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| Screen Captured by Mark Avila |
Date Visited: April 30, 2021
Location: North York, ON
BurgerTours Rating: 7.6/10
| Taste | Messiness | Price | Venue | Pluses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awesome | Messy | $11-$15 | Fast Food | Veggie |
Website
Drew's Review
Decent. Thanks for asking. So...you been good then?
We arrive for yet another BurgerTour during this pandemic, and we’re back at it supporting local restaurants. For this month’s tour, we decided to try out Kitchen 57.
Opening in the summer of 2020, Kitchen 57 operates out of the back end of the Kraft Foods building near the intersection of York Mills and Don Mills. And for those failing to realize would go on to wonder why it’s operating out of the BACK of a building, without any visible signs or main entrance. Well, Kitchen 57 operates as a delivery service, not an actual restaurant. And because of the pandemic forcing everything to close, and restaurants not being able to have dine-in eating, Kitchen 57, I assume for the time being is simply just a delivery/pick-up option.
Thanks to Uber Eats for helping us find this joint, Kitchen 57 has several different meal options available and quite a handful of burgers to choose from. So even if you’re not a burger lover, it offers other d
ishes such as fish, salad and macaroni and cheese.
Many of their homemade burgers looked good to try, but for this particular day, I was craving something spicy. Something hot. Lo and behold, they offered a version of the classic hot chicken sandwich, do needless to say, that’s what I ordered.
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| Nashville Hot Crispy Chicken Burger |
Once I worked my way to the middle of the burger, my upper lip started sweating and water was calling for me. It was spicy and for a person who enjoys spicy foods, but rarely eats them, this burger was everything I had set it out to be. It came with tasty, tangy flavour, and there was just enough balance between the spiciness and the unspiciness to fully appreciate the burger. The one downside I had for this burger was the buns were a little stale when we ate them, and that could be because we didn’t eat them right away, and there was probably like a 30 min. gap between pick-up and eating. Other than that, there wasn’t one thing I could say I dislike about this burger.
Overall, Kitchen 57, if that is your real name, was a decent surprise and a strong and deserved welcome into the GTA’s burger scene. I believe Kitchen 57 has what it takes to survive, and though it’s only a year old and a delivery service was their main strategy, I can see Kitchen 57 becoming a real staple in the burger industry once dine-in is back and everything goes back to normal. Hopefully then Kitchen 57 takes a few hints and finds a more convenient location.
7.2/10
Mark's Review
I never thought we were gonna find this place. Driving up and down streets, pulling in and out of parking lots, and utilizing the intelligence of the handy dandy Google Maps, we finally found our next burger joint. Nestled inside a conglomerate of office buildings in North York we take you to Kitchen 57.
Located near the intersections of Don Mills & York Mills, you would never think to come across this hidden gem. Quickly browsing through their menu, which I found to be innovative and ambitious, we ordered through Uber Eats for pick-up. Within a mere 15 minutes our orders were ready!
Kitchen 57 is a local favourite, in which their goal is to serve high quality comfort to enjoy at home. A huge plus since comfort food is something people tend to crave when ordering in, especially during the past year with the pandemic.
Their selection was diverse and presented many burger combinations I’ve never seen before. One of them, my choice, was the Samurai Smash Burger. As the name suggests, this is a Japanese inspired burger on an artisan bun, with pieces of dried noodles, nori, wasabi paste, edamame seeds. I also switched out the beef patty for their plant based option.
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| Samurai Smash Burger/Photo by Mark Avila |
For the first bite.. the patty was a bit dry, but nicely seasoned. I immediately got the feel for the dried noodles, which at first I thought were daikon, but it added a nice crunch to the burger. The edamame seeds added a subtle spice, but not as bad as for what was to come. I didn’t care for the sliced pieces of nori as it added a salty, yet fishy flavour, which I found unnecessary as there was already too much happening in the burger.
What caught me off guard was the wasabi paste. I know wasabi is a staple in Japanese cuisine, but I was not ready for the heat that came after the first couple of bites. It felt like the wasabi was smeared throughout the centre of the burger, because that’s where I experienced the most intense heat. A nice touch, but definitely need to take it back a notch on the amount they put in.
Overall, I love the idea of the Samurai Smash Burger. This was a burger exploding in flavour of sweet, salty, and spice which gave an homage to Japanese ingredients that you would never find a burger. But, Kitchen 57 was innovative enough to take all these elements and made it work. I appreciate the effort of crafting this masterpiece and look forward to trying more of their burgers in the future.
8/10
