Big Chubby Burger

I thought that this was an unusual and kind of stupid place to open a burger restaurant, compared to the fancy ethnic food of Kensington Market.  But since it was there for a while and no one else mentioned it, neither food critic or otherwise, we were curious to try it out.

The not-so pretty inside of Big Chubby Burger

As I said in the caption, the inside is not very attractive and the Christmas-feast style seating is a bit oddball.  In fact, one particular thing on the walls caught my attention so well that I had to take a picture of it.

A plaster mark on the wall

So the place looks more like a rec center than a place you’d want to eat at, but a lot of places, burger joints in particular, don’t pay as much attention to the decor nearly as much as their food.

My Jamaican Burger--jerk sauce, bacon, havarti, and mango chutney

This burger was actually really good.  These burgers [mine and my mom's] rank as two of our favorites.  Even though jerk sauce usually is a pretty bad spread [trust me, I had a roll with jerk sauce used like that once, it was bad], it helped the flavour a lot here.  It even added a fairly strong kick, and the other toppings were just as good, especially the bacon which added a nice crunch.  My only small complaint is that most of the chutney was in the center, but it also added something, a little sweetness.  The onion rings were tasty too, we liked the salt they added.

tomato, onion, pickle and chipolte mayo”]

mom's classic cheeseburger with spring mix [greens not lettuce

This place breaks the burger place cliche of lettuce, for the better.  They replaced it with mixed greens on both burgers, which beats lettuce by a long shot [have you ever seen a Choppedchef use lettuce as a prime ingredient?].  The greens aren’t the only good quality though, the patties were very large and flavourful, not to mention incredibly juicy, not the grease or fat that pollute food that’s called ‘juicy’.  The fries are obviously hand-cut but mom said that she thought that the oil might have been stale, but that could’ve been the last bit of the batch.

Another positive attribute is that the prices are great, and the owner puts so many more deals and combos than a place going broke that it’s practically a steal.  And he was kind.  The big shame is that no one knows about this place, and it doesn’t get nearly as much credit as it should, and I had very high expectations because of the execellent restaurants in the Market.  Why this place is so unheard of is probably because the decor might make you think it’s unsafe, let alone pleasant.  For a lot of people that means everything.  Even though I talked quite a bit about the bad atmosphere, it doesn’t make me reduce any points.  If the owner got $10,000 or just a paint job, the place would look nicer and get the buzz it deserves.

Big Chubby Burger (formerly Craft Fat Burger) 269 Augusta Ave

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