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).

Weighing Fatburger

I interrupt our travel series for something important: The Pink Tarha blog lacks food posts and so we're bringing you one today. :P

I bet you already know Fatburger. Their stand-alone restaurant in Takhasussi Street was the first one we've seen and we remembered that day when we all excitedly went there, craving for internationally-acclaimed burgers, only to be stupefied by an opening soon restaurant. Hahaha. Excited much kasi. Surprisingly, when it finally opened, it was only Shoegarfreeruby who had the opportunity to go and eat there. Eyecandy and I had to wait for the opening of their stall in the food court of Kingdom Mall, which actually took quite a while to open too, to have a taste of their infamous "biggest, juiciest" burgers. 

Ready for some serious munching!

I'm all for simple burgers.

A drizzle of hot sauce makes this spicy?

Nomnomnom.

Delightful!

The Fatburger table

We know you got quite hungry from the photos (don't deny it!). The burgers are really beautiful and enticing especially for the hungry. However, we just had one thing to say about Fatburger's burgers: nothing out of the ordinary. The patty is bland (I do not favor hamburgers that rely on condiments for taste). And the burger is expensive if you consider paying SR23 for a single patty burger with drinks and fries. I can already get 2 patties from a burger joint in the same food court, sometimes even at a cheaper price. As for the other items in our table... the spicy chicken sandwich was okay. As you can see, the chicken fillet was larger and longer than the bun and it was quite juicy too. The chili fries were loaded with toppings but we left half of it uneaten so I guess the leftover can speak for itself. As for the strawberry milkshake, it was thick and yummy and sweet. They said that the fat fries could whoop any fries' ass so maybe we'll try that next time.

Fatburger is not bad at all but it's not extraordinary too so what shall we do with it? Haha. Well, we will probably visit once in a while. But they should step it up! There's no scarcity of burgers in Riyadh but there are a few more burger joints opening soon! You bet The Pink Tarha ladies will be there to taste them for you. ;)

Fatburger

Al-Bustan Center, Takhasussi Street | Food Court, Kingdom Mall

(soon to open in Riyadh Gallery's food court)

T: 01-215-4176

Sundrenched