Thursday, November 22, 2007

Cheeseburger at Morrison's Grill & Green, Helsinki, Finland




This was my third burger with a journalist from Helsingin Sanomat. He's making a story about hamburgers and I was interviewed for the article while tasting several burgers.

Morrison's Grill & Green is a small restaurant in downtown Helsinki. Back in the day this place was called Dick Tracy's Diner and they were know to be a quick and cheap lunch restaurant. Only the interior and name has changed, everything else seemed to be as it was. The menu is almost the same as it used to be and they still serve ridiculously large portions of simple food from Wiener schnitzels to chicken fried chicken and hamburgers.

Actually Morrison's claims to serve the most bodacious burgers in Helsinki. With their King Kong Burger this might even be the truth. King Kong Burger has not one but two 190 gram (6.8oz) pattys, bacon, two onion rings, double cheese with lettuce, onions, tomato and red bell pepper mayo. Since I knew I needed to visit another burger joint after this one, I was forced to skip the King Kong this time. Instead I ordered the standard Cheeseburger which, for some weird reason, was listed as Double Cheeseburger since it has two slices of cheese. The burger had 190 gram (6.8oz) patty with shredded lettuce, red onion, tomato and red bell pepper mayo.

It didn't too long for out burger to arrive. The portion was huge, on the side it had big pile of fries and a salad with lettuce, tomato and cucumber. The burger itself was big but pretty thinly stacked. The bun was grilled and it was crispy from the inside and soft from the outside, but the bun was standard supermarket bun. The patty was nicely seasoned and grilled for a freezer patty and it actually had some of the juices left. Unfortunately processed and frozen beef pattys still are dry and tasteless and the structure is pretty compact. It seems that all the frozen pattys come from one source since the size, structure and non-existing taste is the same as in any grill kiosk or restaurant that I have visited so far in Helsinki.

This burger was ok, but they still have the basic problem with frozen beef. They also should get rid of the cheap soft white gummy buns. It's a good effort but not quite good enough. With freshly grounded chuck this could actually come out nicely dispate the lack of proper burger bun and the lack of personality. Recommended with caution if you grave for a big burger in Helsinki.

--
Ravintola Morrison's Grill & Green
Keskuskatu 7
00100 Helsinki, Finland
+358-9-625-466
www.ravintolaopas.net/morrisons


Larger Map