The Deck, Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada

Location: Whitehorse in the Yukon Territories. Objective: find a really good burger. My friends and I asked around town for the best burger and we were told enthusiastically that The Deck had a killer Bison burger. Right O, we are totally there because, first reaction, Bison sounds so Yukonish until you give it some thought and consider that Bison is probably not local, more of a plains/prairies like creature, we should be looking for Moose or Elk burgers instead. We fall for it anyway but as it turns out when we got to the Deck they are sold out of the Bison and we had to settle for a regular beef patty.

It's OK, it's a beautiful sunny evening sitting out on the deck with a local Bear beer draft and it's all good. (It's the end of May and 22° C up here. 17º in Vancouver...crap, who new you had to fly 2 hrs north to find descent spring weather)

This is burger 101, standard, bacon cheese and sautéed onions, stacked with fresh tomatoes, onions and pickles all enveloped into a soft and warm bun.

It was way over expectations, although nothing special ingredients wise everything came together beautifully for a solid 8.5 - 9/10. My friend Ron also had the burger and as guest reviewer concurred on the taste but wouldn't commit to an actual score. He did comment that he would have preferred more juice. As in juiciness. I can’t argue with that, more juice is always good.

Now Fran is another story, I post this picture of the vegetarian Portobello mushroom burger she had and raved about. A 10/10 she stated with great enthusiasm and then went on and on about how good it was. Sorry Fran, I'm sure it tasted great but no way that this thing is a burger. Where is the bun, the MEAT, the GREASE? You ate it with a knife a fork. I double dare you to try and pick that thing up hold it in your hands and eat it like a REAL burger. Menu marketing is a wonderful thing.

I'm sure I'll be hearing about this for sometime to come. Maybe we continue the debate next time on another patio somewhere with another beer another burger and another great evening.

Airport Chalet, Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada

A quick Google search of "the best burger in Whitehorse Yukon" comes up with The Airport Chalet as the first 7 choices. OK, so 4 of them are on trip adviser, the other 3 random ad sites. The Airport Chalet does not have their own website but trip adviser and yelp seem to think highly of this establishment.

Situated directly across for from the airport, surprise, The Airport Chalet is straight out of the 40's or 50's roadside hotel /diner. The sign reminds me of old Vegas before all the neon. Inside, it’s dark and dingy which is somewhat bewildering because it's sunny outside and there are big windows on the front of the restaurant. It seems that light is forbidden entry into this throwback tavern. The walls are covered in old wallpaper, muted pink flowers with pastel green stems. The height of fashion in the 40's, I think I saw Sarah Richardson on the Home and Garden Network, do a retro cottage in similar colours. A small but beautiful cowboy bar sits alone in the corner. I can imagine the beat up gold miners sitting have a whiskey and dreaming about riches to come.

The waitress calls me Hon and brings me a standard looking pub burger. The patty is homemade but needs some seasoning. Everything else is fresh tasty and perfectly average. This is a workmanlike burger, for the workman like local crowd.

At 6.5/10 it was ok an experience but I don't need to go back for the burger. I would however go back in a minute to sit at the bar and have a few drinks and soak up the local ambiance.