The village Tap House. West Vancouver, BC Canada

The best thing about the tap house burger was the soft sesame seed bun. Is that a good thing? The rest of the burger was just slightly above average. Good flavors, fresh veggies. There was way too much ketchup on the burger. Actually any amount of ketchup in a burger is too much for my taste. This is a funny thing, because ketchup is perfectly all right on my fries. The burger was served with a couple of large deep fried onion rings in top (nice) and a pickle wedge on the side. I like my pickles in the burger. Fresh cut fries, very nice. The burger itself was a 6.5/10 but the Tap House has great beers, so the burger beer paring options are outstanding and along with the other accoutrements the overall score gets bumped to an 8/10 .

Definitely a place to check out: http://www.villagetaphouse.com/

Vera’s Burger Shack. Vancouver, BC Canada

Vera’s started out as a Kit’s beach front, burger take out joint and grew to a chain of restaurants throughout Vancouver. Franchise anyone? The restaurants are small kitschy eateries. A fast food order type place with a liquor license. The patties are fresh made, grilled to order. My burger was a juicy drippy mess. Always a good sign. Vera’s makes very good burgers. Overall an 8/10 for my bacon cheeseburger. My only complaint on the burger was the cheese. Grated instead of sliced, the cheese did not melt over the patty. A chunk of cold cheddar on top of a hot patty just didn’t cut it.

There was a hair in my fries. Luckily the fires were served in their own basket. So the gross-out factor did not extend too much to the burger. The fries sat at the table untouched. They looked underdone anyway.

A solid burger establishment, check out Vera’s at: http://www.verasburgershack.com/

Modern Café. Nanaimo, BC Canada

The signage drew me in, a historic landmark from the 1940’s. The décor was in fact modern, exposed brick, trendy looking place. The burger unfortunately did not keep up with the décor. I can’t go over 6/10 for this bacon burger. The patty was small, the sauce was non existent. To be fair there was actually sauce on the bun but two small dabs were almost undetectable. Why bother? The menu said grilled sourdough bun. I got a tasteless whole-wheat bun. I do not like the bait and switch on menus. Alas, I would go back for the ambiance and to try some other things on the menu, but I wouldn’t have another burger here.

I can’t find their website. But read more on a few other blogs here:

http://www.gonanaimo.com/blog/2008/02/modern-caf-nanaimo.html

http://www.nathaniel.ca/blog/?p=1108

Longwood Brewpub, Nanaimo, BC Canada

I’m told that this is the only Brew pub in Nanaimo. Let me know if I’m wrong. Any place that makes its own beer is usually pretty good on the burger side as well. I had the Longwood burger with bacon with a pretty good Longwood Ale, AKA Woodies Ale.

Everything was pretty good if not a bit average. This is a perfectly acceptable and typical burger. I’ll give it a 7/10. The burger here suffers from big bun small patty (in this case also overcooked) disease. And what’s up with the whole wheat bun? Let’s be clear, burgers are not supposed to be healthy. Dripping fat juices over your fingers, a clear sign of a great burger is not lean cuisine or heart healthy. This one didn’t drip enough. Can you tell I’m not ecstatic about the burger?

I asked for hot sauce for my fries and they brought me a homemade concoction which they use for their chicken wings. Now this stuff was really good. Thumbs up for making your own wing sauce. So now I obviously have to come back for some fat on a stick. I’m thinking of a hoppy India Pale Ale pairing.


I’m also told by the server that their best seller is the Fish & Chips. So I guess I’ll be back a couple more time. I’m thinking about the dark German wheat beer they brew in this case.


Check them out at: http://www.longwoodbrewpub.com/