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Burger Battle, New Zealand Style

The second and final part of my two-part series of our eats in New Zealand’s beautiful South Island is a burger battle!

In the ring we have the newly found (i.e. we just found it) Red Star Luxury Burgers challenging the old favourite Fergburger for the title of EST’s Burger Champion of New Zealand.

The opponents are rearing to go, so… let’s get ready to ruuuummmble!

In the Red Corner…

Hailing from Wanaka, we have the challenger Red Star Luxury Burgers – a place that has just come onto our radar this year. I’m not sure how long it’s been around, but if it’s been there for a while I have no idea why we never noticed it before during all the years we’ve visited!

Our first day in New Zealand’s lovely South Island consisted of a very early morning wake-up followed by a 3-hour flight and a 6-hour drive. It was late by the time we drove into Wanaka, all bleary-eyed tired and hungry. We were going to settle for cooking instant noodles in the apartment once we checked in (but really didn’t feel like it) until someone pointed out the burger joint on the opposite side of the road.

Just as we trooped inside, the waitress came out with a couple of the burgers. Our eyes fairly popped out of our heads – the burgers were humongous! And oh they looked ever so tasty. With heightened expectations, we ordered and were not the least bit disappointed. We were all astounded by the freshness and deliciousness of the burgers.

I was too tired to take photos that night, so we went again – this time with some more friends in tow.

Ruby opted for the vegetarian burger this time around and I gathered that she really enjoyed it with her exclaims of “mmmmmm” and “oh my god this is so good!”. The patties, she told me, weren’t dry or hard but moist and soft and the burger overall packed a lot of punch in flavour. It was also pretty messy with the yoghurt dripping onto her hand and plate.

I don’t know what or why it is, but F got obsessed with vension when we got to New Zealand. Where he could, he’d order the venison dish. So it comes as no surprise that he ordered the Booty.

He absolutely adored this burger and could not get enough of it. Not only did it taste ever so fresh, the venison patty was well-seasoned, tender and juicy with no gristle-y or chewy bits. I was told by F that the subtleness of the game-y venison flavour paired with all the ingredients of the burger was what blew him away. F was adamant that this was, and will be, the best burger patty he will ever taste. Big call, huh?

I decided to break out of my plain/cheese burger pigeon hole into a decidedly not so bold choice of BBQ beef – that and I had a cheese burger last time I was here and it was wonderful. I was a bit worried about the chilli part of the sauce, but I figured that the aioli would dampen some of the heat. Thankfully it wasn’t too spicy, just a gentle love tap to my taste buds.

The pineapple added a sweet, refreshing touch to the burger, as well as making it a bit more dribbly than it would have been. Yum. The beef patty was so different to the others that I’ve had. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what made it so different besides it being really succulent and juicy and not having any chewy bits that one might find in, say, a McDonald’s burger (though sadly I still sometimes have cravings for them… why?! Ugh).

All the ingredients in the burger just came together so well, the flavours and textures played off each other in a complimentary way and I couldn’t help but join everyone else’s “mmmm” of approval.

I recall Mark mentioning that the brie was awesome with the chicken and F hearing him mutter “this is the best!” between bites. It certainly looked good as we ooh’ed over it when it came – that wedge of brie made an impression on us! Hehe

Despite being impressed (in varying degrees) with the burgers that had arrived, the Mofo blew everyone out of the water. There was a slight pause before exclamations of “omg! that’s freaking massive!!!”. Lynda was relieved to have asked the burger to be cut in half to share with David – she wouldn’t have been able to finish it otherwise! Jack on the other hand somehow managed to finish it all by himself. Kudos dude.

David thought that it was a bit of a mess flavour-wise: too much was going on and he was hard-pressed to be able to distinguish individual flavours as they seemed to run into each other. He liked the patty though.

What’s a burger without some fries? And oh my, what wonderful fries they were! They were perfectly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and it came as no surprised that they tasted really fresh as well. The aioli was a perfect pairing for the fries.

Rather ignorantly, I thought Kumera was a spice (perhaps I was thinking of cumin), but now I know better and that it’s just another name for sweet potato! I thought I wasn’t partial to sweet potato, but I think these fries have changed my mind. They were fabulously sweet and tasty, the texture’s a bit different to potatoes – a bit softer I’d say – and they really do taste better than they look.

Despite being ridiculously full from the burger, we tried to finish them off… and we failed, so we ended up doggy bagging them instead.

There were a steady stream of people who came in to collect their pre-ordered burgers or ordered their burgers to take away while we were having dinner. Despite being painfully tiny, sporting one corner booth and a bar-like table up against the window with 3 or 4 bar stools, it didn’t get quite crowded. We did however get impatient looks from other customers to finish up as they wanted the table. There were about 3 wooden benches outside, but well… it’s outside, in winter, in New Zealand… you get my drift. Hehe

The burgers were big in flavour and big in size. It’s almost too ridiculous how massive these burgers were, but I couldn’t help but feel jipped if they were any smaller (such is the extent of my gluttony). Satisfied and terribly, uncomfortably full we all rolled out of the tiny store and I wondered: “Is this better than Fergburger?”

And In the Blue Corner…

Hailing from Queenstown, the party town of the South Island, we have the long-standing, beloved Fergburger. They’re so popular that they even have their own merchandise!

It’s become our ritual to pop by Fergburger before heading off to Queenstown airport for our flight home and every year I look forward to it so much. I was a bit nervous this year: will it be more awesome than Red Star or will it pale in comparison?

Ruby was drawn to the amusing pun on the name of the burger but not much else. She found the burger to be lacking in any real flavour and half-heartedly managed to eat about half of it.

To be honest, Ruby’s never been a big fan of Fergburger and didn’t see the hype that we keep making it out to be, so I wasn’t too surprised that she didn’t like it as much as she enjoyed her Red Star Virgin burger.

Fergburger’s venison burger didn’t live up to expectations with its dry and bland patty that’s noticeably thinner than Red Star’s and an unexpectedly sour Thai plum chutney. F would pretty much eat and finish off any meal (unless it’s oysters and eel) and it’s pretty telling how disappointed he was with the burger that he only managed to eat a third of it before giving up.

Mark found the patty to be horribly dry, even the fresh salads didn’t help the overall taste of the burger. The only reason why he finished his burger was because he had paid for it.

I was almost wriggling with anticipation of biting into what I remember to be the most delicious burger – something I could only indulge in once a year (for the past four years that is). The first bite sent a small chill through me and the second bite only confirmed it. I looked sadly at my burger and wondered what had happened. What happened to the deliciousness I remembered and craved?

Although the salads were fresh and the aioli and tomato relish were pretty good, the patty was dry and a bit chewy – bringing down the overall enjoyability of the burger.

I couldn’t bring myself to finish my burger either and stopped about three-quarters of the way through.

The shining star of our lunch were the fries. They were just as good, or even better than, Red Star’s. The wasabi mayonnaise had just the right amount of kick to it and the wasabi wasn’t overwhelming even when you scooped out a big glob of it.

The small serving of the fries were, I think, more generous than at Red Star. Between the four of us, we could not finish it no matter how much we wanted to; it was just too much of a good thing and I felt bad having to trash the unfinished fries.

Size-wise, Fergburger’s burgers were about the same as Red Star’s burgers with the only difference being that we finished our Red Star burgers despite having no room in our stomachs.

I’d like to give Fergburger the benefit of the doubt and that the kitchen was just having a bad day. However, F sided with Ruby saying that he didn’t see the reason for its hype as he didn’t really enjoy his burger from here last time either. Apparently he and Mark were like two high school girls bitching about someone they didn’t like and were positively glad they did a sneaky McDonald’s cheeseburger run before heading to Fergburger – it “tasted a gazillion times better than Ferg Burger”. Sadness.

Despite our disappointing meal, Fergburger does a roaring trade with waves of people squishing into the restaurant to order and eat – the line sometimes extends out the door. I wondered quietly if there was something wrong with our taste buds that day or had we simply tasted something better than Fergburger (bad day in the kitchen or not)?

Judge’s Decision

I realised that one of the key things that separates a good burger to a totally awesome, champion one lies in the quality of the patty.

As we go to the score cards we can see that while Fergburger scored some early points in favour of some delicious looking burgers (ah, natural lighting is the best), it was no match for the flavour combinations and perfect patties from Red Star. Fergburger’s dry, chewy patties and overall lack of hearty, stand-out flavours were its ultimate downfall – their scrumptious fries, fresh salads and tasty sauce could not hold out from such a tasty onslaught by Red Star.

The judge’s final decision was an unanimous landslide win in favour of the new Burger Champion of New Zealand, from the red corner, Red Star Luxury Burgers.

Red Star Luxury Burgers
26 Ardmore St
Wanaka, Otago 9305
New Zealand
Ph: +64 3 4439322

Fergburger
42 Shotover St
Queenstown, Otago 9300
New Zealand
Ph: +64 3 4411232
Web: www.fergburger.com/