Veggie Burger

Who doesn’t love a big, juicy burger. There is nothing more satisfying than a burger and fries. Burgers have been around for a long time and fortunately, Kelowna has a lot of different restaurants that offer them. Traditional burgers are typically ham burgers, chicken burgers or beef burgers. But in the last decade, veggie burgers have gained popularity and become more main stream.

For my November food challenge, I wanted to find the best veggie burger in Kelowna as I feel veggie burgers can sometimes get a bad rep. They’re stereotyped as flavorless or bland compared to a classic meat burger.

But that’s not true! Veggie burgers can be just as tasty as a meat burger.

So let’s discuss what makes a great veggie burger:

• Texture – Nobody wants a boring burger with few ingredients. A veggie burger needs depth. Give me all the toppings but make sure they are not SOGGY. Nothing is worse than a soggy burger.
• Flavor – Just because it’s a veggie patty doesn’t mean it lacks deliciousness. There needs to be a “knock em dead” sauce.
• Patty – I expect a hand made patty that doesn’t have 100 ingredients. Home made is always better.
• Bun – The bun is so important! Need a fresh bun that isn’t dry and holds the burger together. You don’t want your burger sliding out. The bun can make or break the burger.

Let’s review where we went:

Bin 4 Burger Lounge:

Bin 4 is a burger lounge in Kelowna known for their delicious gourmet burgers. Being a “burger” lounge, I knew this had to be a contender for this challenge. They have three different vegetarian burgers to choose from. The one we reviewed was the Ginger Soy Tofu burger. The patty was a large piece of fried tofu! Super different as I had never tried a burger like that before! What I loved about this burger was that it had so much flavor and a bit of spice to it with an Asian flare. It was packed with a ton of texture from the corn and crispy wontons, and then a jalapeno sauce. However, this made it quite a messy burger to eat with bits and pieces falling out. Bin 4 serves their burger open face style so it’s up to the consumer to put the burger together and eat it. The burger was served with a heaping amount of fries and your choice of aioli dip. Despite it being messy to eat, it was a very flavorful take on a veggie burger.

Frankie We Salute You:

Our next stop was Frankie’s, a restaurant that just opened up this year in Kelowna. With being a vegetarian restaurant, I had high hopes for their veggie burger. Frankie’s locally source their ingredients – you can feel the thought and love that is put into their menu and food. Their take on a veggie burger was very different from Bin 4’s. Bin 4’s burger was very heavy and filling while Frankie’s was a lot lighter – you can taste the freshness of the ingredients. Their mushroom patty is home made and consisted of only four ingredients, which is great as a lot of veggie patties are packed with a lot of unhealthy ingredients. If you followed along on my stories, you would’ve seen that I loved the fact they they had potato chips in their burger. It was so unique and gave texture to their simplistic burger. I wasn’t crazy about the presentation but loved that the burger was served with fries and salad. This was a healthier, cleaner take on a veggie burger.

Naked Cafe:

The last place we checked out was Naked Cafe. Naked is a plant based restaurant that’s been around in Kelowna with six different burgers to choose from. The one we reviewed was the Mushroom Mozza burger. What I loved about this burger is that it was served on a charcoal bun – I had never had a bun like this before! And they got a 10/10 on presentation as their burgers are served with lots of height – height for food presentation is super important to me, especially with burgers. You want burgers to look exactly how they look on tv: big and fluffy. Not squashed and flat. The patty was a beyond meat patty – which I like, but would prefer a home made patty. Nevertheless, I liked this burger because it had so much flavor and could easily pass as a meat burger. Even the biggest meat lover would love this as it mimicked the same texture as meat. They served the burger with fries and let me tell you, Naked has the best seasoning on their fries. All around, this was a good classic take on a burger and the ultimate comfort food.

So who wins?

drum rollll…….

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Bin 4!!!

All the burgers I would have again in a heart beat but Bin 4 stuck out to me the most as it had the most flavor. I talked about how veggie burgers get a bad reputation for tasting bland – Bin 4’s burger is just the opposite. There is so much flavor and texture that any meat lover would love it. If you want to know what else is good to eat at Bin 4, check out the blog post I wrote about them here.

The next time you’re craving a great burger, know that you can visit any of these three restaurants as all of them were fantastic!

Thanks for coming along and stay tuned for December’s #stuffwithsvetfoodchallenge…a dessert!!

-Jenna xoxo