Wahlburgers

Great space, friendly and attentive service. The house burger was pretty good. Poutine was a little salty but great while it was hot. Great place for a quick bite

Decided to stop in before the Jays game. We opted to sit in to dine, but definitely appreciate that there is a grab food and seat yourself option as well in the building. The burgers were decent, but nothing crave worthy. I had the Eh burger which was topped with a fried egg, a delicious mess. My wife had the OFD and was kind of let down, the mushrooms it was topped with were very suspected of being from a can. The onion rings/strings as a side were nice however. A little on the pricey side but I suppose that is to be expected with name and location.

Originally founded in 2011 as a chef-drive burger concept, Wahlburgers, the U.S.-based burger concept launched by Executive Chef Paul Wahlberg and brothers, Mark and Donnie, opened its first Canadian outpost in November 2014 in Toronto. Located at the SoHo Metropolitan Hotel on Blue Jays Way, the location is the family's first international outpost of their original Hingham, Massachusetts restaurant. With fresh made-to-order burgers, fries and frappes, Wahlburgers' menu reflects a mix of classic burgers and sides, as well as family favourites.

The 120-seat Wahlburgers Canada (or "Wahlburgers" from now on) is similar in layout to their U.S. counterparts in that it showcases a sports bar, a dine-in restaurant and a quick service take-out all under one roof. The restaurant emphasizes casual comfort food in a family-friendly environment (there was indeed quite a number of families there when I visited on a Friday night).

While burgers are the main focus, Wahlburgers (Facebook: Wahlburgers Canada, Instagram: @wahlburgersca) offers a variety of sandwiches and salads as well. Other specialties include a selection of house sides like sweet potato tots, mac 'n cheese, fresh cut Yukon Gold fries and onions rings, along with ice cream frappes and boozy frappes, Wahlburgers' alcohol-fortified version of the ice cream beverage.

Wahlburgers' "quick serve" counter with approximately 40 seats.

AUTUMN BLUE ($8/pint) (limited time only)

Available only for a limited time, the Autumn Blue - a smooth blonde IPA at IBU 87 - is an intensely premium local brew with refreshing citrus aromas. Highly recommended if you're into hoppy beers.

THE "EH?" BURGER ($10.95)

5 oz. burger, peameal bacon, fried egg, smoked cheddar, lettuce, mayo, ketchup & mustard

A common mistake that many restaurants make when serving a fried egg is overcooking the damn egg. With the yolk no longer runny, there's absolutely no point in having a sunny side up egg, in my opinion. It's all about that runny yolk! This is why I was really happy to see that the fried egg in the burger was not overcooked (it could actually be a bit runnier but hey, I'm not complaining). With the fried egg, the juicy beef patty cooked to a nice medium rare, the smoked cheddar all melted and goo-ey like that, all that in a warm toasted bun, The "Eh" Burger definitely gets two thumbs up from me.

TRIPLE DECKER (3 x 3oz) ($12.45)

Topped with Paul's signature Wahl sauce, dill pickles, government cheese, lettuce, tomato

and onion

Why? How about "Why not"? As if the Triple Decker wasn't massive enough, we added onion rings as an extra topping and substituted regular onions with caramelized onions. This was one impressive burger. Because the patties were only 3oz each, they weren't very big, but with three of them stacked on top of each other, the result was a very tall and intimidating-looking burger. Other than the fact that the onion rings were more like crispy onions (which was disappointing since we were hoping for actual onion "rings") this was one damn good burger. Messy and hard to eat, yes, but very tasty. In case you were wondering, the only way I was able to eat it was to alternate between eating the top half, the bottom half, the top half, and so on and so forth. It didn't matter how much I pushed the top bun down I still couldn't fit the whole burger in my mouth.

MAC 'N CHEESE WITH SMOKED BACON ($7.25)

Smoked bacon, government cheese, cheddar, smoked mozzarella & parmesan topped with garlic panko bread crumbs.

The description reads great but the final product certainly didn't deliver. There was a generous amount of smoked bacon but the mac 'n cheese itself was far from being cheesy enough. The cheese and the macaroni just didn't meld together like I would've liked. The result was a very dry mac n' cheese and the bread crumbs on top accentuated that. It was also served warm, not hot.

BANANA FLUFFANUTTA ($4.95)

Peanut butter, fresh banana, fluff & nutella

When I asked the server what the heck is a "Fluffanutta", she told me it's a sandwich and that "fluff" is actually marshmallow. I was sold. Would it be weird if I told you I'd go back to Wahlburgers just for the Fluffanutta? It's a simple dessert, really, just two pieces of toasts, peanut butter, nutella, marshmallow and banana, but oh my God, I want it all the time now! Can you imagine if the Fluffanutta was served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side? That would be THE perfect dessert for me.

Aside from this location at the SoHo Met, there is another Wahlburgers location at Toronto's Pearson International Airport in Terminal One. It shares much of the same menu at exactly the same prices, and almost everything is available for take out to go on the flight. It also serves hearty breakfast items and coffees in the morning.

Before I go, since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, did you know that Wahlburgers also has a Thanksgiving Day burger on the menu? It is "Mark Wahlberg's Choice" and includes fresh ground seasoned turkey, stuffing, Paul's orange cranberry sauce, roasted butternut squash and mayonnaise. Wahlburgers will be open tomorrow for Thanksgiving Monday, obviously :)

*This meal was complimentary. The opinions and views expressed on this post are my own*

Really enjoyed the restaurant, great service. The only flaw i found was the meat was slightly over cooked the seasoning is great just the meat is a bit over cooked. They should work on asking customers how they want their meat cooked. Otherwise I enjoyed the meal

I had dinner here w/ a friend last week before heading down to the Blue Jays game. The restaurant was busy but we were able to find a spot to sit and eat. Both my friend and I ordered The Melt ($10) and split an order of fries ($3). The 5oz burger is described as being "served between our thick-cut bread and grilled with government cheese, pickles, caramelized onions, bacon and mustard sauce." I added gorgonzola instead of the government cheese but I received both...oh well. The burger had some decent enough flavours. Unfortunately, the patty itself didn't do much - bit of a letdown actually. The fries weren't very fresh but they still tasted alright. I enjoyed my meal but for the price I think I could do better.

During #NationalBurgerMonth, and just in time for #NationalBurgerDay coming up on Saturday May 28th, Wahlburgers has added a Surf ‘N Turf Burger to its menu! Luckily enough for me, I had the opportunity to sample the latest addition to their menu and of course took some mouth watering pictures to share with you all! =)