Where - 4 Margaret Street, Moonee Ponds
Price - $21 for classic, + $1.50 for novelties
Website - https://www.burgerkitchen.com.au/
Reviewers - Adam T, Lee & Nikki
Not gonna lie, we came across this week’s review purely due to a fuck up on my part.
Here’s how it happened. A few months back we were recommended the burger place “Pattysmiths” in Flemington. Right across from Flemington Station I had heard that they were doing a parma burger for a limited time.
Except when I decided to check it out I couldn’t quite remember the name, but I remembered it was a burger joint and it was across the road from one of the train stations along the Craigieburn line.
Unfortunately for me (and fortunately for them) that across the road from a couple of stops down the line, Moonee Ponds Station, is a burger place that also specialises in smash burgers, just like Pattysmiths. Almost the exact same distance from station to restaurant.
I’m in my mid 30’s now, and like a baby boomer trying to work the self service kiosk at McDonalds I confuse easily. So last night we visited Burger Kitchen thinking it was the Burger place that was recommended to me a few months ago.
Burger Kitchen is a small little store. Its cosy and has a strong take-away vibe yet they manage to squeeze a surprising number of dine-in tables in their little traingle shaped slice of the building.
For a place named “Burger Kitchen” their menu is surprisingly robust, offering (as well as burgers) a range of Philly cheesesteaks, Bistro Meals (mostly steaks) and, you guessed it, chicken parmas…
Now I know what you’re thinking…
The menu grab they have on their website is surprisngly low resolution, so taking a section of that makes it even smaller. Before you run and get your magnifying glass, I’ll just tell you - They have a Classic for $21, along with the novelty options of Aussie, Mexican, Greek, Hawaiian, and Peri Peri for an extra $1.50. I opted for the Mexican, reviewer Adam the Peri Peri and Reviewer Nikki kept it boring and went with the traditional.
I was surprised to find that Burger Kitchen has a couple of beers on tap for those choosing to dine in. Not a huge selection, this is primarily a take-away joint after all, but the option of Carlton Draught and 4 Pines was on tap ($7.50 for a pint of draught - bargain) as well as a row of other alcoholic delights on the top shelf of the Coke fridge.
We placed our order at the counter, grabbed a couple of pints, kicked back and waited for our parmas to arrive, and about 15 minutes later they did exactly that.
The Traditional
The Peri Peri
The Mexican
I’m gonna be entirely honest - I didn’t have the higest of hopes for the Burger Kitchen parma, but what we received blew me away.
The schnitzel was huge, pan fried and retained and excellent crunch. It was well cooked, and flavoursome. One criticism is that the crumbing was thicker than I would normally like, and it definitely didn’t need to be given the size of the schnitzel, but overall this was a quality foundation for the dish.
As far as novelty parmas go the toppings were outstanding - both the Mexican and the Peri Peri were topped with lavish amounts of shredded chorizo and jalapenos (the only difference between the two being the addition of Peri Peri sauce).
Reviewer Nikki was not as pleased with her traditional, not being a big fan of capsicum there was a strong capsicum flavour throughout the napoli sauce that she didn’t care for. I’d say if you visit Burger Kitchen then the novelty toppings are definitely worth the additional $1.50 charge.
Chips were delightful. fresh, crisp and dusted with an almost barbecue chip flavoured seasoning similar to the one we found at Melba Social. Very pleased.
The salad was a bit of an afterthought. A small stack of garden salad could use a fair bit of work. It was fine, but mostly flavourless - The cucumber slices were nice and crisp though.
“ I really enjoyed this one, the Parma was quality, made from real chicken, solid crumb coating & great size. Great toppings, you can’t go wrong with chorizo and jalapenos and the peri peri sauce just topped it off beautifully.
Chips were seasoned well, nice crunch and just the right amount. The salad was a little on the simple side, just your plain run of the mill garden variety, not bad but not great either.
I had mine with a $7.50 pint of draught. Overall, I was very satisfied, I’m a big eater and struggled to finish, I did, but it was an effort. I’m definitely going to go back again!”
“Quality schnitzel, nice and big and I barely put a dent in it! Not a huge fan of the capsicum through the napoli but otherwise fine - The chips were tasty! ”
Under $25 for a parma this big is a solid deal in my book, and if that’s still too rich for your blood they offer a $14 Parma Wednesday as well as a $16 Parma & Pot Saturday, so you are really spoilt for choice when it comes to cheap feeds at Burger Kitchen.
I was surprisingly pleased with our trip to Burger Kitchen (I’d call it BK but I’m pretty sure there’s another relatively popular international burger chain that may take umbridge with that) - It has gotten me curious to try their burgers and philly cheesesteaks. I don’t normally do this but I’d recommend you go with one of the novelty toppings as that chorizo was delicious, and if you can’t be fucked going out to eat you’ve got the option for take-away, and if you can’t be fucked putting in any effort at all they’re also listed on Uber Eats.
Worth a trip if you’re in the area!