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Friday, February 7, 2014

Parlour Burger: The Black Widow strikes

With a rush of casual but gourmet burger joints opening last year, Sydney’s burger craze has possibly turned into a burger habit.

It's more than possible to have a different gourmet burger every night of the week, if one were so inclined, but few are as striking as Parlour Burger's Black Widow burger.

The Black Widow burger - charcoal bun with ground beef and extra hot sauce
from Parlour Burger, George Street, Sydney
The Black Widow is the creation of chef Sean Connolly, of the adjoining The Morrison and Auckland's The Grill by Sean Connolly and formerly of Astral.

The enchanting, inky black hue of the burger bun comes from vegetable-based charcoal incorporated into the bread dough and its novelty alone warrants an order. It sandwiches a thick, pink-centred ground beef patty with decent fat and flavour, and is accompanied by tomato and an iceberg lettuce leaf.

The menu lists the Black Widow with an "extra hot sauce" but I would barely call the dollop of creamy, orange-hued sauce hot (let alone extra hot), giving a small but good kick to the beef.

Sparkling wine
Parlour Burger is super casual: order and pay at the bar from a menu of five burgers and sides, and grab a number and a drink. The space is a little dark and dingy, with a pub sports bar feel remaining from its former life as the Brooklyn Hotel.

Chicken and quinoa burger with caesar dressing
The chicken burger featured a quinoa crumbed fillet that verged on a little dry, propped up with creamy Caesar dressing and lettuce on a well-sized, undramatically-coloured brioche bun (it's probably a bit on the smaller side, especially for guys with big appetites).

Deep fried pickles
It's almost a must to complement your burger order with a side or two. I eschewed chef Connolly's signature duck fat chips in favour of deep-fried pickles, and what a great decision that was.

An old-fashioned, thick and crunchy (beer?) batter encased sweet gherkin pickles and, surprisingly, it was a beautiful albeit oily side that needed no condiment.

Cabbage and parmesan slaw
The slaw side was somewhat underwhelming in comparison, but at least healthy with a light, vinegary dressing over shredded cabbage and Spanish onion, all topped with grated parmesan cheese.

Well located for CBD rat racers, Parlour Burger is a good, quick, cheap option for when that burger craving strikes – and the Black Widow is well worth hitting up.

Food, booze and shoes dined at Parlour Burger as a guest, with thanks to Savannah PR.

Parlour Burger on Urbanspoon

9 comments:

  1. Yum I love deep-fried pickles! Shame about the non-hot sauce though!

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  2. I find that black coloured bread quite alarming...but no so the gherkins. I still haven't tried deep-fried gherkins. It's on my bucket list though.

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  3. I did like those deep fried pickles! A lot more delicious than I anticipated!

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  4. I'm intrigued by this black widow but haven't heard that it is amazing. Still it's $10 so who can complain.

    OMG i love fried pickles. Had them at the stuffed beaver and never looked back. They had ranch dressing to go with it though.

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  5. I agree the novelty of a black burger makes the Black Widow worth ordering.

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  6. I can't say a black coloured burger bun is appealing but the sound of deep fried pickles sure has me intrigued!
    Loved The Morrison so will have to try and get myself down to ParlousBurger in he not too distant future.

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  7. the urbanspoon rating looks really bad but i still want to try the black widow burger. hope it ends up exceeding my expectations

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  8. Hi Helen - The pickles were SO good! I didn't mind the non-spicy sauce so much, it just wasn't "extra hot" at all.

    Hi Melanie - It's actually not all that black close up; more like a... dark (charcoal?) grey.

    Hi Cindy - May well beat the duck fat chips...?

    Hi Priscilla - I've had the pickles at the Norfolk, and I think these are better. It's worth trying the burger I think.

    Hi Chris - Definitely, and I thought it was pretty decent.

    Hi Angie - You've got to try the Black Widow; the charcoal is even meant to be good for you!

    Hi Annie - Yes, lots of complaints about burger size it seems. I actually thought it was the perfect size...

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  9. The black widow looks interesting but they've got so many bad reviews in Urbanspoon that I won't bother.

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