Danny’s Burgers

360 St George’s St
Fitzroy, VIC 3068

Turns out that working a near-full-time job while studying part-time takes a lot of work. Who’d have guessed? In any case, that means it’s time for a guest post- by none other than esteemed eating buddy, Chris!

These days, you can hardly turn a corner without seeing some new burger joint pop up. The gourmet burger bandwagon just keeps rolling on, and although you’ll never hear me complaining about a new excuse to eat burgers, sometimes it feels as if we can’t possibly keep this up without every store becoming a burger joint eventually. However, amongst all these new-fangled food trends stand a few stalwart establishments who haven’t changed their ways in their 50+ years of service. One is Andrew’s, and another, Danny’s Burgers, has been sitting patiently awaiting review for quite some time.

Although I’m used to seeing Danny’s busily serving up burgers on my occasional tram-ride past, It was a quiet Monday night on which we visited, leaving the small diner-esque interior barely half full for the duration of our meal. However, there was something undeniably relaxing to the sound of the burgers sizzling away on the grill accompanied by a stream of Fall Out Boy and Paramore songs playing on the TV; this is a place where you can enjoy a no-nonsense burger on your lunch break, after work, or heck, why not both?

You can tell it’s been a long time since Ming and I ordered a fish-and-chip-style burger by the fact that neither of us even considered getting a second patty on our order. Compared to the gourmet burgers from the likes of Huxtaburger, Rockwell and Sons, and 8bit, which are often stacked with thick patties, our Single Patty with Cheese ($6.8) was a depressingly flat affair. The thin patty, though not necessarily smaller than the others due to its wider nature, made for a lack of that satisfying meaty hit one feels upon biting into its competition. The modest accompaniments of lettuce, cheese, tomato sauce, and onion did little to remedy this fact, creating a burger that tasted nice enough but certainly didn’t hit the spot. This is a burger that screams for an additional patty to make it worthwhile.

Compared to our burger, the Steak Sandwich with Bacon ($8.4) was a more satisfying affair by far; it’s hard to keep a smile off of your face as you take a bite of steak. Though somewhat chewier than we’d have liked, the steak provided plenty of enjoyable (though messy) mouthfuls of meat, sauce, and onion. The bacon we added was unfortunately a bit bland and couldn’t be tasted much over everything else, though the sandwich didn’t need it to taste good.

With so many gourmet burger places in Melbourne at the moment, and more popping up every day, it’s very hard to remember a time where Danny’s Burgers could have possibly been called “the best burgers in Melbourne”. The simpler likes of these burgers just can’t stand up to the latest burger trends; but then, I don’t think they’re trying to. Venues like this surely thrive on being the reliable, traditional burger place that locals and nearby workers can flock to whenever they need their fix. And as much as I walked away a bit disappointed, I can’t help feeling like we did Danny’s a disservice by ordering such a simple burger. This is the kind of burger that wants to be ordered with The Lot, and a double – or triple-patty if you’re game. In fact, I’m this close right now to running off to stuff my face with a Double Cheeseburger with Bacon, and see how a “real” burger tastes instead.

Learn from our mistakes. If you go to Danny’s, go big!

Rating: 10/20 – I’m sorry Danny!
This rating reflects my (Chris’) personal experience at the time of visit.