Is the BA Burger Scene Over?

In which I timidly set foot back into the swirling morass of burger spots here.

A couple of years back, before I moved from SaltShaker over to this Substack, I kind of swore off checking out new burger spots. I’d basically given up. Every place I went had the same selection, the burgers were all kind of ho-hum, and I just sort of felt like the local burger craze had played out. It wasn’t only my perception, several foodie friends here have said much the same. We’d found the places that reliably produced great burgers, and continuing to subject ourselves to one after another disappointing newcomers began to to seem… less than worthwhile. I think since starting this Substack a year and a half ago, I’ve maybe tried half a dozen burgers.

Talking with one of those friends a week or so ago, I decided to give it another plunge. It was going to have to be an all-in, go out and try several places one after another and not pause to ruminate about how mediocre one or another was. And who knows? Maybe, just maybe, one of those might be worthwhile.

Two branches of Como en Casa are here in Recoleta, each a few block walk away. They’re basically cafés with arrays of pastries on display. But they also offer a casual lunch menu. Henry and I popped in to one of them, at Riobamba 1239 for a midday repast. Their burger comes with “crispy smoked cheese”, pickles, red onion, fried egg, and bacon. The sesame bun is not bad, but that’s about where that ends. The patty is overcooked, dry, and barely seasoned, the fried egg rubbery, the cheese vaguely melted, far short of crispy, and while the edges of the bacon crisp and charred, somehow they’ve managed to keep the rest of it barely warmed and squishy. The baked “fries” are dry and tasteless. 20000 pesos, $15. This was not a good start.

And, their revuelto gramajo is easily the worse version of the dish either of us has ever tried, with borderline burnt shoestring potatoes, egg over the top rather than scrambled in, and rather elusive bacon, almost like a scattering of BacOs. 13300 pesos, $10. Their carrot cake… why did we order carrot cake after how bad the dishes were? Their carrot cake was a gluey, sugary mass - clearly underbaked and more walnuts and raisins than cake. 8700 pesos, $6.50.

All around, a complete pass.

---

They say that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was Rome, Azcuénaga 1781, also in Recoleta, which is the new name (still the same ownership) of On Tap, what used to be a bigger chain, but now is just three locations including this one, of craft beer bars. I’ve no idea why they renamed this one and not the other two. But they did. Boy has this place gone downhill. It’s dingy, dirty, rundown. The selection of beers has been reduced from 20+ to about a dozen, half of which they were out of (and out of for long enough that they’ve actually overlaid them with “Sold Out” on their online menu).

The Coliseo Burger comes with, supposedly, two different cheeses, bacon, and barbecue sauce. The bun, a pasty mess, is topped with more sesame seeds than it can support. The burger patties are chewy, gristly pucks with no seasoning. I could barely find a single slice of cheddar atop, let alone the double cheddar, double danbo promised. The onion rings and fries were borderline inedible. I managed a couple of bites of each item, pushed it away, and left. I can’t remember having a worse burger in years. 15900 pesos, $12.

It’s also a far, far cry from the burger they used to serve.

I am now solidly remembering why I stopped looking for burgers in BA.

---

A side note, because for some reason, I didn’t take a picture (so, did it happen?). But another one that just isn’t what it used to be. Stopped in at Verdot Wine Bar, in the Mia Hotel, Av. Quintana 465, which has always had a great burger made from ground flank steak, topped with onions cooked down in Malbec, and topped with Tomme cheese, housemade ketchup, and arugula. Somewhere since my last visit they decided to change that to a wagyu beef burger that they cook to death, which for me is a crime on any burger, but for wagyu beef, practically a war crime, and topped with some flavorless cheese and not much else. The old burger was fantastic. This is borderline inedible. They also no longer serve it with a Hasselback potato and their smoked mushroom mayo. Just some insipid fries. What a shame. 18500 pesos, $14.

---

A decade ago, a literal food truck that had popped up many a time at street fairs, opened up a storefront, and called it, appropriately, The Food Truck Store. At its height, I think they had half a dozen locations, I believe it’s down to three now. I had an awful experience at the original one on Libertador, which is no longer. The one close to home is at Av. Las Heras 2201, corner of Azcuénaga.

Hmmm… Let’s deconstruct this. Oh wait, they already did. The burger is served on a longer type sandwich roll, and in order to make it more or less fit, they broke the burger up into a half dozen pieces and sort of stuffed them in along the roll like they were filling a pita with falafel. Apparently they didn’t have the same issue with the fried egg, which just sort of laid there. The single slice of bacon and the couple of limp pieces of onion were shoved in. The cheese, I think, was a sort of schmear of melted nacho type cheddar on the underside of the top of the roll. The burger itself had little seasoning, and, despite a request for my usual rare to medium rare, was cooked well done. This simply can’t be the burger that people were raving about when they were across the street operating as an open air food truck – either something major has been changed, or they were having a completely off day…. Do they get another shot?

Now, they never did get another shot. It had been so awful, I just… couldn’t. But people have continued to tell me it’s a good to great burger, and they regularly show up on lists of great burgers in town. So, I decided to give them another chance. Now, even just visually, you can see these are two very different burgers.

This is their Burger Clásico, a simple cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and red onion. Option to add bacon, which I did. And you know what? It’s not bad, not bad at all. Decent sized patty, juicy, well seasoned, the toppings nice and fresh, the bacon crispy (and if you want, they have, along with the usual condiments… Tabasco sauce on tap. Yes, on tap, literally one of those old fashioned condiment pump things filled with tabasco. The fries are decent, not great, but completely acceptable. I’m definitely going to upgrade this from its former no-go status to Recommended. I’m not sure what happened at that original experience - I have to think, in retrospect, someone just screwed up. 13000 pesos, just under $10. I’d go back and try a different combo.

It’s still not enough to give me much hope for finding a great burger.

---

For many years, those of us in the foodie circle here were treated to the scribblings of The Burger Kid, a local burger aficionado named Alejandro Roig. I can’t say I always agreed with his tastes - they tended more towards either very Instagrammable burgers or fast food style burgers, whereas I tend towards something fairly classic, but not fast food style - the backyard grill sort. Over the last few years he expanded into pizzas, and steakhouses, and other restaurants, and recipes, and more. For me, he diluted the brand and it became less and less interesting to read or listen to him, sorry to say.

And so, somewhere in there, I missed that he partnered up with Pablo Pons of the Big Pons burger chain to open up his own burger shop. Now, he’s upfront about what he wanted to do. It’s a fast food style burger place, but with high quality ingredients. There are limited options - three cheeseburger combos and that’s it. All three available in single or double patty. And there’s a veggie burger substitute offered. They don’t come with anything else - fries, drinks, etc., are all extra. They offer a combo pack of one of each of the three burgers. They’re served up in a to-go bag, even if you’re eating there. Which for the most part is standing at a spot a the sidewalk counter. There are three, count them, three, barstools inside at the kitchen, where you can perch. I perched.

This burger is exactly what’s promised. I went with the Park Deluxe, double - with lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese, bacon, and their “secret sauce”. The only thing missing for me is pickles. It’s a greasy, juicy, highly seasoned, addictive burger. The sort you’d crave after a binge drinking night out. I don’t know what they season the patties with, but you just want more. The same with the fries, that objectively are sort of thin, McD’s style, but, they’re doused in powdered Cheetos. Yes, Cheetos. And you can’t stop eating them. And had there not still been a long line that I’d have had to have gotten back into, I’d have probably ordered another burger. But there’s a line. And I escaped. But I will go back, because a week on, I can’t stop thinking about this burger. Objectively, I shouldn’t be. It’s a greasy fast food burger that’s just sort of slapped together. But that’s addiction for you. 11000 for the burger, 4000 for the fries, respectively, $8.25 and $3.

While this last place, and even the upgrade review on TFTS, give me some hope for the burger scene in BA, my overall impression is still one that that scene is over here. There may be a scattered new burger spot now and again that shows some promise, but I’m not holding my breath.

My top five remain:

1. The Pony Line (Recoleta)

2. Fat Broder (Palermo)

3. La Birra (Boedo)

4. Tierra de Nadie (Caballito)

5. Kyopo BA (Floresta) San Gennaro (Belgrano)