Saturday, June 2, 2012

Burger Theory

For any of those who have read through old posts, pretty much every time I get burger I write something clever about how I got a burger because as everyone knows I love burgers.  Well here’s one more.  This week was my ultimate date night – Burger Theory.

My sister Skye told me about it and I put it to the top of the list – the next week we were hunting down the Burger Theory van of happiness.  So for those of you that were like us and did not know what Burger Theory was about, it’s basically a van that travels around Adelaide, stopping in spots for a few hours selling awesome burgers.  They give you two options, classic cheeseburger type burger and one that is a little bit fancy (check out the technical menu here).  Throw in a couple more options like tomato sauce or truck sauce, and whether to get a coke (or coke zero, or water) and fries as well and you’ve got your menu.  It was about $15 for drink fries and burger.

I was a little skeptical, wondering whether this burger van was so awesome because it was an “underground” thing.  Like oh my god, you DON’T know about Burger Theory *instantly uncool* but then the burgers weren’t actually that great.  One way to find out!  But considering their Facebook page has close to 6000 likes, it had to be good, right?

Lucky for us it wasn’t a case of trekking all over town trying to find this van – on their Facebook and website they have a calendar of where they’ll be.  And double awesome, they started serving on the corner of Rundle Street and Frome Road at 6.30, nice early dinner date night, but enough time for me to wander around town before hand :)

Now we got there and I already knew I was going for burger number 1, and going all out with fries and coke (and truck sauce on the burger). We ordered, and I got my creep on and got a photo of the man taking our orders.  I wish I had gotten his name.  But he was pretty casual and not too thrown off getting his photo taken (after I told him what it was for).  


There was four people working (that I saw) and they seemed to all know their roles pretty well. I didn’t see any bumping or confusion or anything, just banging out burgers.

There was a window for ordering and a window for collecting.  


They also gave out those beeper things that go off when your order is ready so they don’t have to scream it out.  While we were waiting a couple of things happened.  First a couple of girls found Burger Theory… and literally squealed with excitement at finding the van. It was a loud yayayayayay kind of squeal and I thought surely something must have happened; surely these teenagers weren’t that excited about coming across a burger van.  I was wrong, they were excited and squealing for that exact reason (we know because they started telling the guy taking the orders how excited they were) and my hopes got even higher. The second was the spectacle of a man RUNNING back to the van with his beeper going off, waving it in the air like he had won a prize.  I don’t know how far away he gotten but he certainly sped back from there.  Considering we were waiting max 10 minutes, those two things were enough to keep me entertained.

By this stage the line was long, my stomach was growling and my hopes were high for the seemingly famous burgers this van produced.


So we got our food. Out of the truck. With our fries and cokes. Standing on Frome Road with nowhere to eat our meals without having to put something down.  I was that hungry I was considering sitting down just on the road near the truck, which really I don’t think would have been all that “out there” considering how many people were lined up to get their mouths around these burgers).  But then, Paul the genius was all, hey the car is just in that car park, lets go eat in there.  And we didn’t pay for our ticket so we could take our time.  We finally got to the car and that was the end of that burger.


The burger patty itself was, well, perfect in my eyes.  It wasn’t too big that you ran out of bun (so good patty – bun ratio is what I’m trying to say), but it was a good enough size that it wasn’t like a maccas or hj’s burger.  The truck sauce, the only way I can think to describe it is as maybe a mayonnaise with salt and pepper? I’m not even sure if that’s right, I was trying to put my finger on it the whole time I was eating it.  It actually really annoyed me.  But it tasted really really good.  They didn’t over do the sauce, but there was plenty of it.  And I was surprised how well cooked the fries were.  I was expecting some not properly cooked showground fries, but they delivered on that front too.


I appreciated the simplicity of it.  A burger with cheese, meat patty, sauce, lettuce and tomato (if you got burger 1 that is), too easy!  That’s what it should be!  I don’t always want bacon and egg and chutney and beetroot together with a super thick meat patty that is way too big to take a bite out of so I end up looking like an uncivilized slob no matter which way I try to eat it (but to be clear, sometimes I do want that, just not this night).

So it didn’t take long for us both to devour these delicious burgers that definitely met the hype.  I wasn’t even in a food coma at the end of it because everything was a perfect size to fill me up, but not that too much to send me over the edge into “oh my god I’m so full I hate myself” land.

Next time I come across that van I’ll squeal with excitement like those other girls. 

Burger Theory on Urbanspoon

5 comments:

  1. Sounds like it's worth the hype! Hope I get to try it myself one day...

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    1. Apparently they're opening up a diner! So the van won't really be around through winter. But yay a diner!

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  2. The diner is open on Briar Rd at Felixstow - had our first experience there today! It's very newly opened, and they don't do take away yet because they're still getting the jist of things! It's called Pearls Diner and doubles as Burger Theory and a waffle house - just delicious! It'll be my lunch every weekend! :) by far the best burgers AND milkshakes I have ever tasted ( they also have an all day breakfast menu and other menu items too!)

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  3. Hi, this is the guy from the truck. Thanks for the entertaining account of your experience at our burger truck. At least we know we maybe doing something right.

    Burger theory currently has a 'art collection' series of burgers running for the next 3 months, with new burger combinations running every couple of weeks, so get in quick and dont miss ur chance to sample the guilt ridden goodness :-)

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  4. Andy, thank you so much for the message!

    Haha it was a great first time truck experience. You're definitely doing a lot of things right!

    I've let Paul know about the new burgers and we're both very excited to check them out ;) thanks for the heads up!

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