Berlin Burger Tour, Stop 1: Berlin Burger International
by James Glazebrook
“The best burger in Berlin? Really?”
That question popped into our, and our fellow Berlin bloggers’, heads every time we read a post about yet another great burger joint here in our (adopted) hometown. So we decided to find out for ourselves, once and for all: where can you get the best burger in Berlin?
Organised by Digital Cosmonaut and Travels of Adam, a bunch of us set out on a tour of Berlin’s hamburger hotspots, to find out which is best. This here data nerd couldn’t help but get scientific, and draw up a survey that would give us a fair system of evaluating each place on its own meaty merits. Essentially, we scored according to flavour only – of the burger, the Pommes (fries/wedges) and the sauce and seasonings. I decided to record some other “data” that might help inform the final outcome: variety (the number of different burgers on offer), the availability of bio (organic) and vegetarian alternatives, and price (of a basic hamburger and fries).
Stop 1: Berlin Burger International
Burgerific photo credit: Travels of Adam
A relative newcomer to the Berlin burger scene, BBI opened less than 18 months ago in Neukölln. A hole-in-the-wall at-counter-service place, it makes up for the lack of space inside with generous seating outside – which is not much use when you’ve brought along 20 bloggers and buddies, who are all trying to find shelter from the torrential rain. Despite the horrible weather, expectations were high, with some of the Americans in our group declaring this their favourite burger place in Berlin. So, without further ado, here are those all-important scores, and some comments from the “judging panel”:
“Expensive!”
“Slightly charred, not particularly juicy. Better fixings than burger.”
“Burger too thin – would have preferred smaller diameter, thicker patty. Meat was a little dry.”
“Overpowering sauce meant I couldn’t taste the flavour of the meat.”
“Too much salad on the burger and the lettuce was a little bitter. The burger was a bit charred which would’ve been okay if it was thicker and more rare and juicy inside. There was supposed to be cheese on it but I am not sure if that is what that thin film was because I couldn’t taste it. But, was pretty good.”
Next stop: WHITE TRASH FAST FOOD!
Berlin Burger Crawl is an open group. To find out what’s going on, follow the hashtag #berlinburgertour on Twitter. If you want to get involved, tweet at @uberlinblog, leave us a comment below, or drop us an email. We’re going to have to book tables at some of the more popular/restauranty places, so do let us know if you plan to come!
