Kämp Hamburger at Kämp Café, Helsinki, Finland

This was my first 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.

The Kämp was opened in 1887 and it was the first luxury hotel in Helsinki. It has seen the good and the worst days of Finland from two wars to independence. The Kämp restaurants were patronised by renowned politicians, artists, composers and writers. For example, composer Jean Sibelius, writer Eino Leino and painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela were regular customers. Original Kämp hotel was closed in 1965. The building was demolished and rebuilt and it didn't work as a hotel until 1999 when it was re-opened as part of the Luxury Collection of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

We visited the Kämp Café which is located on the street floor of the hotel. The decor was nice, modern minimalism with pinch of kitch. The service was good and friendly as you can expect. And yes, this was my second gourmet burger location where you get to use silverware and cotton napkins while having your burger. The reason why we came here is that Kämp Café is said to serve the most expensive burger in town. Here's the description...

"marbled fillet of beef with rucola and horseradish mayonnaise, cheddar cheese and pommes frites"

Kämp is profiled as a gourmet place and this "burger" did not reach the gourmet level. Let's go to details:

- First of all this is NOT a hamburger - this portion should be called a steak sandwich not a hamburger.

- Secondly, the bun should not be standard-supermarket-good-to-eat-for-two-months type of a bun. And the bun was hardly toasted and it crumbled to your hand. With the price of €21.00 you expect to get something else. For example they served really nice focaccia bread while waiting your order to be served which they could use as a bun.

- Thirdly, the combination of tastes were not right. Rucola, tomato and horseradish ok, but what's with the cheddar? Try Gruyère or Manchego, or even strong Emmental (Swiss cheese) - anything else with more taste than standard cheddar. Something which works well with the Rucola and horseradish.

- Fourthly, what's with the portion size. It's gourmet and it's built high to look nice but with a big bun and small piece of fillet you ended up having a 1/3 sandwhich without any meat on it. Ok, you had a good pile of nice crispy (and really salty) fries on the side but for €21.00 you want to have a perfect burger not just bun with horseradish mayo and rucola.

- And finally the 'juices'. If the only moist thing in the serving was mayo there's something wrong. The fillet was correctly cooked to medium but fillet is fillet not 'juicy' burger meat. If they changed the fillet to freshly grounded prime beef it could still be priced as fillet, and the taste could be from another planet with juicy meat.

(As a side note: Kämp is located about two blocks from the market hall which has one or two butcher stores where man could get daily grounded premium organic beef. That could work as a base for gourmet burger. If executed right it would match the expectations of gourmet level. And a free hint for the Chefs who seek a benchmark for gourmet burger - travel to San Francisco and try Zuni Burger.)

With this price I would not recommend this steak sandwich - burger or whatever they want to call it - to anyone. Sadly, the value for the money just isn't there.

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Hotel Kämp
Pohjoisesplanadi 29
00130 Helsinki, Finland
+358-9-576-111
www.hotelkamp.fi


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Barney's Cheeseburger at Barney's Gourmet Hamburgers, Berkeley CA

Barney's Gourmet Hamburgers is a local Bay are joint with 10 locations. Barney's has often been named as Bay Area's best burger joint. I lost my count how many awards they have won, but you can check them all from their website. They started in Oakland in 1978 and since then they have spread around the Bay area. And the word 'gourmet' stands for one million different burger options from Russian Burger with sour cream to Maui Waui Burger with pineapple and teriyaki sauce.

I ordered a Barney's Cheeseburger, medium rare with a side of curly fries. Burger was served with lettuce, tomato, red onion, house sauce and slice of orange. Their sauce was just the basic pink-colored sauce. A basic recipe with 50% mayo, 50% ketchup and a little relish to give taste. This one was pretty tasteless. I didn't even taste it in my burger.

There really isn't anything gourmet in Barney's. The burger was big but size does not matter if the slap has lost all it juices before you get to take a bite. I found all the bloody juices on my plate and partly soaked to my bun. End result was tastless and dry slap of meat. And the bun, just the basic bun, barely grilled - I could call it just blah.

On the other hand curly fries were really excellent, and I can believe that with some special burger the whole experience might be something else.

I don't know about their 'gourmet' burgers with this, that and little bit something else, but as for standard burger/cheeseburger they have totally lost it. There might awards, and good reviews in forums but the fact is that all that is a result of their variety of choices on their menu. If you grave a tasty standard type burger, go some place else.

Zuni Cheeseburger at Zuni Cafe, San Francisco CA

This burger has been hyped in different forums, and it's been stated as 'the best burger in Bay area' for multiple times. The fact is that it really doesn't fall under burger joint category but I decided to give it a try after all the recommendations.

Zuni Cafe is a pretty well-known, award winning Mediterranean style restaurant in San Francisco. It was established in 1979, and it sits on Market Street between Civic Centre and Castro areas. Zuni is known for their extensive selection of exquisitely fresh, pristine oysters and really excellent roasted chicken. Atmosphere is relaxed, service is friendly, and their interior is really spacious with minimalistic details, huge windows and partly open kitchen with wood owen.

So what did I ate? My burger was:

"Mesquite grilled house-ground hamburger with Gruyère on grilled rosemary focaccia with garden lettuces, aioli, and Zuni pickles."

Before I go into details let's make couple of things clear:

1. This burger is not just any burger, it's a gourmet burger from gourmet restaurant menu.

2. This was the first time I got some house bread and butter served on my table while I was waiting my burger.

3. I expected this to be expensive but $16.55 with sales tax is robbery for a single burger, gourmet or not.

4. And finally, this was propably one of the best burgers I have tasted. Yes, it's gourmet and it's expensive but I can finally say 'What A Burger'!

Their meat is, naturally, organic and grown in sustainable way, it's juicy and tasty, and it was perfect medium rare as ordered. The meat was coarsly grounded and when I pressed gently from the top of the patty, it was just oozing juice. Perfect! Focaccia bread was grilled from the one side so that it was crisp from the inside and soft from the outside. The bottom part of Focaccia soaked in all the juices that squeezed out from the patty. The garden lettuce was fresh, crispy and marinated with the juices from the meat. House pickles were two types of marinated onion and pickle. Really tasty. And as 'a cherry on the top' I added some dijon mustard which was brought to table as condiment.

This was absolutely delicious burger. Recommended!

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Zuni Cafe
1658 Market St
San Francisco, CA 94102
+1-415-552-2522
www.zunicafe.com


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