I was in Torquay recently and had just finished hitting the local surf shops for some retail therapy, when I found it was lunchtime and I was starving. I headed to a new place called “Boardriders” situated above the Quiksilver and Roxy stores on the main Highway. This is a funky, relaxed, café styled place with a huge tv screen (showing surf videos of course!), pool table and both indoor and outdoor seating.
The menu consists of tortilla’s, fish n chips, wedges, etc and of course there is a burger on the menu too, so thought I would give it a go. I ordered the “Boardriders burger” which came with seasoned beef patty, lettuce, tomato, tasty cheese, caramelised onion relish and I had to say, “hold the beetroot!”
As soon as it arrived I was sceptical. Mostly because of the rocket lettuce and the amount of it – you could barely see the meat in the burger!? I am definitely not a fan of rocket lettuce in a burger. I know that some people think its hip and trendy, but I think it’s tasteless and like something from the backyard?! Anyway, I picked up the burger and got stuck into it. The patty was ok, but the overall taste could only be described as “sweet” – it was the caramelised onion relish, which was actually nice but it seemed to take over the taste of the burger. The burger was in a seeded, sourdough bun which was ordinary too.
This burger needed something extra. Afterwards I wished I had have added egg and bacon to it, which may have broken up the overpowering taste of the relish and given it more depth of flavour, so to speak. Plus increase the size of the patty, drop the rocket lettuce for some iceberg or cos, make it a brioche bun and things really start to look up.
Chips on the side were very good and I wasn’t in the mood for a beer, so I decided to branch out again and went for a chocolate milkshake instead. This was a good decision as the milkshake was quite tasty!
Whilst the burger was average, the novelty and experience were still good. Next time I would stick to some simple fried food or something instead. If you’re in the area, it’s definitely worthwhile stopping by to find out about this place for yourself. I imagine that sitting outside in summer with a few cold beers would be totally relaxing!
