Big Wheel Burger is the fast food love child of the owners of Pig and Zambri’s. It’s a hipster (*cough* ‘retro’) style burger joint in Cook St. Village that apparently was inspired by famous American burger places like Shake Shack in NYC. Big Wheel takes the concept of a simple fast-food style burger, fries and shake kind of eatery with an environmentally conscientious twist by serving freshly ground organic beef and by reducing their environmental impact wherever they can. Sounds great right?!
Man oh man I really wished that I could say I love this place, but I just don’t. I first went a few years ago just after they opened with my brother, who I should mention has a very big appetite, and thirty something dollars later for the two of us I was left thinking “well that was disappointing”. I swore I would stay away since that experience, but everyone deserves a second chance so I gave it another try today.
My friend and I stand in line for about 5-10 minutes. Once we get to the counter my friend says to the employee “may I please get a cheeseburger with fries and a Cap’n Crunch shake?”. The employee abruptly replies “NO” …………………..silence………….stares…………more silence………awkward……… “we don’t have Cap’n Crunch shakes today”. Anyways after much discussion we ended up ordering the mint oreo flavour shake which all came to $14.25 with tax for the burger, fries and shake.
We sit down and wait for about 10 minutes for the faint voice to call out our name from the back kitchen to let us know that our food is ready to be picked up. Shake– Great! Good minty flavour, not too overpoweringly minty, nice and thick consistency just how a shake should be. Fries were pretty good too. Crispy and fluffy on the inside. Now for the burger. Sweet and buttery bun (too buttery for my liking), thin dry patty that is underseasoned and nothing else really exciting going on in the burger. I love organic local meat as much as the next environmentally conscious locavore but I also don’t think that there is any reason why such a small amount of meat should cost $7.75, unless it blows your taste-buds then it can cost $20 for all I care, but it doesn’t.
I’ve been to Shake Shack in NY and that was amazing. I’ve also purchased organic local ground beef from a local butcher and made some juicy homemade burgers which were also amazing. These Big Wheel burgers just don’t cut it for me and I’ll still never understand what all the hype is about.
Well, it’s a big fish in a small pond. That’s what it is about! I agree though, I don’t remember wow’ed by it when I went. Same with Bin 4.
Brasserie L’Ecole should just open up their own burger only restaurant. I’d fly up for their grand opening 🙂