Review #65 - BOOMburger

BOOMburger
Variety: Gourmet Burger
Address: 64 Dellridge Lane
Date Visited: Monday, August 3, 2015
Orders: Little Boom Bacon Cheeseburger, Little Boom Cheeseburger

Taste: 7 + 5* = 12/20
Portion Size: 9 + 8 = 17/20
Presentation: 5 + 5 = 10/20
Value: 8 + 8 = 16/20
Service: 7 + 7 = 14/20
Bonus: 1
Minus: -
Final Grade: 70% (Good)

(Scoring: 100% to 140% = Exceptional, 85% to 99% = Excellent, 67% to 84% = Good, 60% to 66% = Satisfactory, 50% to 59% = Marginal, 0% to 49% = Poor, -40% to -1% = Abysmal)

Notes: We tried BOOMburger the first day it opened back in the spring of 2014 and were more than a little disappointment by their lack of action to our disappointed tweet commenting on their omission of the bacon on our Little Boom Bacon Cheeseburger. (They "favourited" the tweet but didn't actually do anything about it. Bizarre!) So, although this joint is in our neighbourhood, we decided to give it a miss for a good long while. Truth be told, it might be a while longer before we go back, especially with Relish having just opened up down the street.

On the plus side, the place is spotless. It feels hospital grade clean. You could probably eat off the floor and walk out of there healthier than if you chowed down on some pristine fare from some other local establishments. It's so clean that while we were there, an employee actually scrubbed down the already-clean picnic benches outside. Bonus point for cleanliness.

Ordering was a little weird. In short: there's no combo option, you have to buy your burger, your drink and your fries all separate, and they're not particularly cheap. Yes, refills of the slightly watered down fountain pop were free, but when you grab yourself a burger, if you're anything like us, you want to feel you're getting a deal.

Although the place wasn't particularly busy, it took almost 10 minutes to get our food, which is a little long given their assembly line formation. J ordered the Little Boom Bacon Cheeseburger (hooray, it came with bacon this time!) and T had the Little Boom Cheeseburger. (Little Boom = one patty, Big Boom = a double dose of beef). The burgers were very tasty, and the Cows cheese (this is a PEI establishment, after all!) was a winner.

The fries, on the other hand...T put it best when she said "There is a way to make tasty hand-cut fries, they just haven't found it yet." The fries were very greasy, overly crispy and borderline burned. Some of them actually tasted bitter. We wonder if perhaps the bitter taste came from the bag - although we ordered "eat in", our order came in a paper bag and although there was a very generous portion of fries, they were quite literally just dumped into the bag (see photo below). As such, the "presentation" category took a massive hit, and although T would have given the burger an 8, the fries were a 3, giving it a paltry 5/10 score for her (hence the asterisk above).

For a place that's been open almost 16 months, they still have a lot of work to do.

Final Verdict: Go for the burger, but definitely skip the fries.