Closing out a holiday in Coolangatta recently, I was keen to finish on a burger high and wanted to try out a new place that had opened during the last 12 months called “Bondi Grill’e”. The sign out the front is simple – “burgers, steaks and ribs”, which makes it my kind of place! There are plenty of bench seats, but given it was a very windy night, had to sit inside.
There are a lot of items on the menu to choose from, and I decided to go for the “Cape Town Burger”, which comes with double beef patty, BLT, cheese, pineapple, caramelised onions, Spanish onions, pickles, house mayo and of course I said, “Hold the Beetroot!”. It seemed like a long wait, but that was likely due to how hungry I was and how much I was looking forward to trying this burger.
When it arrived, the first thing I thought was “Whoa! That’s a lot of lettuce!”, as it was hanging out all over the place, like the lettuce had exploded on the way out of the kitchen or something?! First bite, and what hit me was that the beef was actually basted in BBQ sauce. This made for a very sweet and very sticky affair. It also took away from the taste of the beef, however having said that, it was probably what gave the beef most of it’s flavour too. Luckily, the burger I ordered had grilled pineapple on it which contrasted the BBQ sauce nicely. Bacon and cheese were good, but not spectacular, and the rest of the ingredients seemed to get lost somewhere. Surprisingly, I couldn’t really taste the onions and wondered if the pickle was on there at all?! The burger was also a slippery little sucker too and I found myself constantly straightening up the ingredients to ensure I didn’t lose my load as I chewed through this beast.
Despite being delivered 10 minutes before the burger, chips on the side were actually pretty tasty. Although, I would ease up a bit on the chicken salt! I also enjoyed a locally brewed “Stone & Wood Green Coast Lager” on tap to wash it all down, which was really good.
Overall, this was an average experience. The beef being basted in BBQ sauce was too over powering for me, and the other flavours were not strong enough to balance it all out. Perhaps stick with the steak and ribs, for which BBQ sauce basting is more appropriate!
