A Curious Atmosphere...
I would like to start out by saying that it is a real shame that we don't include atmosphere and customer service in our rating, because of all the places we have been, The Curious Squire has stood out exceptionally above the rest. The whole place is warm and inviting, the staff were friendly and went out of their way to be helpful, especially the girl who served us (and I apologise for not getting her name, because she was awesome and worth pointing out to everyone).
I'm not going to lie - the burgers themselves left a little to be desired, but if it weren't for that tiny little detail this place would be leagues ahead of the others!!
Tonight Chipolatte joined us, and he, Hungry Hungry Hippo and I all ordered The Squire - which is basically a burger with the lot. There's bacon, egg, some sort of coleslaw situation and onion and mustard and ketchup - so naturally, I ordered mine sans onion and mustard. Chipolatte had it as it is without the tomato and Hungry Hungry Hippo had it straight up. Tonight Chicken was not in the mood for a burger, so she went for a pumpkin salad and her comments will be reserved.
So we ordered our burgers, and added in a few nibbles because a) we were hungry and b) the menu was pretty darn exciting!! We ordered some mozzarella sticks and buffalo wings for something different, and we were advised that being a Tuesday, there were BOTTOMLESS DRINKS AND FRIES!!!!
I don't think I need to express to you just how much this made us happy - especially Hungry Hungry Hippo. We walked back to our table with ear-to-ear grins on our faces and an overwhelming sense of joy in our hearts.
OK. Usually I wouldn't go into detail about the non-burger-related food, but this was so amazingly excellent that it would be almost a crime not to mention them. To be honest, I ordered the mozzarella sticks on a whim, mostly because I just love cheese, and they absolutely did not disappoint. There were six "sticks" which were basically batons of mozzarella, crumbed and deep fried, served with some type of tomato relishy thing. The mozzarella was warm and stretchy and so incredibly moreish that I could have gladly eaten the whole basket of the things to myself.
Similarly, the buffalo wings disappeared in a heartbeat. The girl who served us kept coming back out to check that we had enough sauce and was forthcoming with providing garlic aioli, tomato ketchup, ranch sauce (for the wings, specifically), and Hungry Hungry Hippo's personal favourite, the chef's secret recipe homemade BBQ sauce, which was brought to the table in a giant squeezy bottle as a free for all. The wings were amazing, and had everyone licking their fingers.
And then, with this excitement and hope deep in our souls, the burgers come out.
The burger on my plate - or rather, on my wooden board - is enormous. Seriously, it's huge. It's so big that despite having a skewer down the middle in a feeble attempt to hold it together, the whole thing has fallen half over like a partly crumbled Tower of Pisa.
The boys' burgers are quite similar, and we all remark on how lovely and dark the glaze is on the bun, but we lament the lack of sesame seeds. I pick up my burger and it is VERY hard to hold. It's already drippy and there's egg yolk spilling out of every opening, including up through the little skewer hole in the centre of the top bun. After one bite I have egg yolk dripping down my wrists and it's a little offputting. The first few bites are all bun and coleslaw and the patty (which is too small for the bun, mind you) slips around and escapes being eaten... for now.
I'm not going to lie - the burgers themselves left a little to be desired, but if it weren't for that tiny little detail this place would be leagues ahead of the others!!
Tonight Chipolatte joined us, and he, Hungry Hungry Hippo and I all ordered The Squire - which is basically a burger with the lot. There's bacon, egg, some sort of coleslaw situation and onion and mustard and ketchup - so naturally, I ordered mine sans onion and mustard. Chipolatte had it as it is without the tomato and Hungry Hungry Hippo had it straight up. Tonight Chicken was not in the mood for a burger, so she went for a pumpkin salad and her comments will be reserved.
So we ordered our burgers, and added in a few nibbles because a) we were hungry and b) the menu was pretty darn exciting!! We ordered some mozzarella sticks and buffalo wings for something different, and we were advised that being a Tuesday, there were BOTTOMLESS DRINKS AND FRIES!!!!
I don't think I need to express to you just how much this made us happy - especially Hungry Hungry Hippo. We walked back to our table with ear-to-ear grins on our faces and an overwhelming sense of joy in our hearts.
OK. Usually I wouldn't go into detail about the non-burger-related food, but this was so amazingly excellent that it would be almost a crime not to mention them. To be honest, I ordered the mozzarella sticks on a whim, mostly because I just love cheese, and they absolutely did not disappoint. There were six "sticks" which were basically batons of mozzarella, crumbed and deep fried, served with some type of tomato relishy thing. The mozzarella was warm and stretchy and so incredibly moreish that I could have gladly eaten the whole basket of the things to myself.
Similarly, the buffalo wings disappeared in a heartbeat. The girl who served us kept coming back out to check that we had enough sauce and was forthcoming with providing garlic aioli, tomato ketchup, ranch sauce (for the wings, specifically), and Hungry Hungry Hippo's personal favourite, the chef's secret recipe homemade BBQ sauce, which was brought to the table in a giant squeezy bottle as a free for all. The wings were amazing, and had everyone licking their fingers.
And then, with this excitement and hope deep in our souls, the burgers come out.
The burger on my plate - or rather, on my wooden board - is enormous. Seriously, it's huge. It's so big that despite having a skewer down the middle in a feeble attempt to hold it together, the whole thing has fallen half over like a partly crumbled Tower of Pisa.
The boys' burgers are quite similar, and we all remark on how lovely and dark the glaze is on the bun, but we lament the lack of sesame seeds. I pick up my burger and it is VERY hard to hold. It's already drippy and there's egg yolk spilling out of every opening, including up through the little skewer hole in the centre of the top bun. After one bite I have egg yolk dripping down my wrists and it's a little offputting. The first few bites are all bun and coleslaw and the patty (which is too small for the bun, mind you) slips around and escapes being eaten... for now.
This burger was so difficult to eat that I had to go and get cutlery to finish it off after about the fourth bite. It was not a practical burger.
So what did we think of it??
Bun 7/10
Despite there being no sesame seeds, I think this is probably one of the better buns we've come across. It has a chewy texture, which is a first for us on our Quest. It wasn't too sweet and was warm and toasty.
Hungry Hungry Hippo says it's a good bun despite the lack of seeds.
Chipolatte says it is a lovely, soft, supple bun.
Patty 4/10
I thought the meat was very dry. It was too chewy and not enjoyable enough to be a pass mark for me. At one stage I broke off a bit to taste it on its own and just got a mouthful of pepper. And I like pepper. Very disappointing.
Chipolatte didn't like it - he said it was less than average.
Hungry Hungry Hippo didn't mind the patty. He said it was good ground meat and was clearly not bought from a store, but he agreed that it was a little dry and overcooked.
Value 5/10
The boys ranked this a little higher than I did, mainly due to Hungry Hungry Hippo's suggestion that we put in perspective the offer of unlimited fries, sauces and drinks as a consideration for the value score. Chipolatte says that being a Tuesday and with those considerations it is reasonable, but any other day of the week the burger would not be worth the $18. Personally, I struggle to consider that something is good value when I didn't eat half of my burger and it was on the $20 mark.
Balance & Composition 4/10
This is where the burger really let itself down. It was too big to hold and too sloppy. Chipolatte said it didn't need the coleslaw, there was no pickle, but he liked the egg and mustard and remarked that they were present in just the right quantities. Hungry Hungry Hippo agreed with the comments about the egg and mustard, but said that he felt as though he was rushing to finish his burger just so he could go and wash his hands, and said that let it down for him. I needed to use cutlery and I just don't think that a burger ought to require cutlery. It's supposed to be hand held food. I don't know, I just think that nothing about the way this thing was put together quite hit the mark.
Flavour 4/10
My opinion was that the coleslaw was out of place and did not belong on this burger - I found the burger to be far too eggy and there was no pickle, which made me pretty sad. Chipolatte said that he thought 4 was a generous score, and it was only so because the egg and mustard were perfect, but there was very little else to like about it. He thought there was too much coleslaw and didn't enjoy it. He was hungry and didn't even have half of it.
Hungry Hungry Hippo though said that despite the coleslaw not belonging, he actually enjoyed the burger. It tasted saucy and he liked it.
Overall 4.8/10
The funny thing is that the score does by no stretch of the imagination even remotely reflect our overall enjoyment of this place, as our experience was actually way up there. If we had judged it separate from the burger, it would probably be a new number 1, but unfortunately the burger just didn't quite get a pass. As an aside, Chicken said that her eating her pumpkin salad made her feel like Encarnation from "Nacho Libre" because of the corn and the corn chips. For those of you who are unfamiliar with "Nacho Libre" (and I have no idea either), that apparently means it was a gooooooood salad.
We all agreed that we would come back here for sure. We'd probably go across the road to Burgastronomy for dinner and then come back to the Curious Squire for some drinks and bar snacks. We really loved this place and would recommend it, just probably not for the burgers.
The Curious Squire can be located at 10 O'Connell Street, North Adelaide.
So what did we think of it??
Bun 7/10
Despite there being no sesame seeds, I think this is probably one of the better buns we've come across. It has a chewy texture, which is a first for us on our Quest. It wasn't too sweet and was warm and toasty.
Hungry Hungry Hippo says it's a good bun despite the lack of seeds.
Chipolatte says it is a lovely, soft, supple bun.
Patty 4/10
I thought the meat was very dry. It was too chewy and not enjoyable enough to be a pass mark for me. At one stage I broke off a bit to taste it on its own and just got a mouthful of pepper. And I like pepper. Very disappointing.
Chipolatte didn't like it - he said it was less than average.
Hungry Hungry Hippo didn't mind the patty. He said it was good ground meat and was clearly not bought from a store, but he agreed that it was a little dry and overcooked.
Value 5/10
The boys ranked this a little higher than I did, mainly due to Hungry Hungry Hippo's suggestion that we put in perspective the offer of unlimited fries, sauces and drinks as a consideration for the value score. Chipolatte says that being a Tuesday and with those considerations it is reasonable, but any other day of the week the burger would not be worth the $18. Personally, I struggle to consider that something is good value when I didn't eat half of my burger and it was on the $20 mark.
Balance & Composition 4/10
This is where the burger really let itself down. It was too big to hold and too sloppy. Chipolatte said it didn't need the coleslaw, there was no pickle, but he liked the egg and mustard and remarked that they were present in just the right quantities. Hungry Hungry Hippo agreed with the comments about the egg and mustard, but said that he felt as though he was rushing to finish his burger just so he could go and wash his hands, and said that let it down for him. I needed to use cutlery and I just don't think that a burger ought to require cutlery. It's supposed to be hand held food. I don't know, I just think that nothing about the way this thing was put together quite hit the mark.
Flavour 4/10
My opinion was that the coleslaw was out of place and did not belong on this burger - I found the burger to be far too eggy and there was no pickle, which made me pretty sad. Chipolatte said that he thought 4 was a generous score, and it was only so because the egg and mustard were perfect, but there was very little else to like about it. He thought there was too much coleslaw and didn't enjoy it. He was hungry and didn't even have half of it.
Hungry Hungry Hippo though said that despite the coleslaw not belonging, he actually enjoyed the burger. It tasted saucy and he liked it.
Overall 4.8/10
The funny thing is that the score does by no stretch of the imagination even remotely reflect our overall enjoyment of this place, as our experience was actually way up there. If we had judged it separate from the burger, it would probably be a new number 1, but unfortunately the burger just didn't quite get a pass. As an aside, Chicken said that her eating her pumpkin salad made her feel like Encarnation from "Nacho Libre" because of the corn and the corn chips. For those of you who are unfamiliar with "Nacho Libre" (and I have no idea either), that apparently means it was a gooooooood salad.
We all agreed that we would come back here for sure. We'd probably go across the road to Burgastronomy for dinner and then come back to the Curious Squire for some drinks and bar snacks. We really loved this place and would recommend it, just probably not for the burgers.
The Curious Squire can be located at 10 O'Connell Street, North Adelaide.