The Sophisticated Burgers of GBK

Riyadh is fast becoming the burger capital of Saudi Arabia. I swear! There are so many restaurants serving burgers as their main fare in this city that they're sprouting one after the other faster than we can say "Burgerrr!" Or "Fries!" And most of them have been banking on the organic trend. This is not just fast food burger anymore where everything is prepared and done before the stores even open. This is gourmet burger where the once instant sandwich becomes carefully crafted and sophisticated.

Burger and sophistication? That's one pair you don't get to see every day. After all, we've always seen burgers as fast food. So let me introduce you to Gourmet Burger Kitchen, a restaurant that originated in New Zealand serving innovative and exotic burger combinations made by chef Peter Gordon. The Gourmet Burger Kitchen in Riyadh has been open since October 2012. Why are we just discovering this now?!

Welcome to GBK!

Anyway, we finally got to try Gourmet Burger Kitchen two weeks ago. We've always thought that this store located at the end of Tahlia Street (near the meeting point with Dabab Street) is still under construction. Apparently, it's already open. We came at an inconvenient time, just 45 minutes before salah. Too bad, they usher guests out during prayer time. But then again, being used to our social lives revolving around the prayer times, we indulge the harried but apologetic manager (I was tempted to tell him, "Relax ka lang kuyaaa...") and ordered fast even if we were having a hard time choosing from the menu of burger varieties that were new to us.

Sleek, minimalist interiors

Love the glass walls and the sunshine that pours forth.

A friend ordered the fries with chili con carne and cheese which turned out to be the best chili fries we've ever had in Riyadh. I mean, I haven't had many chili fries in this city but this one has a taste that we couldn't get enough of. It has the authentic taste of the spicy stew down pat (I mean as authentic as my tempered Pinoy palate can identify with).

Fries  with chili con carne and cheese: meaty and delish!

Light and crispy onion rings

The fries, hand-cut according to the menu, were of the right size; enough to taste the slightly crisp skin and feel the soft, hot potato inside. Because we ordered four burgers, we were bombarded with four plates of fries to the delight of our fries-loving friend. For her, fries is the fourth basic food group. The onion rings were lightly-breaded and sweet.

Meet The Mexican, SR 39

I ordered The Mexican, part of their classic burgers menu. It has the 6oz serving of Black Angus beef patty loaded with fresh sour cream, guacamole, spicy Mexican sauce, lettuce, tomato, onions, and mayonnaise in a bun. That sounded like a huge burger… and it is! And guess what? I managed to eat half of it. Just the half because we only had like 15 minutes to eat and be gone. The salah is calling. Anyway, I like the burger's bun. It was soft and light. The burger patty was moderately juicy and satisfying. It wasn't spicy though.

In love with the healthy-looking colors of my burger.

Deconstructed burger, so you get to see the elements in one go.

Here are the burgers of the friends, which they like.

Eyecandy's choice: Smoked Ranch Burger, SR 44

Mushroom Swiss, SR 30

What I like about the Gourmet Burger Kitchen are the additional sauces in their menu which can be ordered separately. It makes the burger even more personalized! There's satay, BBQ, blue cheese, pepper sauce, smoked chili, sour cream, etc. Favoring sweet sauces, I ordered the satay which is a sauce based on peanut butter. It made my burger yummier and tastier. A friend had the blue cheese. 

Home-made sauces: satay and blue cheese

There are also a lot of extras that you can order to make your burger experience one of a kind. Choose from swiss cheese, caramelized onions, beef bacon, mushrooms, chili, coleslaw, etc. If you're not even a beef burger fan (which is ridiculous when having a burger, hehe!), try their grilled chicken and breaded chicken burgers. And if you're such a meat hater (I can't understand why), there's always the veg burgers in aubergine&goat cheese, bean, and felafel choices.

Heat buster: Classic Mojito, SR19

I'm not a fan of mint which made me wonder why I even ordered the original mojito which was laced with crushed mint. But then, the drink was refreshing. My friend liked it a lot she was so disappointed we had to leave my glass half-full. If you're not into sodas, iced teas, and mojitos, GBK has malt shakes and milk shakes which will send you to cool heaven with a sip. If that's not enough for your sweet tooth, desserts come in cakes and sundaes.

If you're planning on visiting the Gourmet Burger Kitchen, schedule it so it wouldn't coincide with the prayer times and you get to enjoy your burgers and fries with lots of time to spare.  We're liking all this gourmet, organic, fabulous burger hype in Riyadh. But then again, there's a price to pay for quality. I consider GBK's burgers as sophisticated but when eating a huge saucy burger, who cares about being prim, proper and sophisticated?! Attack! ;) ~ Sundrenched


Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Beside the Suleimania Fire Station
Tahlia Street, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
(see map here)
T: +966-11-4169051