Stefan Wadstedt

🍔 Review № 1372

🇮🇪󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @dashburger_ ★★★★★

Dash Burger opened in Dublin in 2020 and claim to be Ireland’s first dedicated smashburger restaurant. The inspiration from American burger legend George Motz is evident, and we were lucky enough to try them when they were guests at Burger Fest UK in London. We ordered two different burgers: a Classic Dash with Irish dry-aged beef, American cheese, pickles, onion, and Dash sauce for 10 GBP (13.5 USD), and an Irish Coffee with Irish dry-aged beef, American cheese, crispy black pudding, blue cheese whip and an espresso and whiskey BBQ sauce for 12 GBP (16 USD).

Our burgers were served on small paper plates and looked incredibly inviting. The first thing that caught our attention was the meat. The crust was fantastic, deep with crispy lacy edges and a juicy interior. The flavours from the dry-aging also gave the beef an extra depth. The bun looked worryingly pale, but it actually surprised us taste-wise. We would have liked to see a bit more toasting, but it held the burgers together well and allowed the other ingredients to shine. The Classic Dash did exactly what the name promised, and it was simple but far from boring. The Dash sauce tasted like an upgraded hamburger dressing with a bit of a kick, and the pickles provided both acidity and crunch. Together, the ingredients created a well-balanced burger where each component served a clear purpose. But it was the Irish Coffee that knocked our socks off. The combination that sounded crazy on paper was almost ridiculously spot-on in practice. The crispy black pudding crumbles contributed a deep umami flavour, the blue cheese whip added a fluffy saltiness, and the espresso and whiskey BBQ sauce tied everything together with notes of sweetness, smokiness and roasted coffee. The result was a burger that felt both exciting and well-thought-out down to the last detail.

Dash Burger serve some of the most well-balanced and well-thought-out burgers we’ve tried in a long time. We’re already looking forward to our next trip to Ireland, because this is something you don’t want to miss the next time you’re in Dublin.

#burgerdudes

🍔 Review № 1371

🇸🇪 @misteryork ★★★★☆

Mister York is something of a phenomenon. We have followed their journey since they competed in the Swedish Burger Championships in 2020, and for a while they served some of Sweden’s absolute best burgers. However, their expansion has been explosive in recent years, as they have opened new restaurants at a dizzying pace. With almost 50 restaurants in Sweden, they are now the second largest craft burger chain in the country (after Bastard Burgers). In terms of quality, all these new openings have led to a slight decline, but not as much as one might think.

The quality has been very high during all of our visits, with very low prices for most items. The York burger with 114 grams of meat, cheddar, red onions, jalapeño mayo and BBQ sauce in a brioche bun costs 89 SEK (9 USD) as a meal with fries and a soft drink, plus an additional 35 SEK (3.5 USD) for an extra patty. And these are really good smash burgers, with an excellent crust on the meat, soft buns and flavourful ingredients. The mini burger York Cheese with 45 grams of fresh beef, cheddar, silver onions, pickles, mustard and ketchup in a potato bun for a mere 19 SEK (2 USD) is also sensational in its own right. It is admittedly not as good as their full-sized burgers, but considering the price, there is not much to complain about.

Mister York has found an impressive optimised formula for how to make a quality burger on a nationwide scale. This is fast casual food with the same quality as similar craft burger chains, but with a price point that directly competes with fast food burgers made with frozen beef. Sure, the decor, the soft drinks and the fries have a fast food vibe, and it is always a bit less fun to pick up your food yourself. But with that being said, Mister York has created a completely new market and paved the way for simple but well-made smash burgers all over Sweden. Cheap and delicious is a combination that is hard to beat.

#burgerdudes

🍔 Review № 1370

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @bunandsum ★★★★☆

Bun & Sum opened their first restaurant in an industrial area in East London in 2021, and we tried them for the first time in 2023. Since then, they have expanded and now have a handful of locations around London. This time we tried them at the Burger Fest UK festival, ordering their Big Rib with double patties, pulled BBQ rib, pickles and chopped onion, as well as the Jalapeño Popper festival burger with double jalapeño smashed patties, onion jam, cheddar sauce and Easy sauce. The burgers cost 12 GBP (16 USD).

Both burgers were quite small and soft, but the double 57-gram patties were well-smashed and tasted really good. The beef had been aged for 28 days, and the crust was quite substantial, adding a bit of crispiness. The Jalapeño Popper was very well-balanced, with an excellent crunch and a well-judged heat that was lifted by the creamy cheese. This was a real winner, and we hope they add it to their regular menu. The Big Rib was the weaker of the two. It was a hefty burger with all the smoked meat, but the large amount of barbecue sauce overpowered the flavour profile. They use an American potato bun, which is toasted on the inside to handle everything. And even though it got a bit soft towards the end of the meal, it still did its job.

Bun and Sum’s small but simple LA Style smash burgers offered a lot of flavour, and we definitely preferred it when the beef took centre stage. The burgers were just as good as last time, and now that they’re popping up all over London, we definitely recommend a visit. Be sure to order their tallow-fried fries as well, because we remember them as irresistibly delicious.

#burgerdudes

Eight photos that summarize the burger scene in Gävle.

Our full YouTube video is coming soon, so stay tuned! 🍔✌️

Pictures 1 & 2: @thellas_foodtruck
Pictures 3 & 4: @pulsstreetfoodbar
Pictures 5 & 6: @mamas_kitchen_gavle
Pictures 7 & 8: @lebabgavle

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