Burger Bar at Greenbelt 2 in Makati City

Truth to be told, I've never voluntarily been to a bar ever in my life. Save for some work-related or a blogging event where I'm normally there before the party hour happens, I've lived all 30 years of my life spending my Saturday nights having a really good dinner in a restaurant, at home or hanging out at a coffee shop. Some might think my life is pretty boring but given a choice to live all 30 years again, I think I'd still do what I have been doing. At least it keeps my liver and lungs healthy and it saves my parents from staying up all night worrying about my whereabouts.

Well, if there's one bar that I didn't mind hanging out in...it would be THIS.

Welcome to Burger Bar.

I first tried this during my despedida lunch with the Publishers Group. My friend and former colleague T took care of ordering the starters and desserts for all of us. All we had to do was to pick out our choice of burger from the list. My choice was simple -- the Rising Shroom (Php. 280/single patty or Php. 375/double patty). You all know how much I adore mushrooms and it had truffle cream in it so as soon as I saw this on the menu, I literally ignored the other burgers.

Well, the burger was juicy and tender but I was quite disappointed as I couldn't taste the truffle creamed cheese at all. They have added an Oyster Mushroom Tempura on top which created a texture contrast to the meaty burger patty. It was a-okay but I don't think I'm getting this again next time.

However, my first experience was okay enough for me to give it another try this time with Paul, Leslie and Jin. Leslie and Jin are two of my favorite food bloggers and I trust their taste 101% as they surely know their thing. We agreed to have dinner at Burger Bar which eventually turned out to be their sweet despedida for us too. Now, my two memories of Burger Bar have something to do with us bidding MNL goodbye.

Paul and I were a bit late and when we got there, Les and Jin have ordered a couple of starters. We tried the Loaded Tex Mex Ground Beef Nachos (Php. 330) and I enjoyed this a lot! I love the perfect combination of cheese, sweet and tangy salsa, ground beef and more cheese. I just wish though that the chips were warm as it kinda felt weird munching on cold nacho chips.


We also tried the Chinatown Rock Shrimp Poppers (Php. 260) which was sadly really tasty but we got so turned off by the mushy shrimps. Guess they made use of frozen shrimps thus losing the crisp bite you'd get from fresh shrimps. This really had potential, again another starter they have to improve on.

We went to choose our burger, given that I wasn't blown away by the Rising Shrooms, I opted to try something else. I then remembered some of my colleagues enjoying The Hangover Burger (Php. 285 single patty) which had a sunny-side up on top. I love anything with eggs thus the reason why I decided to give this a try. Well... I'm so glad I did! It had everything that I've wanted in a burger -- prosciutto, fried egg, arugula, caramelized onions and a yummy mix of BBQ sauce and creamy aoili! The beef patty was better this time and I happily enjoyed my burger down to the last bite.

Sadly though, I don't think my companions had the same happy experience as I did. Paul said his customized burger was pretty bland and definitely not the best burger in town. Leslie's Burger No. 3 (Php. 145) had the addition of Burger Bar's "special sauce" which we later found out was nothing but a mix of mayonnaise and ketchup a.k.a. thousand island dressing. She quickly scraped it all away before taking a bite.

The most disappointing burger of the night award though goes to Jin's Lamb Burger (Php. 385) as it was so bland that we even asked the waiter if it really should taste that way or the chef must have forgotten to season it. He kindly rushed to the kitchen to check and came back to tell us that yes, it really does taste that way. *gasp* In order to just make it somehow palatable, Jin topped it with the leftover toppings from the nachos.

So there you go. I was happy the 2nd time around but looks like my three other companions won't be back at Burger Bar anytime soon. I hope they have improved the quality of their food though as I personally find the concept really promising.

Has anyone tried Burger Bar lately? Let me know what you think. :)

Burger Bar is located at the G/F Glorietta 2, Ayala Center, Makati City. Call them at 625-2792.