The Great American Burger Joint

Serkan Tamburaci

4.0

Recently, I joined The Food Crawlers for yet another website event, this time, we visited The Burger Joint located at SM Center Pasig. But before trying their burgers, we sampled a couple of their non-burger offerings first.We started off with the Loaded Nachos. Don't be fooled by its appearance. This is not your ordinary nachos.It has watermelon instead of tomatoes which gives it a surprising twist. Aside from that, the corn tortilla chips are also topped with chili con carne, cilantro, chilli fingers, lime vinaigrette, sour cream and cheese. It's not like anything I've tried before and I'd totally go back for this alone!

Berna Keçecioğlu

4.0

Hidden in the corner of the SM Super Center Pasig at the back of Watson’s, The Burger Joint is a hidden gem of delightful burger experience. Had a hard time to find them inside the mall, but it was treasure worth to find.What sets The Burger Joint apart is the cooking method in which they cook their beef patties. They called it “Smashed” where the patties are not just grilled, it is smashed with a cast iron (kind of putting the iron on top of the patties while grilling) to lock in the juices of the meat and create a delicious crispy crust on the outside. The result - a juicy, meaty flavored patty with an interesting mixture of texture that gets your palate excited to eat more. And with this technique of cooking, it also retains the heat of the freshly-cooked burger patty that it feels it just came off the grill in every bite.For the type of burgers we have tried, I got the Southwestern Burger and my husband had the Juicy Lucy. The southwestern burger has a bbq sauce in replacement of the usual burger dressing, with caramelized onion and bacon. I like the the sweet smoky taste of the bbq sauce and how it complement rather than over power the meaty taste of the burger patty. While you get a truly filling meal with Juicy Lucy – burger patty stuffed with gooey cheese with bacon, lettuce and pickles.And don’t forget to order their Nachos! Rather than your usual tomato salsa, they used watermelon instead. It is surprisingly good, maybe even better. Rather than the tartiness or sometimes tasteless tomatoes, the watermelon gives a sweet note to the dish that balance the saltiness of the cheese sauce and chips, and umami of chili con carne.A true test of a good burger is not the additional trimmings you put in the burger but how good the burger patty is made. And The Burger Joint is true to its promise of delivering “Burgers Done Right”.

Ebiechoo

4.0

I just recently saw their video in facebook on how they cook their burger. They start off with a mound of beef before pressing it using a cast iron burger press to form a nice, seared crust. That's what makes them different.The Great American Joint stays true to who they are. Their flavor profiles rotates mainly on different states in the US.It is located inside SM Pasig, at the far corner of the mall, just beside Krispy Kreme. I wonder why don't they create a krispy kreme burger, especially they're just beside them. heheheAnyways, we had their Loaded Nachos. Its not your typical nachos that is loaded with meat and cheese sauce. It has chili con carne & watermelon salsa, to name a few. I liked the idea of switching tomato salsa witha watermelon salsa, that gave it a fresh, sweet taste to it. It has the same texture as tomato, but flavorful.Chicken Tenders was served with BBQ rice and honey mustard. The chicken was abit overcooked that gave the sides a stringy, fibrous feel. It has a crispy crust though. The honey mustard was too sweet for me, that has too much honey compared to the balance taste of mustard and honey.NYC burger was composed of 1/3lb. Angus burger topped with the usual vegetables, bacon, and cheese. It was just like a basic cheese burger. I was surprised that their burger didn't crumble after eating the first bite, especially without a binder. You can see small holes or gaps inbetween chunks of beef at first bite. The beef was tasty and meaty, using good meat part. The best part for me is the meat crust that was formed during cooking. It added texture to the burger.At the end of the day, after having to try different variants of burger from other brands, I would always end up choosing the most basic one to highlight the meats flavor.#TheFoodCrawlers #OngsFoodprints #TheLostDiego