Tuesday, June 28, 2011

White Star: 4.4/5

Fatboy $4.75 - Score: 3.9

Bacon Burger $6.10 - Score: 4.6

Cheeseburger $6.10: 4.4

Mushroom Burger $6.10: 4.6

The White Star diner is a tiny little burger shack with seating for 2. We had a beautiful, sunny day for our burger tasting and sat at a super-stretch picnic table overlooking Old Market Square. Owner Bruce Smedts named the restaurant after the Cunard-White Star Line most famous for the Titanic. This might explain the large piece of iceberg lettuce on my burger, but more about that shortly.

One of the great things about White Star is you can pre-order and pick up your waiting food at lunch. About half the group did this and sure enough, their orders were waiting for them while the rest of us had to wait a little while for our burgers to be prepared. A point against the White Star is that it’s a pricey burger. The old adage goes you get what you pay for though, and my patty was wide and the cheese came off a slab, not squeezed out of a tube. You can get a basic “Fat Boy” for cheap, but the White Star’s flag ship burgers include Philly Cheese, a Patty Melt (on grilled rye with caramelized onion), Blue Cheese and The Mortimer which comes with the pulled pork White Star is best known for.

The burgers came in a fashionable check patterned paper wrap. It produces less trash than a traditional foil and paper wrap but April commented “the wrappings, no matter how well they encompassed the burger, did not keep sauce off my lap."


This is the first time I've had real cheddar cheese on a Burger Club burger and it tasted great. It was a messy burger, well lubricated with a whole leaf of iceberg lettuce and slippery tomato. Nelson described it as “Possibly one of the slipperiest burgers I've ever had.” The patty was juicy; it wasn't thick but had girth and it was hand formed. I had the Mortimer which came with delicious pulled pork and I couldn't really taste the burger patty. Cary commented “Next time I will have to give the pulled pork a little zing with some hot sauce.” For the extra $2+ for the pulled pork I was hoping for a little more. Not a huge burger for the price ($8.35).

If you’re under 18 don’t read the next sentence. Russ quoted Pulp Fiction to describe his shake “Goddamn! That's a pretty fucking good milkshake. I don't know if it's worth six dollars but it's pretty fucking good.” Kari tried the fries and said “Sadly fries tasted like fish - do they have fish on the menu?”





We had a special guest burgerer today and Christie summed up lunch nicely with “Ah! Sun, a good burger, and conversation about nefarious activities. A giant slice of life awesomeness!”

It was a little cozy around the picnic table and we ended up making an Esther sandwich. Brett had a cheek dangling and coincidently also went bun-less with his burger today. April noted “Brett is not able to remove criminal records, but I am worried he may have added to mine ...”

6 comments:

  1. I turned in the picture to face the camera because in all the other ones my profile looks fat . . . I should have stuck with profile . . . :(

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  2. Nonsense, Brett. You just needed me there to help set scale. Plus, you're doomed by sitting across from Grover. That guy barely casts a shadow.

    Perhaps we could both benefit from a few weeks in Salad Club. :)

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  3. The pretty one's in front. That's just good marketing. If I didn’t post pictures of Brett no girls would come :p Your fly’s open BTW.

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  4. The cheese sitting atop the burger reminded me of the Star Trek episode: Operation: Annihilate!

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  5. This use to be Albert St Burgers, home of the Big Al. For my money it was the best burger I had, at the time. I miss it in my mouth...

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  6. The owner is very nice and he makes the burgers himself. They are amazing, and the fries are fantastic. A tad pricier than the usual burger joint. Around $11 for a Swiss Mushroom Melt burger combo including fries and coke(single not double). Usually you would pay that much for a double patty burger at other places. But it is worth it! When I worked at the Manitoba Museum I used to eat there 2-3 times a week for lunch.

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