Burger Project – World Square

As you all know, Neil Perry opened a burger joint next to Din Tai Fung at World Square. It offers the same 36 month grass fed Cape Grim beef (albeit the chuck and brisket cuts) and triple-cooked fries as Rockpool Bar and Grill, but with a more chill atmosphere and affordable price tag.

Nice atmosphere and quite private

Now, I’m not going to explain the flavours in detail. There are plenty other blogs that do that; I’m just here to give you more pictures of stuff on the menu. Suffice to say I was pretty happy with the food here and I’m not sure the bad reviews on Urbanspoon were warranted. Especially considering everything was under $10.

I also did not doctor any of the images so that you have a non-biased view of what the food actually looks like. #nofilter #sorryitsblurry

Our tray of noms!

Triple fried chips with smokey chipotle chilli sprinkles.

The alternative was just +salt. These babies were perfectly crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, even the ones at the bottom of the cup! The seasoning was very tasty and not spicy.

Spicy Chicken Burger. It is what it is except, not that spicy.

Cheeseburger

Such a juicy, succulent burger. Not too salty but just enough to keep you wanting moat. I love the Maccas Quarter Pounder and this sure reminds me of a tastier version. Not a fan of the raw onions, though. Why! Why raw when cooked is infinitely yummier 😦

Cheese & Bacon. The Cheese^10 because, well, bacon!

Crispy hot wings with classic hot sauce.

You know how I kept saying all the above mentioned foods weren’t spicy? This is not one of them. It definitely packed a tangy, spicy punch and I could not help but mop up every last bit of the sauce. The skin was gloriously crispy without being oily. So crunchy that, without meaning to, crumbs fell into my burger and then into my mouth. Mmmm texture. Defs gonna try the version with Szechuan pepper next time.

Wash it all down with a cold, creamy strawberry shake. With added malt, or course. I kept browsing the web to see if anyone had compared the normal shake with the thick shake but no luck. Nonetheless, the normal shake was still pretty thick. Someone compared it to the Shake Shack. I think it is slightly thicker, but it could have been the added malt. Very flavoursome and does not taste like fake strawberry but a blend (which is my favourite because I actually like the hot pink flavour).

Impressively, the in-store menu matches the online menu perfectly (not necessarily true for many places). There was only one extra addition – the Australian Burger – but this may be due to Australia Day being a couple of days before.

I would definitely go back. The serves were just enough that you could enjoy a burger, fries and shake comfortably, and then even contemplate dessert (I wanted dessert, the other were not so keen so I got froyo elsewhere). Perhaps Aqua S for some soft serve with grilled marshmallows and fairy floss?  😀

This meal was independantly sought and paid for by the authors.

Burger Project
World Square (next to Din Tai Fung upstairs)
644 George Street, Sydney

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The Down – KFC (double down)

Just saw a TV ad advertising the KFC Down so I’ll write my post about it now! Today (launch day) I went to try one with a few of my male colleagues. None of the ladies in the office wanted to try and even some of the guys turned down the offer to try KFC’s new offerings. The funny thing is we in the office have been joking about the “Double Down” since we heard about them over in the US of A and now they have reached our shore for the next four weeks unless you’re in Tasmania (you’ll get it for six weeks) so it was only appropriate we went to join the party for it’s launch.

It’s advertised as a “mantime” meal, but as a female I found it pretty small and not that big of deal considering most burgers and meal deals are way more kilojoules. I ordered the Original Down and I have to say I was pretty disappointed – the Zinger Down is definitely a much better option, but it’s also a lot more kilojoules and fat. The Down has cheese, bacon and barbeque sauce on the Original Downs, I was expecting the cheese to have melted more and the bacon to be cooked more, but the KFC I visited seemed quite packed and there were lots of guys ordering the down. So some of the advertising has worked!

The Down is $7.95 just for the “burger” either Zinger or Original and $9.95 for the Down Combo with a can of drink and small chips.

It comes in a box and this is definitely required since there are no buns it’s pretty hot to hold, unless you enjoy burning your finger tips. It was definitely not as oily as I was expecting. This is probably because it’s the chicken breast and so less fat.

Easy eating

It also has a tab to split the box in half so it makes it slightly easier to eat the actual burger since you can’t really eat it like a regular burger.

Two pieces of chicken breast, two pieces of chesse, bacon and bbq sauce

I would have preferred the buns to actually be on the burger, as it makes it easier to eat and more filling. I finished eating this comfortably in about 5 to 10 mins since it was quite small and was still hungry so ate half my colleagues chips. Some of the other guys ordered the Zinger version and I think that is the way to go. The Zinger Downs are much more substantial so it seemed to be more filling. I saw one guy at another table who ended up ordering another Down after eating one, so I think for the average guy this will be novel but probably not worth the $7.95. It’s a bit like eating the two piece feed with a piece of bacon and some cheese. After the meal I was still pretty hungry though I would say I have an average to good appetite.

It's not too bad

Overall, it was fun to try it out. I thought it was interesting that it’s aimed squarely at the boys but don’t let the advertising scare you girls from giving it a go. If you like KFC (I do when I get cravings) it’s pretty average and definitely do-able! I can’t help but think it’s a bit funny since it really isn’t that crazy, it’s definitely more hype and less delivery. All the news coverage it received the day before it launched is completely unwarranted, you’d eat more kilojoules and fat in a Big Mac so what’s the big deal really? There are heaps of other things on the market that easily beat this in unhealthiness easily. Everything in moderation I say, also it’s good because the chicken is breast fillets which are much less fat than other parts. They also give you two vouchers if you purchase this for some more KFC meal savings.

One of my colleagues has recently returned from a trip to the USA and he agreed the American equivalent is definitely much better and much larger, the Australian Down is definitely underwhelming – even its name got changed!

If we do another KFC run I think I will skip the Down and head for the Streetwise lunch deal – much better value and much more filling or some wicked wings! I’ll leave the boys to their “bromance” and “mantime”.

Value: 2/5

Sated feeling: 2/5

Taste: 2/5 (it doesn’t have all that much taste)

Overall: 2/5

\~OwL~/