It’s been a year and half or so since I did a dedicated burger post. And, I was in the mood to try a few, so, here goes… a trio of very good, good, and not so good….

 

Relatively new chain of burger shops that have opened, DeNiro Hamburgesería, this one at Warnes 301 in Villa Crespo (they have 14 locations currently open with another 7 currently on the way) [w3w: qualify.bravo.finders]. Their claim to fame, other than some interesting combinations of toppings? They use only entraña, or hanger steak, for their burger patties, which gives them, ostensibly, a stronger flavor, and a bit less fat.

“Let’s go Tigers!”

About 20 housemade condiments available, I of course, searched out the picante ones – the mayo with merquén is the hottest, and has a nice kick to it.

That’s a good sized burger. The patties are 200 gm, 7 oz., and they’re thick and juicy (if you order it rare or medium rare, which it came out properly cooked as requested). Given the lesser fat in hanger steak, if you cook this to the local standard of medium to medium well, it’s going to be dry and chewy, unless they’re adding in fat, which didn’t appear to be the case.

The bun is sturdy. Really sturdy. It held up right through the last bite. (Also available, for those who request, gluten-free buns, a nice plus that few places offer.) Despite whatever feelings I may have about their “star quality”, I ordered the Kardajian burger, topped with fontina cheese, onion, hummus, homemade yogurt, arugula, and parsley. Delicious on its own, though I might have liked the onions cooked a little more, and with the added picante mayo, a winner. The patty is maybe a touch saltier than I’d like, but with the condiments, it balances out. Overall, really quite good! 240 pesos solo. Combos with fries and drinks available.

Oh, and why “De Niro”, presumably the actor, whose connection to Argentina tends to be through tango and owning an apartment near to ours? Manager’s response… “I dunno, it’s just a name, why?”

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Canal Street Bar, Cerrito 352, San Nícolas [w3w: loud.router.deck] – I don’t recall who recommended this spot, but it sounded interesting, both for the “thick, juicy burgers”, and that they had a variety of sandwiches. I didn’t know that they also offer pizzas, naan, and salads. All sorta kinda fit. I wouldn’t normally think of throwing naan into an American-style fast food operation, but, it does make sense in terms of the type of product.

Pluses upfront – options for white or whole wheat breads for all of the above, some interesting sounding combinations, and the option for fries or salad as the accompaniment to burgers and sandwiches. Negatives upfront – very disorganized, from start to finish. Particularly and noticeably in the food delivery end, where they seem mystified to how to use their beeper system and the young woman in charge of taking things from the kitchen pass and giving them to customers seemed more interested in chatting with co-workers and staring at her nails than actually working. Also, there’s no option for anything but combos. I tried to get just a burger, but they have no option for ordering one without a drink and side dish.

 

But, at least one can get a salad instead of fries. The salad isn’t overly exciting, even if as an option to fries. It’s sort of sloppy handful of lettuce tossed in and around a bowl, and then a whole mess of a sickly sweet dressing is squirted over the top – far more than needed for a salad this size, and not mixed in. I’d ask for the dressing on the side – they have little containers for “to-go”, and that way you can dress it yourself. No silverware served with the meals – you have to go find it, it’s all on a counter tucked behind the stairway – they don’t tell you that, you have to figure it out.

The burger – it is indeed thick, and it’s coarsely ground, a nice touch over the more common finely ground mince here. But, despite asking for it rare, it arrived so over-cooked that juices were merely a mythical memory of times passed. A good quantity of crispy bacon, a nice slab of provolone cheese, good caramelized onions, and even a decent aioli, grace the house signature burger. A good, sturdy bun that isn’t overly thick, so you get more meat to bun ratio. And, if you want to perk it up, or your fries, they have a variety of sauces on that tucked away counter, including sriracha. Craft beers on tap.

If the burger hadn’t been so overcooked, this would be a great burger, it’s tasty, it’s well seasoned, it’s got pretty much everything going for it. But if you can’t get it made anything less than very well done, near to the point of dried out, it’s a waste of 320 pesos ($8), unless you like that sort of thing. Also, don’t tell me “okay” when I order it rare if you can’t do it. Tell me upfront “we cook them based on a timer and they come out the way they come out” – like they do at Burger54, which has the same issue, but at least are upfront about it.

And why “Canal Street” – a name you’d think would be around all over the English speaking world, though at least according to google maps, only exists in NYC, NOLA, and Houston – certainly doesn’t call to mind burgers, pizzas, and naan…. maybe Chinese or Italian food, or Cajun, or whatever it covers there in Texas. I didn’t ask.

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I’m not sure when it was that Cacio & Pepe, Av. del Carril 2199, Villa Pueyrredón [w3w: tones.recital.dated], got on my “to try” map. It was awhile back, and was probably a combination of having passed it by on the 108 bus coming back from Villa DeVoto once or twice, plus a relatively good writeup on BurgerFacts, a local burger fanatic’s site. Pictures of thick, juicy burgers on plump domed buns added to the allure. I had to be out that way to pick something up, and thought it would be a perfect opportunity to check it out. Plus, cacio e pepe is one of my favorite pastas, and who knows, maybe there would be some sort of signature burger flavored with lots of pepper and cheese….

 

The menu looked interesting, quite a few combinations that aren’t the usual. I ordered one up, along with a side and some beer, and awaited. The beer arrived… kind of flat, kind of warm, kind of watery… their house beer on tap (and they have a big selection by the bottle as well), is Balmer, a local brand I hadn’t tried before (90 pesos). A plate of chips, on the house, brought with the beer, so soaked with oil you could almost see through them, and completely unsalted. Hmm… this isn’t boding well.

 

And, the moment of truth. There was no “cacio e pepe” burger option…. I’d ordered up the “Manuel”, a combo of burger, prosciutto, tortilla, and green peppers (190 pesos). I don’t know why, but my mind went to “tortilla” in the sense of tortilla chips, not to a tortilla de papas, a baked puff of egg and potatoes, and I’d also ordered an additional fried egg on top (30 pesos), which seemed to mystify my waitress and should have given me a moment’s pause to think it through. That’s a lot of egg.

But, more importantly, is the practically non-existent patty underneath it all – the claim is that they’re housemade, but it was a chewy puck of dense, over-kneaded meat, roughly a centimeter in height, and because I’d asked for it rare to medium rare, it was basically just seared on the outside and still refrigerator cold on the inside. It was unseasoned, as was the tortilla, as was everything except the prosciutto, which was thick sliced and hard to bite through. The bun was thin, crumbly, and dry, and fell apart when trying to pick the thing up – no wonder they bring a knife and fork with the burger. I gave up after about three bites of this.

The side dish fared little better. What purported to be, or at least sounded like, jalapeño poppers – fresh jalapeños stuffed with cheese and bacon, (presumably battered) and fried – were someone’s fevered imaging of what those should be. Cold jalapeños, filled with cold, unseasoned cream cheese, wrapped in barely warmed bacon (160 pesos). The whole thing enough to trigger a gag reflex. Sorry, but other than the friendliness of the servers, there was nothing remotely redeemable about anything that I was served at this place. What a shame.