Chuck Wagon 175
Stop no. 2 takes us to O'Connell Street, North Adelaide for the first time on our Quest.
Yep, we've found ourselves at the much-anticipated favourite of many an Adelaidean and the place I have had the most requests for thus far. I've practically had my shoulders shaken, with a steely intensity in the eyes of the shoulder-shaker, boring into me that in no uncertain terms, "YOU MUST GO TO CHUCK WAGON!"
So we find ourselves, on the second adventure of our Quest, here at Chuck Wagon.
I feel at this point that I must introduce you to a new player, who may show his head from time to time - Pretty Fry For A White Guy. Pretty Fry, Hungry Hungry Hippo and Chicken had never been here before, and all were suitably excited.
I don't want to bore you with too many details of decor etc, but the inside of Chuck Wagon is pretty cool. There are cool movie posters on the wall, some brightly coloured graffiti art along the back, and of course there's that "Challenge Wall" for the not-so-faint-hearted.
The menu leaves you spoiled for choice. I took a while to decide what I should order, so while I was making up my mind, the others at the table ordered. Pretty Fry For A White Guy ordered the Royal with Cheese; another ring-in, French Fry ordered the I-can't-remember-what-it-was-called-but-it-was-the-one-with-blue-cheese (I just looked it up - it's called the Black & Blue); Hungry Hungry Hippo ordered the Royal with Cheese and added bacon; Chicken went with the Cajun Chicken, and after all the discussion and despite feeling like something spicy, I decided to swallow my pride and order the Royal with Cheese and added lettuce & tomato (as I really needed to up my veggie intake today!).
The boys did, of course, remember to order a serving or two of fries, which at $4 a serving and with unlimited free sauce brought over to the table in giant squeezy bottles, was a welcome and value-for-money addition. We actually all got a little excited by those big bottles of sauce.
Our burgers arrive and the first thing I notice is that the "cheese" on my Royal with Cheese is not cheese at all. It is a yellow, sloppy, icky looking cheesy sauce thing. Considering I had to nearly have an argument with Mr. Waiter Man about what cheese to have on the burger in the first place, this puts me off almost straight away. In my head it's acceptable for cheese on a burger to be sliced cheese, but it needs to be actual cheese, thanks.
The bun is nicely glazed, I must say. It is also toasted (tick) and warm to the touch (tick). No sesame seeds though. Call me old fashioned, but I do love a bit of sesame seed on my burger bun! I pick up the burger and take one little bite and half of the fillings fall out the bottom all over the plate. The slices of pickle were nice and big and thick and juicy (mmm...) but the patty was dry and boring and bland and chewy.
After that first mouthful all I could taste was mustard, because there was about half a kilo of the stuff slopped on the inside of the top lid of the bun, which of course meant that by the end the bread had become so soggy it was like glue (Chicken's words, not mine), not that that mattered because I had to use my cutlery to attempt to get all parts of the burger in each mouthful thanks to the mustard making everything slippery.
The fries were OK, but nothing special. I actually didn't like the paprika sprinkled on them, but I did appreciate the value for money and the free sauce. Seriously, guys, FREE SAUCE!!
Bun 4/10
The bun was a little tougher than the one last week. It was nicely glazed though, and toasty warm, which was a plus. I thought the bread was too sweet, however, Chicken added that the bottom of it was like glue by the time she was done, and Hungry Hungry Hippo quite liked his.
Patty 4/10
Chicken's chicken was "pretty good," Hungry Hungry Hippo noted that his patty was "nothing special" and as far as I was concerned, mine was too dry, over cooked (considering they specified that all burgers would be cooked medium and mine was past well done), it was chewy and I got a few bits of gristle in my teeth. It did not have that lovely steak flavour that I would expect.
Value for Money 6/10
Chicken, Hungry Hungry Hippo and Pretty Fry For A White Guy all agreed that their burgers were fairly good value for money - mostly because they were cheap. I rated mine highly in this area too, because I thought it was pretty generous of them to add lettuce and tomato without charging extra (as most places would) and they got a bonus point for the free unlimited sauces, because this is definitely something that isn't offered enough as far as we were all concerned.
Balance & Composition 3/10
Chicken's biggest concern was that the plate was too small and that the two pieces of chicken were layered on top of each other, which made for one giant lump of chicken right in the middle of her burger. Pretty Fry For A White Guy said that adding pickles to a burger for the first time in his life was a positive, but that his burger had dried out by the time he got to the end (not realising we had a massive bottle of ketchup on the table). Almost all of ours fell apart, but none as badly as mine did.
Flavour 4/10
Pretty Fry For A White Guy brought the average up here, it must be said. Had he not been present, this score would have been significantly lower. He was impressed with the flavour of his burger as he'd never had a pickle on a burger before (yeah, I don't know where he's been hiding either) and this rated highly in his opinion (which, of course, I would have to support!). Chicken said hers was nice, but kinda tasted like nothing. It was supposed to have garlic aioli, but she didn't taste it at all. Mine? Well, mine tasted like mustard, slimy cheese sauce, and very little else. Shame.
Overall 4.2/10
While I appreciated getting a burger for under ten bucks, I couldn't even finish the last quarter of it, and for me to not finish my meal that's really saying something.
Ultimately, for somewhere so highly anticipated, this place just didn't quite cut the mustard.
Chuck Wagon 175 is located at 175 O'Connell Street, North Adelaide