Double D Burger - in the heart of LKF

http://www.doubledburger.com/

Even thought I'd been easing off the burgers a bit recently (some Instagram followers might disagree), I've been grabbing the occasional burger from my current favourite burger joint, Burger Circus.  But being a food blogger is more than just going back to the same spot over and over, it's about checking out new places too.  So with this in mind, I'd arranged to check out somewhere a little different.

A couple of followers had strongly suggested that I check out Lan Kwai Fong burger sensation, Double D burger, so one night after work, I set out to find the fabled burger joint.  Even though I'm an Expat and LKF seems to be the centre of the universe for foreigners, it's not an area that I've spent a lot of time hanging out in.  In fact, to find Double D burger, I had to get out my handy little friend, Google Maps, only to realise that it was pretty easy to find on Wellington Street (yeah, a do'h moment!)

The girl and I now work at opposite ends of Central, so we'd arranged to meet in the middle at Double D, but since I'm a lot closer, I found my way there first.  It was hard to miss, there was a massive red neon sign out the front and a serious crowd inside (although, Double D is perhaps the smallest burger joint I've ever seen).  There seemed liker there no chance we'd be able to grab a seat, so I'd started thinking about where else we could grab dinner....  But then a strange thing happened, within minutes, the whole place cleared out.  Poof, the people were gone.  

Changeover time!  Sweet, I boldly stormed into the place and grabbed one of the few seats and waited for SC to turn up.  While I was waiting, I had the opportunity to read a little about the Double D doctrine...  Some of the highlights were- 

A belief that there is a perfect combination of chuck roll to rump in the beef patty; 

Not focussing on the bun is like buying a new TV with no cable; 

A great burger should be dirty yet decadent;

Two grass fed patties are alway better than one; and

A burger always tastes better if you dry age your beef...

There were a few more that ran along in the same vein, all pointing towards a great burger experience and it was with great anticipation that SC turned up and we placed our orders.

Since it was a stinking hot night, we decided to kick off with a couple of shakes, chocolate for the girl and salted caramel for myself.  Our shakes arrived and apart from being so think that we could hardly suck them through a straw, they were just what was needed on a hot and sticky Hong Kong evening.  My salted caramel was particularly great, but SC though that her chocolate needed more flavour and syrup.  

With only a couple of beef burgers on offer, the Double D and the Single D, we grabbed one of each, with the smaller burger for SC.  Once they were delivered, I started to think that I'd made a mistake with the Double D, it was massive!  The two hand ground grass fed Aussie beef patties were dripping with sharp aged cheddar cheese and the Double D sauce.  The bun to patty ratio was pretty good, but perhaps a little top heavy and with a good balance of fresh salad, including a thick slice of tomato, the burger was quite the vision.

The Single D was probably a little easier on the eye and a little less intimidating!  With identical ingredients, it was also dripping with melted cheese but the single patty made the burger a little more accessible (haha, easier to get your mouth around).

We both started munching on the burgers and interestingly enough, had completely different experiences.  One consistency was the cooking of the beef patty, which on the whole was closer to well done than medium, so a bit of the flavour had been cooked out of the meet.  SC's burger was under seasoned and mine tasted quite salty, so we weren't sure what happened there.  I quite enjoyed the melted cheese on my Double D, and the salad helped me get a lot of the burger down, but on the whole, the two beef patties were just too overwhelming and threw out the balance of the burger.

While the burgers were a little underwhelming, our side of fries was tops, nice and crunchy with a lovely golden brown colour.  Unfortunately, the place wasn't called Double D fries, so the great chips didn't make up for the less than stellar burgers.

I didn't love my first Double D burger experiences, but there was actually a really good mix of ingredients and they were not really far off being great.  If the patties had been medium and the seasoning had been spot on, then they could have been great, so a repeat visit will have to happen.

The small space was pretty cosy, which in winter would been great, but in the stinky heat of a hot HK night, we didn't really get the opportunity to cool down, even with the monster shakes.  I was intrigued by the small size of the space, but with the high rents in LKF, I probably shouldn't be too surprised.

If I get back for another visit, I'll add a little section to this blog for a final assessment, so stay tuned!

@FoodMeUpScotty

The kitchen was central to Double D burgers, you could follow the action

The shakes seemed just like soft serve ice cream with syrup and with a little whipped cream on top

There was a modern minimalist vibe inside

The team at Double D looked as hot as I felt!