used to be Retro Burger near Yonge & St. Clair, and open for two months now, Holy Chuck is making a name for itself in the burgeoning burger business.
Holy Chuck looks like your run-of-the-mill fast food place. When it comes to ambiance, it's on par with any establishment that has primary colour splashed walls and swivel chairs bolted to the ground. Customers place their order at the counter and wait for their name to be called a la Lick's. The one fun touch comes in the shape of a table-top arcade game which is a leftover from its past life.
We perused the wall-mounted menu to make our choices from burgers with names like The Farmer's Threesome, The Mad Cow and the Go Chuck Yourself, as our arteries proactively hardened in anticipation.
My friend chose the Grind n' Shine ($9.99) and made it a combo with Crispy Fries and a Nutella & Salted Caramel Shake (for an extra $7.99). The Grind n' Shine consisted of a double-bacon cheeseburger, topped with caramelized onions, a fried egg and hiding out in the middle...crispy fries.
Staff here recommends that you add nothing else except lettuce and tomato in order to reap the full benefits of their burger experience. Steve enjoyed his burger, but compared the overall taste to a certain restaurant with golden arches. I think this may be attributed to the processed cheese and plain bare-bones buns. He did however say the patty itself was more tender and juicy.
I opted for The Grazer ($10.99), Holy Chuck's meatless option, to see how they stacked up in that category. Now don't go thinking that a veggie burger at Holy Chuck constitutes healthy eating, and those looking to eat healthy probably shouldn't be looking in a burger joint anyway.
The Grazer consists of what they call "animal feed", or to be more specific, a Panko-crusted portobello mushroom stuffed with feta and cream cheese (no vegan burgers here...). The aforementioned 'shroom is then deep fried, slathered with a mixed herb aioli, topped with lettuce and tomato as recommended, and stacked between two grilled cheese sandwiches (see: slice of cheese in between 2 burger buns).
The filling itself was very rich and the aioli was a nice complement - they were right about skipping out on the ketchup and mustard. I didn't order a combo as my friend already had and I considered these to be communal, and I'm glad I didn't as my burger alone had me itching to undo a button or two. I've heard of the meat sweats, but mushroom?
They were both decent burgers, but my return to Holy Chuck would be purely shake-based. My friend's Nutella & Salted Caramel concoction was tasty, but my Reese's Pieces and Banana milkshake ($5.49), made with 90% ice-cream and 10% milk, was heavenly and every sip brought with it chunks of peanut-buttery candy and fresh banana. This milkshake required some chewing.
It's obvious that co-owner Johnny loves what he does (I watched him have way too much fun deep-frying a Twinkie), and he is proud of the quality ingredients that go into their food like the meat with no added fillers, ground in-house daily. He's created a fast-food restaurant with more soul and fewer question marks.
If competitive eating is your thing then be sure to order up the Go Chuck Yourself ($19.99). Finish this 6 patty, triple bacon & grilled cheese behemoth in under 6 minutes to secure a place on the Wall of Fame (and a free t-shirt). Excessive? Well, as Johnny said on my way out, "We're Greek. It's our business to overfeed." I couldn't have asked for a better sound bite.
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Pros:
-Very friendly service, and pretty quick too
-The meal tasted pretty good and somehow I didn't feel lethargic or crappy after eating that much food
Cons:
-The price. $22 for a MadCow (cheeseburger with portabello & ricotta covered in panko and deep fried), fries and a specialty shake
-The MadCow's cheese sort of makes it hard to taste the meat and mushroom...might be better if there was an extra patty on there
I had "the big Chuck" with no additional toppings. Burger was filling but I did not feel like I was gorging myself (though Holy Chuck of course offers this option)
Customer service was great.
http://ratherpeckish.blogspot.ca/2012/04/holy-chuck-burgers.html
On my birthday weekend I convinced my friends to hop in the car and go to every burger joint in Toronto that had a reputation(I know it's not in Toronto, but I cheated and drove up to Goldenstar in Thornhill first). I wasn't playing when I cooked up this artery filling contest, so I created a rubric which all of my friends had to follow (I'll spare you the details).
In all truthfulness we had BP, Holy Chucks, Allen's, Gourmet Burger, Big Smoke, Dangerous Dans, Johnny's, 5 guys, and Burger Shoppe. (Before you tell me to try them, I've had Apache and Jumbo's on the west end before and my favourite burger there is at the Goodspoon at Jane and Bloor).
I won't rank them but the winner after losing 5 years of life to cholesterol was: Holy Chucks
Sorry, to all of you BP lovers (and yes, everyone knows about the secret menu) but Holy Chucks won the overall taste test but who cares ... they're all good.
PS: That is my real email above, if you don't believe that this happened I'd gladly send pictures of the contest to you.
I like the idea of seasoned fries with fresh herbs but the olive oil makes the fries soggy. I personally prefer crispy fries. All the hype above regarding their milkeshakes is 100% true. Get a milkshake, share it with a friend, skip the fries.
please I have sampled all these COOL places and they are nice but the meat never comes through in the taste it either hidden by SPICE or something
Try BQM its good.