The Burger Project – Sydney CBD – For Food's Sake – A Sydney Food Blog

Bianca: Neil, Neil, Neil… he had eluded me since he opened ‘The Burger Project’ late last year but I finally managed to swing a few visits the last few months, to try his ‘ode to the milk bar style burgers’. I had seen the back and forth chatter between bloggers and the like over the life of its incarnation. Problems with the buns, the chips… the pricing. I wanted to wait until they had ironed out the kinks and gotten into the groove. Word is they’re still rather inconsistent with their product, which are odds I do not like.

For anyone that has had Rockpool’s Full blood wagyu burger, you could see how I would have extremely high standards for Neil’s ‘Burger Project’ offerings.

So the food… My first visit I felt totally overwhelmed coming in and had major buyer’s remorse after I placed my order. I went with the ‘Cheese & Bacon’ – w/Grass fed beef, bacon, cheese, onion, pickles, tomato, lettuce and secret sauce $10.90. The bun was perfect, so whatever adjustments made here have definitely paid off, soft and squishy. Whilst the special sauce was ‘acceptable’ it was un-expected. I note that the ‘secret sauce’ is added to all burgers barring the chicken. In hindsight I wish I had ordered the ‘American cheese’ to experience more of the ‘cheeseburger’ type flavour with mayo and tomato sauce, which I prefer. I just found the chilli sauce odd. My patty was cooked to a medium well but was still juicy, I couldn’t help but feel I was left with a greasy after-taste. It’s not something I generally come across AND this had foliage which I would have thought would counteract this old age burger problem. I wish I had taken a photo of it but my pickle was oddly cucumber-ish, which = weird on a burger! It was particularly reminiscent of a Macca’s quarter pounder, like, eerily so. For my Facebook FBAS a 3.4/5 pickles.

Yes, this is my burger eating face. Thank you Alex, for sharing…

Alex was on the verge of purge when lunchtime rolled around (after a day shooting for the Urban-list) so he wasn’t in fighting/eating spirit. That’s a nice way of saying he was being a moody princess. He sulkily ordered his ‘Classic’ – w/ Grass fed beef, onion, pickles, tomato, lettuce and secret sauce + bacon (extra) $8.90. Basically similar to mine without the cheese and let me tell you, it needs the cheese. Alex was unimpressed, with words echoing “Perry should be embarrassed to have his name attached”, while I don’t agree completely with those sentiments. I couldn’t help but feel a little cold after a bite or two of Alex’s burger, I couldn’t taste the love. A 2.5/5 pickles.

We needed something to round out the meal and opted for the ‘Chipotle Chilli Chips’ $2.90 (small). Really decent fries, I like mine crispy and they didn’t disappoint. The chilli was mild, with a slight lingering kick after each bite.

I couldn’t help myself and returned for a second visit the following week, I wanted to get a more rounded experience and sample more of the offerings on the menu. This time I had Madre in tow. She couldn’t go past the ‘Spicy Fried Chicken’ – Free range chicken breast, lettuce, tomato, jalapeños, cheese and rose mayonnaise $10.50. Mum thoroughly enjoyed her burger, the jalapeños packed quite the punch but we both like a bit of spice so enjoyed that immensely and let’s be honest it wouldn’t be weird for me to cry tears of joy after eating a burger…The ‘salad’ portion of the burger interplayed nicely with the fried chicken to cut through the fried/oily taste. The breaded chicken, akin to a chicken schnitzel was cooked well and retained much of its juiciness (so proud I didn’t use the word moist there