Handsome Burger: Hawksworth at the Georgia Hotel

Fancy place, Hawksworth at the newly renovated Georgia Hotel in downtown Vancouver.

A fancy shmancy gourmet burger awaits. And by the way when I say fancy gourmet burger I don't actually want to insinuate that this burger is instantly better the some fantastic hole in the wall or casual eatery burgers around town. Rather fancy is a function of 3 things:

1. Price. Its going to be expensive, in this case $18. After all have you seen this restaurant, huge overhead, they have to pay for fancy space, perfectly quaft pretty people and spotless designer uniforms.

Check, everyone and everything looks stylishly perfect.

2. A Celebrity chef. Check again, David Hackworth gained fame through many award winning restaurants, Vancouver Chef of the year in 2008 and currently parlays this into guest judging appearances on Top Chef Canada.

3. The Show. Your food does not just arrive but is presented to you in a beautifully choreographed dance and once placed before you is entirely camera ready. Check once again, this is a purdy looking burger.

So is the burger any good or is it just hype and ambiance? I think a little of both. My friend Deb and I both had the burger and we were both in agreement that this was a perfectly tasty burger a solid 8.5/10.

Here's' the breakdown:

The server asked "how would you like your burger done"? Music to my ears exactly what I want to hear when I order a burger, unfortunately 98% of the time its " would you like fries or salad"... really? Like there's any option anyway.

Speaking of fries the advertised frites were not. Instead, they were big thick beams of potatoes stacked appropriately enough, depending at how you look at things, in a square resembling a log cabin. Hmm I had the same thing at Hackworth’s previous Restaurant West. Not impressed, just deliver some really good frits please, its hard to improve on a classic.

The flavour of the burger was better than good, but not great, coming predominantly from the bbq sauce and oven roasted tomatoes. I also expected a much juicier burger especially from one cooked medium rare. The bun fell apart, which usually happens in my humble experience when it's not fresh. Dare I say that Hawksorth served a burger on a day old bun?

This is all sounding a bit harsh but really in the end a good burger. But then, I think Hackworth’s is more about the experience and not necessarily about the burger.

By the way we had a few appies that were absolutely outstanding.

The highlights: