Tot Wheels:4.1/5

Double Bacon Burger
Score: 4.1

$9 (tax inc), $13 Including Tots

You’ve probably heard about the habit forming Tots, but did you know Tot Wheels also makes a great burger? Owner and chef Scott Moffat tweeted the Double Bacon Burger special and I double timed it to 275 Broadway to be first in line at the flashy food truck.

Scott makes the patties in house – a blend of beef, pork and Italian sausage with his own recipe of herbs and spices. They were juicy and delicious – the star of the stack. They cook each order fresh and the two thin patties cook faster than one thick one with twice the flavourful grill crust.

The bacon is fried up fresh and wrinkly; it’s usually cooked soft, on the brink of undercooked for some diners. “It takes a little longer but ends up being worth the wait. People don't complain as long as the quality is there” says Scott. The assembly is completed with grilled onions, Havarti cheese, ripe red tomato and shredded lettuce. It’s capped with a grilled sesame seed bun that’s up to the task if you need to one-hand it. “All of our products and ingredients are local and organic as much as possible.”

Dani wrote “The burger had two smallish patties and three slices of bacon with sautéed onions. The flavour was nice, just enough spice. The Dijon added a tanginess to the whole package.” Mat added:“Really rich in flavour. Italian sausage in patty is excellent.” Les scribed “The Havarti cheese was a classy touch! All held together nicely & the bun was good.”

Of course, the burger is accompanied by heavenly tots. The combo comes with Sriracha or garlic aioli for dipping. Like everything else in the truck, the Tots are made fresh and they’re crispy-golden on the outside, soft and cheesy-gooey on the inside. The mashed potato blended with herbs, spices and cheese is rolled and dropped into the fryer per order. You can watch Shaw TV’s spot to see Scott in action.

Jeff exclaimed: “Excellent burger - plenty of beef & bacon, and a huge bun (almost too big) that was nice and soft, but held together nicely. Patty was cooked just right. Perfect amount of tots to compliment - spicy aioli was excellent.” Karen’s a fan: “I love the Tot Wheels truck! The tots were terrific - big and crunchy.”

Scott plans on keeping the burger on the menu and adding an additional sandwich.  Word is the next creation may be a Mac ‘n Cheese grilled cheese with pork belly. Tot Wheels will be at Many Fest – Food Truck Wars again this year from Sept 9-11, 2016. “Many Fest is our - and most truck's - busiest time of the year, I'd like to serve the burger at the festival but it might not be possible with the volume of people.”

Scott took over the truck from Darryl Crumb in March, 2016. Scott was the lead chef at the Exchange Restaurant for two years where they worked together and he learned about running the food truck from Darryl. Tot Wheels also caters events - and surprisingly - weddings! “We have done wedding dinners and late night snacks.  This saves the bride and groom a ton of money and has turned out excellent every time.

Denise's Blue Moon: 4.1/5

Blue Moon Burger
Score: 4.0

Country Burger
Score: 4.4


$8 (tax inc)
$12 Combo (fries and drink)

French cuisine has rolled onto Broadway in the form of Denise’s Blue Moon. Denise (née Lebleu) grinds the grass fed beef in her dad’s butcher shop, stuffs it in a sausage casing, and hangs the beef for ten hours in a smoker. There's a depth of flavour from the smoking and it's our favourite food truck burger! You can usually find the truck on the south side of Broadway near Edmonton; there’s plenty of seating and shade on a hot, sunny day.

The food is rich and delicious and portions are large. Denise chops up the fresh bacon to form a layer on the Blue Moon Burger, and a crumbled topping on the Blue Moon fries. The bacon has all the flavour without the trouble of biting through a rasher. The crispy Blue Moon Fries are covered in cheese sauce, and I want them every time, but I need a fry-buddy to share with.  I highly recommend the apple rings for dessert. The fresh apple is cooked soft – on the brink of being apple sauce -  battered, deep fried and sugared like a mini donut from your dreams.

The menu offerings keep growing and there were four burgers to choose from. The Country Burger was the crowd favourite, with plenty of crispy onions adding texture, and zest from the double smoked BBQ sauce. The Blue Moon Burger is rich and all about the bacon, loaded with cheese and toppings – lettuce, chopped dill pickle and white onion. The bun was fresh and soft – most of our crew thought it perfectly suited, but some thought it didn’t hold up as well. This may come down to burger handling technique, requiring refresher training for Burger Club’s reviewers.

Roxanne wrote: “The Country Burger by far, would be the best food-truck burger that I’ve ever had. The patty was fresh made (I could tell by the first bite). It was well flavoured – toppings were very yummy! All of this on the perfect, soft yet firm bun that did not fall apart – even up until the last delicious bite! Fries were fantastic too!”

Dani had the Blue Moon Burger: “The patty was flavourful and moist and I like that the bacon was crumbled on top.  That meant you could have a bit of the burger with bacon, and didn’t pull a whole bacon strip out of the sandwich.  The bun was nicely matched to the burger.  It was soft, yet didn’t fall apart.”

Russ: “A lot of care went into making this burger Just Right. From the soft grilled bun, to the perfect crunchy crisp, to the finely chopped condiments held together with homemade sauces, the right amount of crisp lettuce, to the cooking of the burger. Many sensations around a patty with a great bite. I loved the finely chopped bacon and pickles and they helped the burger hold together with a softer bun.”

Stephanie: “Very tasty burger. The best food truck burger I've had all year. Could've gone for seconds!”


Mat: “Apple rings were heavenly.”

Extreme Fries: 3.6/5

Bacon Cheeseburger
Score: 3.6, $6 (tax inc.)

There's a new food truck in town called Extreme Fries any they make a good burger! Well, the truck’s not new but the wrap is and you can’t miss it – owner Bobbie Mack calls it the “hot pink bomb.” Bobbie found the truck for sale in October and jokingly texted her husband "what would you think if I quit my job and bought a food truck? Over the next couple weeks I couldn't get the idea out of my mind and I took the leap!”

Bobbie loves to cook but didn't want to put in a chef’s long hours so the truck seemed like a good fit. “I cook food how I like to eat. You won't find anything on that truck that isn't my favourite. I have been making and selling my own home made sweet pickle relish for 10 years every summer Saturday at Pine Ridge. That's where my love of working with the public started. I just wish I had a little more time to chat from the truck. It gets kinda crazy.”

Most days you can find Extreme Fries parked on Broadway near Edmonton. Check their Facebook page for up-to-date info. This year the City of Winnipeg (COW for short) implemented a food truck parking spot lottery. Another favourite – Burgers R Us – were drawn for the western end of Broadway, but thought they’d be too far from the action and have a hard time making a go of it, so opted out of Broadway this year.

The flavourful burger had a slightly charred patty, crispy fried cheddar cheese, sautéed onion, chili sauce, bacon and fresh groceries. Everyone loved the chili sauce. “The chili sauce is my recipe" said Bobbie. "I started out making a hot dog sauce but my kids found it too spicy. It was just meat and chili powder. Then I tried a Greek style sauce and to me it had flavour but was tame. I mixed the two together and boom!  Bobbie Mack's chili sauce.”

Bobbie added “Good bacon is essential and finding the right way to hot hold your bacon without incinerating it is very important. Grilled onion is the way to go on a burger. Hot dogs need raw onion. I also include a favourite in my condiment bar - Awesome Sauce, which is a cousin’s creation.” Cary wrote “A good food truck burger at a decent price. It’s  all about the toppings, so use the plethora of condiments provided and add a little bit of the Awesome Hot Sauce if you like a little bit of zing.” Stephanie exclaimed “Perfect day for a food truck burger! The Awesome  Sauce had a nice amount of spice to it.”

The uniformly shaped beef patty was a good size, fairly dense and filling. You can taste all the toppings with the copious quantities of cheddar cheese, fried onions, and of course the chili sauce, making it messy – but not too drippy to carefully eat over your lap. On my second visit I tried a double and it was good, but I think tilted the designed flavour balance too much towards beef. Bright green leaf lettuce and red, ripe Roma tomatoes crowned the cold side of the open faced presentation in the combo.

Of course they wouldn't be Extreme Fries without great fries, and they were. The potatoes are hand cut and the fries were dark, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. There were lots of them! The combo container was bursting. Roxanne noted “the fries were awesome and toppings very fresh.”

There was no shade on Broadway so we took our burgers across to the Woodsworth Building picnic tables. There was *one* table in the shade and the first shift of Burger Clubbers crowded around it. The second shift had to melt under the sun. Winnipeg set a record with the temp reaching a scorching 36 c.

Burgers R Us: 3.7/5

All burgers come with onion rings for $10 (tax inc.)

Mushroom Swiss Burger
  Score: 3.6
Pizza Burger
  Score: 3.1
Pulled Pork Burger
  Score: 3.0
Avocado Burger
  Score: 3.8
Chili Cheese Burger
  Score: 4.4
Bacon Cheese Burger
  Score: 4.2
Bacon Ranch Burger
  Score: 3.6

Burgers R Us forges gourmet burgers on Broadway. The flaming red truck offers an impressive nine beefy works of art on a bun, and Burger Club tried most of them. The day started out with a little rain, but the clouds parted so we could enjoy our burgers under the sun.

The truck wasn't always about burgers though. Sabrina and Blair McKibbon also own Healthy Eats and started a second rolling kitchen serving Portuguese food that my coworkers and I affectionately called the “Pork Chop Truck”. The meals were elaborate and sumptuous, but they realized quickly it wasn't going to work as a truck. A new flaming appliqué and menu and voila – homemade burgers for the Broadway crowd cooked up fresh by Blair’s brother Phil.

If you're shopping menus on Broadway, don’t be deterred by the $10 price tag at Burgers R Us. The beefy burgers are made fresh, flame broiled and easily twice the size of other truck patties. Everything on the menu comes with a side of onion rings. I assume the brothers farm onions in their spare time. I really enjoy a fresh onion ring, and these were piping hot and crispy delicious. If you don’t want the rings, they’ll take $2 off the price of your lone burger.

It can be a challenge to serve the lunch rush quickly, and a big thick patty takes time to cook. Burgers R Us flame broils the patties, places them in a steam box, then puts them back on the grill so you get your burger hot. When eleven of us showed up at once - as well as plenty of sidewalk surfers – Burgers R Us were handing out stacks as quick as they could assemble them.

The sandwiches were passed out the trailer window wrapped in foil-paper to those whose number matched the call. The onion rings accompanied in paper trays like little super-hero sidekicks. The “sitting wall” was still wet from the rain so we dined along a nearby fence which made a great burger bar.

A couple of us had the Avocado Burger and were treated to two slices of bright green alligator pear. The bun was a soft, sesame Kaiser and the leaf lettuce and tomato were bright and fresh. The patty was big and beefy, lightly charred from the flames and held together well. It was a filling burger that balanced well with the other flavours.

A few people had the Mushroom Swiss Burger. April wrote “The burger came with gravy and was pretty tasty. Even though I am not a fan of onion rings, these ones were really crispy and while I had planned on just trying one, I ate most of them. Well done! If this burger was served in a restaurant with comfortable seating, I think it would rate much higher as a whole. Too bad they don't serve milkshakes - It would have been the perfect complement to the burger!” Mireille added “The burger was piping hot and I could taste the char goodness. It was a very nice size as well. I enjoyed the gravy which had a nice mushroom flavour.”

Mark had the Chili Cheese Burger: “All meat extravaganza; no veggies - love it! Excellent charred burger. Real chili with a sweet flavour.” Burgers R Us make their own chili and pulled pork. Stephanie said the Pizza Burger was “Fun and tasty” but the photo of the burger on the TV menu was much less messy than hers with its foundation of homemade pizza sauce running down the bun.

Nelson had the Pulled Pork Burger and jotted “Lots of pulled pork, which was good but it overwhelmed everything else.” Russ had the Bacon Cheese Burger and wrote “A little bit of flame cooked love. The bacon was thick and smoky. It was curly though, so it made things fall apart. Great ingredients and a homemade patty.” Brian opted for the Bacon Ranch Burger and observed “The bun was fresh and sized right.  The patty was seasoned nicely, topped with fresh lettuce and tomatoes, crisp bacon, and a flavorful ranch sauce. Overall this was a well-executed burger.”

Burgers R Us is usually the last food truck on Broadway. Phil and Blair told me how the parking patrol would start to get nervous around 2:30 pm. I asked how I could contact them and was handed a water bottle which confused me until I looked more closely at the flaming label – Twitter, e-mail address and a phone number for their sister trailer, Healthy Eats, that they can always be found with. Now that’s a handy business card on a hot day.

Mikky's: 3.3/5

Deluxe Burger
Score: 3.4, $4.50 (tax inc.)



Deluxe Cheese Burger
Score: 3.2, $5.00 (tax inc.)

The white and red Mikky’s truck is a veritable institution on Broadway. Twenty-two years ago it belonged to Mikky, somewhere along the way it became Daryl’s, and for the last fifteen years it’s been owned by Don. Originally operating a hot dog cart, Don traded his umbrella for the metal roof of Mikky’s when the opportunity arose.

Don seems to have found the formula for success in the very competitive food truck market. An inexpensive and tasty burger, served quickly, draws lines of people to the Mikky’s order window on sunny lunch hours. Mikky’s feeds the parking meter in front of the WCB and sets itself apart from other trucks by laying out a line of welcome mats on the low granite wall for diners to settle their office attire wrapped derrieres onto. The nice lady taking orders was all smiles and Don came out to tell stories when there was a break in the lunch rush.

The deluxe cheeseburger is only $5, tax included. For $8 you can have fries and a drink with that. The deluxe burger comes standard with lettuce, tomato, fried onions and pickles. There are a couple of condiment stations hanging off the truck and a row of self serve drink coolers on the sidewalk. The mayo is wisely kept inside so it’s not sitting out in the sun. If you have just a burger, it comes nestled in a little wax paper pocket that’s perfect for one handing the burger while containing any fallout. The combo is served in a little cardboard tray that’s quite convenient if you’re sitting and using your lap as a table.

The first thing you notice when you sink your teeth into a Mikky’s burger is the big delicious City Bread bun. There’s plenty of fresh chopped lettuce - if you’re going to have any fallout, it’s going to be the lettuce. The groceries are rounded out with diced ripe tomato and fried onions – a favorite of mine and something you pay extra for at a lot of burger joints.

The thin beef patty gets lost in the bun and groceries. The flavour of this burger is in the bread and toppings. The beef is an inexpensive “store” patty that cooks fast and keeps the price down. I've had the single and decided to ask for a double burger today. That brought the burger-to-bun ratio to where it should be, but my double-meat tilted the flavour balance.

This was our most reviewed burger with twenty-one Burger Clubbers contemplating the sandwich. Mirreille commented “Would have preferred the patty to be bigger to fit the big bun. Enjoyed the grilled bun.” Cary referenced The Whole Nine Yards when he wrote “True Canadian means lots of mayo (Bruce Willis would hate it). Bun was too big, but good and fresh.” Stephanie, our local expert on street food exclaimed “Beautiful day for a food truck! Great deal for the combo. More than enough for me.”

Sandy raised the question of how to rate a burger: “This is my first food truck rating - not sure if I should be a little more generous on the presentation and comfort factors. Great fun!” Eric chimed in “Eating outside always trumps inside. Good for truck burger.” Stan summarized “Service was very quick. Value was excellent. Burger was pretty good, no complaints. The weather was perfect. The company was awesome.”

Victor thought it was a great deal: “If I could give a 6 for price I would. This was probably the most economically fair burger I've had this summer. The patty was kind of small, but the fries were awesome!”

Don suggested we try the European next time so I guess he’s still a hot dog guy at heart.

Grass Fed Grill (closed): 3.4/5

Hamburger
Score: 3.0, $7 (tax inc.)

Spicy Crunch Burger
Score: 3.5, $8 (tax inc.)

Zeus Burger
Score: 3.8, $8 (tax inc.)

Big Buff Burger
Score: 3.3, $12 (tax inc.)

The Winnipeg Folk Festival greatly improved the food village kiosks and the booths are so big now you can back a truck in - and that’s what Grass Fed Grill did. When I realized there was going to be enough Burger Clubbers at FolkFest to make quorum, I Twitter-poked @grassfedgrill and they responded with a challenge.

Our plans were almost washed out by a huge storm front passing through, but it slammed us and was gone again by supper time. Happy to have survived the storm we were able to burger under the sun!

Our burger-folkie number was supposed to be a little higher, but trying to meet up at Folk Fest is like herding cats and we lost a couple of hippies. A couple more dissenters were overcome by the lure of other food vendors in the sumptuous lineup of choices. In the end, eight of us sampled the fare at Grass Fed Grill today.

Grass Fed Grill has a great lineup of burger offerings. The challenge at Folk Fest is not just to make tasty food, but to be able to serve it up quickly to hundreds of waiting diners - Grass Fed Grill was up for it. The ordering line moved quickly, and the wait for the burger wasn't long. All Folk Fest vendors serve food on reusable Melamine plates (for a $2 refundable deposit) and our burgers were presented open faced on the distinctive shiny, orange plates.

I opted for the Big Buff double burger with bacon and cheese and enjoyed it. The beef had delicious flavour – you knew you were eating pasture-raised beef. In fact, all the ingredients were top quality and fresh. Stan wrote “The beef had a noticeably different texture than the average beef burger. It seemed somewhat drier than usual. I suspect that the grass fed beef may have less fat. I enjoyed this patty very much.” Karen noted “There was a nice crust on the burger and it was moist, but very plain.”

The patty was fairly thick, but quite small in diameter. I’d guess the bun was from City Bread – a favourite – but it dwarfed the patty. Stan commented “The patty was properly cooked which was something I wanted to be sure of because it was originating in a truck.” The bacon was also cooked to leathery perfection and had great flavour.

The small patty size was the common lament from all the hungry diners and the reason why the burger didn't get a higher rating. I’m not sure if the diminutive patty was a product of cost management in delivering a burger at an affordable price while paying more for organic, grass-fed beef, or, it could have been in the interest of serving hundreds of people quickly as a small patty cooks quicker on the grill.

I cut mine in half and was confused looking at the stack thinking I'd only received a single patty on my Big Buff until I realized they'd slid around and were lying beside each other.

A few of us misinterpreted the wonderful line “infused with cheese (like a jelly donut)” to mean a stuffed burger, but I guess the intent was to describe the cheese between the patties – a structurally sound placement. Preparing hundreds of Jucy-Lucy’s for the Folk Fest would have been a legendary feat! The real cheese looked good but the flavour wasn't discernible over the delectable beef.

Karen opted for the Spicy Crunch Burger and commented “I liked my toppings - crispy onions on the bottom. Burger, lettuce, tomato on top - all together not bad.”

Stan wrote “The Zeus Burger had tzatziki sauce and feta cheese which compensated for the patty’s (dry) texture. The bottom line is that I would happily have another one.” Nicole also Zeused: “Patty wasn't big enough for the bun. Tasty overall. Feta and Tzatziki was a good mix.”

We carried our burgers over to the beer garden to enjoy them at a picnic table which Russ liked “Always good to enjoy a beer with my food.” The beer gardens were quite packed with people recovering from the storm and a couple of diners landed in the grassy-annex on the other side of the fence.

Karen opted for the yam fries and said they were tasty. I stole a few of hers and they were yammy perfection!