Burger & Brew Fest 2020 Take 2, Round 15 - O’Reilly’s
In the first take of Burger Fest, O’Reilly’s surprised the heck out of us with a burger that had beets and brie on it. No, seriously. It was very good, and so we were excited to see a new burger on offer from them for the second run - the We Love Thee Newfoundland burger. Wild Newfoundland moose & bacon burger, wild Newfoundland rabbit ragu, wild Newfoundland blueberry onion & savoury jam, mayo, brioche bun, shoestring fries. Sounds...wild.
That might be the best photo I have ever taken.
This was a tough burger to grade. As a baseline, the patty had a ton of umami flavour, no doubt from the bacon. It was also pretty salty, but the mayo did a great job of balancing that out. The problem was that the flavour from that patty was essentially the only flavour that came through. The blueberry onion and savoury jam was likely intended to cut the rich satliness of the patty (and presumably the ragu, though the two were not distinct at all except in texture), but there was nowhere near enough of it to have any impact. That lack really hurt the burger because there was nothing else here to cut through - no fresh elements, no crunch, nothing. What we were left with was a one-note burger, and even though it was a nice note it still wasn’t anywhere near enough to be a winner.
