Dineout 2015- Romer's Burger Bar

Hey Everyone,

Had lunch with my coworkers yesterday at Romer's in River District, the one on Kerr by Marine. We had no idea this restaurant was part of the Dine Out program as well, so this was a pleasant surprise! Normally the burgers don't come with any fries, but with the Dine Out menu, you get fries included, along with an appetizer and their mini donuts for dessert!

Here's the Dine Out menu:

It might be a little hard to read, but there are actually two options here, the $18 menu or the $25 menu. This is the second time I've been to this location, and the third time I've dined at a Romer's. After each of those two visits, I came out pondering why Romer's was considered as such a good burger joint by many of my friends. While the first two times weren't very impressive, I was hoping this third visit would change my opinion of Romer's. 

I decided to start off with a Thomas Kemper Craft Brewed Rootbeer $4; no alcohol today!

This rootbeer was very delicious! The fizz isn't too strong, right on point, and the flavour is just so smooth! Definitely a must try for all you rootbeer lovers out there!

I ordered from the $18 menu, so for starters, I had the Tomato Basil Soup (normally $6.95).

This soup was actually very tasty! Very rich with a little bit of spice to it! What you see on the side are a few squares of grilled cheese sandwiches, which they consider as "croutons" to go with the soup! I only found out about these being croutons after the fact because I ended up eating them first straight up, because I love grilled cheese sandwiches! I was disappointed to find out however, that they were cold, which should have been a hint that these were meant to be croutons for the soup, and not consumed separately as actual sandwiches. All in all, a very good starter.

For the burger, I chose the Magic Mushroom Burger (normally $12.95).

This is a hand-crafted beef patty, topped with carmelized onions, sauteed portobello mushrooms, herb garlic Boursin, and baby arugula. These ingredients combine to make an uber delicious burger that you MUST try! The patty is cooked perfectly so it retains the juiciness of the beef, whereas some burger joints overcook the patty until it's well-done and dry. This one seems to be a perfect medium-rare, the way it should be! The rest of the toppings compliment the beef so well in what can only be considered as perfect burger harmony! I love each of the ingredients put on this burger, especially the baby arugula as I love arugula over lettuce in anything, any day! The bun was a very soft fresh baked brioche bun which held up very well during the course of eating the burger. It hardly fell apart at all, with only a small corner falling off being soaked with the succulent juices from the burger. All in all, this was definitely the right choice today, and a highly recommended burger!

The fries were fried up well, but lacked any flavour whatsoever when they're bare. I believe a good fry should be able to hold up on its own without the need for ketchup or adding anything else to it once it's served. This was not the case, as I needed to add pepper, definitely needed a lot more salt, and finally some ketchup once the fries got colder. If I am adding pepper to the fries, it's usually only if I want a little bit more flavour for the fries, but if I have to add more salt to the fries myself, then those fries are seriously very bland! Adding salt yourself is never as effective as having the fries salted by the kitchen because it gets more evenly distributed that way, as when I have to add it myself, they either all stay at the top, or all fall to the bottom, rarely sticking to the fries. This brought the food rating down a bit from perfection, which is quite unfortunate given how well the burger and appetizer went!

For dessert, you get the R Famous Drunken' Donuts by default from the Dine Out menu, but you do get your pick of dipping sauce!

Each person gets 5 mini donuts with sugar frosting on them. They taste pretty good by themselves, but they provide you with dipping sauce, so why not give those a try!

This photo's credits go to Ricky!

The darker sauce is Nutella Khalua, the lighter brown sauce is Maple Whiskey, and the yellow one is Lemon something, which tasted like lemon meringue. My favourite of the 3 is definitely Nutella Khalua, with its chocolaty flavour and a hint of Khalua, but a close second is the Maple Whiskey, which is just very tasty in general. The lemon one wasn't a favourite of mine, as I don't really like having the lemon flavour on the mini donuts. By the time I was on my 4th donut, I was already very stuffed, as the burger was very filling, but I had to finish it all as it was just so good! 

The service here was pretty good overall. They took away plates in a timely manner despite being part of Dine Out, I had to ask for water refills but they did ask if we wanted another drink when our drinks were empty, and a big plus for me is that when they were clearing away plates, they say, "Excuse my reach" before reaching across someone to take away a plate! It's not that difficult to say, but often only the classier restaurant servers do this, so I was very pleasantly surprised to hear this at a burger bar restaurant! Plus points!

Overall this dining experience has totally changed my opinion of Romer's and I will definitely be trying out more of their burgers in the near future. They have so many options so this may take some time, but they should definitely be worth checking out! The food is great, the service is great, overall a very good restaurant! Highly recommend this all of our readers!

Food:
4.5/5

Service:
4/5

Price:
$-$$

Overall:
4.25/5

Thanks for reading everyone, and happy eating!
- Phil