Welcome to part 7 of this burger series. As a reminder, this is a series based on a top 10 list of burgers published in Toronto Life. This has probably been Panic Manual’s longest running and most consistent series. How many things make it to 7? Only thing I can think of is Fast and Furious. Which is now on it’s 8th movie. Can’t think of much else.
Much like Fast and Furious, we pride ourselves on diversity. So for our burger choice this time, we picked Rasa. Nestled into a semi-basement slot on Harbord, Rasa is a restaurant that embraces diverse palettes, and their burger is a perfect example of this theme.
The Burger
BURGER, beef cheek, provolone, gochujang mayo, pickles, scrapchi – 17
Korean food lesson:
Gochujang – a savory, sweet, and spicy fermented condiment. It’s in a lot of Korean things
Scrapchi – ? No idea what this is, as it’s clearly not a part of the korean language.
The burger came with yam chips, which was a nice break from regular french fries (or nothing). However, the waitress told us it might not be enough and suggested brussel sprouts. Was that an upsell or an honest opinion? I could not tell.
The Verdict
The RASA burger started off with a negative. The burger came pre-cut. I think it is to show off the rareness of the burger, but it didn’t appeal from a visual perspective to Sarah:
“It just seems more like a sandwich when the burger is cut in half. And this isn’t a sandwich review.”
I didn’t even notice until she mentioned it but then I started thinking about it and I think I also prefered a non pre-cut burger. Also, when you pre-cut a burger, where do the juices go? I guess this burger wasn’t overly greasy as there was little grease, but sometimes a bit of juice is okay. I must disclose that my favorite burger, the Amarillo burger in Austin also comes pre-cut. I think it is done for different reason though, mainly because it wouldn’t fit into your mouth if it wasn’t.
It’s very curious for a burger to be made from beef cheek, because as a working muscle, cheeks have connective tissue that are great when it is slowly cooked. In this case though, the burger was cooked medium rare that skews to more of the rare side (you can tell by the picture). Anyways one bite into the burger and my first thought was that this was a very meaty burger. I like my steaks on the medium rare scale and so the chewiness that this burger had did not bother me. It was actually a pretty tasty burger if not a tad too salty.
The bite was very consistent throughout which was nice, but you also get a sense that your first bite was going to be the same as your last, which kind of dulls the excitement a bit.
Complements
One of the draws of this burger was the Koreanization of it (is that a thing?). With Korean tacos and so many Korean things being popular these days, it is not surprising for the strong tastes of Korean cuisine to be incorporated into your standard burger.
To be completely honest, aside from an additional hit of sourness that is associated with their concoction of scrapchi and gochujang, it wasn’t really overwhelming. As a frequent eater of Korean meals, I guess I failed to really detect the uniqueness of the dressing. In other mouths, maybe it was spicy but I have a very high tolerance for spice so I didn’t notice it. I was surprised by the inclusion of provolone as that is a cheese that kind of just blends in the background. Basically in a burger where you are going to have something as strong as kim-chi flavors, adding in provolone is like bringing a spoon to a knife fight.
One of the things I don’t eat is pickles. Normally this doesn’t matter, but Sarah pointed out it was a bit overwhelming and also “I would rather there have been lettuce than pickles, if they’re going to opt for one green thing on the burger”
The bun was tasty, I think most restaurants except Doomies get the bun right.
Handfeel
With the burger being cut in half, you don’t get a true sense of the size of the burger, because you are always holding only half the burger. It wasn’t greasy so that was good.
Overall
As the #2 burger on this guy’s list, we had high hopes for this Rasa Burger. The burger was meaty and decent, but a bit too salted and perhaps too one dimensional to put it any higher then above average. For $17, I would expect a bit more. The service was also pretty slow, which annoyed me.
As always, here is fellow burger enthusiast Sarah’s take:
“It was a good burger but it was also a pretentious burger. When I was eating it, I was like: ‘this burger seems very self aware’.”
Burger Scale
Amarillo Burger, Casino El Camino – 10$ USD
The Burger, Wickson Social – 19$
Bombolone Burger, Bar Buca – 15$
Burger, Rasa – 17$
Prime Beef Double Cheeseburger, Museum Tavern – 19$
Skyline Burger, Skyline Diner – 14$
Brisket Cheese Burger, Carbon Bar – 22$
Game Burger, Antler – 18$
Vegan Mac Daddy, Doomies – 16$