Fatboy's The Burger Bar

Fatboy’s The Burger Bar – 187 Upper Thomson Road

I’ve been meaning to go to this place for awhile, it’s opposite my church and has made a name for itself with creative, maverick concepts for burgers; arguably my favourite food. It’s a simple place with a small seating capacity but I guess that allows the kitchen to ensure every juicy offering delivered to your table will thrill and satiate. A VERY heavy supper for three came up to $45.30.

We started off with the Chilli Queso and Chips ($8.80). The chilli con carne made up for a somewhat subdued flavour with a generous amount of ground beef in a very rich take on refried beans. The chips were exceptionally crunchy and we ran out of them before we ran out of sauce, a rare scenario which illustrates the truly massive portions here.

A towering monster of two thick beef patties, bacon rashers, a fried egg, barbecue sauce and cheese; The Fat Basterd ($15.00) is the classic bacon cheeseburger on steroids and Fatboy’s signature. The sandwich is so massive that they had to introduce a skinny version for the wimps out there. Much to the incredulous glee of my dining partners, I was barely able to wrap my hand around the burger and fit it in my mouth, not something for the faint-hearted. The extremely juicy patties both made and broke the burger for while they were oh-so-good, their position next to the bun rendered the bread rapidly soggy and disintegrating. The fried egg was conversely a little dry too, I would have appreciated a still-runny yolk. The devil’s in the details when it comes to burger architecture but nevertheless it was one burger experience I won’t soon forget.

Often too soggy or too crisp, skinny and greasy; French fries are usually the tragic afterthought served alongside burgers. As such, when one encounters truly exceptional specimens like those at Fatboy’s, it’s only right to take a moment and give them their due attention. The satisfyingly enormous-cut potatoes were a delicate crisp on the outside and a wonderful mealy on the inside. They come unsalted so you can add however much you want; I personally skipped the salt and opted for the ketchup and chilli to do the talking. Sheer bliss.

The Burger of the Day ($11.00) was curried lamb in which the use of mango chutney was sheer genius. The sweet, piquant sauce was the perfect match for a lamb patty that impressed me by retaining the meat’s robust flavour that I had expected to be tragically masked by the heavy handed use of rosemary or some other herb. The mere hint of sweet curry sauce could only be detected if one concentrated but that did not detract from the amazing experience one bit.

The Elvis ($10.50) was like breakfast, dinner and dessert all bundled into one glorious package. Gooey peanut butter, meaty pork patty and sweet banana appear to be disparate elements but harmonise into something truly beautiful.