Moderne Burger

I can’t remember exactly who suggested I give Moderne Burger a try but I’ve been wanting to go for months. It’s just that I keep forgetting about it and the one time I did remember, I forgot to bring my camera so I thought I’d just go at a later date. There’s plenty of buzz about this place around Vancouver but it wasn’t really on my radar. I mean, I’ve eaten some pretty extravagant burgers (including the Feenie Burger, The DB Burger and the Fraiche burger…which Stephen especially enjoyed) around here so a burger has to be pretty damned special to blow me away.

Moderne Burger is located at 2507 West Broadway, on the same block as Lumiere and DB Bistro Moderne. Inside, it is full on 50’s diner style complete with a jukebox and seats that look like relics from that era. It’s an interesting environment to say the least…especially for someone who only knows 50’s style from old Archie comics, Back to the Future and other pop culture references.

I was seated in a booth by the front and noticed that they were quite small. Four adults would struggle to sit comfortably.

The menu has three things plus drinks: burgers, grilled cheese and BLTs. I ordered the burger platter (which is available as a Moderne steak burger, a turkey burger, a veggie burger or a wild salmon fillet) which comes with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, mayo and house sauce along with fries. There are a variety of things you can add to your burger including mushrooms, bacon and cheese. While I was tempted, I was told the patty was something special so I decided to go mostly plain so the meat would be the stand-out.

When my platter arrived, the first thing I thought was “Holy #*%&, that is a mountain of fries!”. Seriously, there must be at least three whole potatoes on my plate. If you head to Moderne Burger with a friend, don’t order more than one platter. The fries on a single platter are enough for two or maybe even three people.

The burger is a hand-made steak patty and from the flavor and texture, you can tell it isn’t your regular frozen ground beef. It’s well seasoned but mine seemed to be a tad overcooked and a bit dry. The veggies tasted fresh and I thought to myself that the fixin’s looked like they do in pictures rather than in real life. The house sauce gives the burger a little zip and I liked the fact the bun was lightly toasted but warmed all the way through.

It’s unfortunate that the burger was dry on the inside or I would’ve like this a lot more.

The fries are cut and fried fresh to order but I found them rather oily and I don’t think they were seasoned immediately coming out of the fryer. I ate maybe a third of them, the crispier ones I could find in the mountainous pile before I called it a day. It might be a matter of preference but I like thinner, crispier fries compared to these more home-style fries that are mostly soft. I really should’ve put something there for a size comparison since looking at this picture, it doesn’t seem to be as huge a serving as it looks when it’s in front of your face.

The staff is friendly and helpful, although it seemed like on that particular day, they were getting everything wrong. I overheard customers complaining about two entirely separate take-out orders that were messed up and a staff member apologizing over the phone for a third. It looked like they quickly corrected their mistakes, however, offering the customers their correct meal and free milkshakes. Something must’ve been going on that day as they messed my order up as well when my waitress returned to my table to inform me that they had no root beer…and couldn’t make the vanilla root beer that I ordered.

Overall, I found Moderne Burger to be rather average. I can’t say I was particularly unhappy with anything but I doubt I’d go back, especially since I thought the burger platter was actually a tad expensive at $10.75 for a plain burger. A comparable burger would be the one at Fraiche, which I thought was a considerably better burger (which also uses freshly made ingredients). Sure, Fraiche’s offering is $16 but also had cheese, mushrooms and bacon, which would’ve been an extra $4.50 at Moderne Burger anyways…and again, I did not like the fries so overall, I’m a bit disappointed.

If you happen to know of an amazing burger that I or the Dot Com Pho guys haven’t eaten yet, please let us know. We once blew $600 on burgers for lunch so ridiculous burgers are sort of our thing.

in Food and Fine Dining