Huxtaburger, Melbourne CBD by Big Fil

Part of the dude food revolution which hit Melbourne a couple of years back, until a week or so ago I never knew there was a Huxtaburger outlet just a few minutes walk from work.  It is kind of hard to spot if you are just walking around like I normally do, it was only a few scattered outside tables that gave the hint that there might be something to see there. 

Entering you find yourself in a small but very cool dinner style space, all neon and shiny metal with bottles of amusingly named beer on the front counter, hipsters behind it.  One thing I didn't notice, not until Ruby Grapefruit pointed it out.  Other than one of the servers, she was the only non-dude in the place.  I suspect it was only a coincidence, but caused us both to chuckle a bit about a dude food place full of dudes!

Unfortunately the lighting meant that it was hard to get good photos of what were pretty decent burgers.  Ruby went with the Denise, with jalapeno and sriracha mayo.  On the good side the bold flavours were wonderfully punchy without being overly spicy, largely complements of the tangy mustard and mayo used on every burger.  And the burger was nicely cooked, just a touch a pink in the middle.  

There were a couple of negatives though, one minor and one major.  I have a bit of a thing about the use of sweet buns on hamburgers, it was fun when it started but having since become so widespread I must admit to be a bit over it.  While I thought the mustard prevented the sweetness from becoming overly strong, even so it was strong enough for Ruby to point out.  More importantly, it was a bit of a case of the disintegrating bun, which towards the end made the burger a bit hard to eat.

I decided to go with the more manly Bills, with bacon, egg, pineapple and beetroot.  This was tall, to the extent that I ended up eating the pineapple and tomato separately, just to make it more convenient to eat.  Again a nicely cooked burger, with punchy flavours from the accompanying mustard.  Unlike Ruby my bun managed to hold together pretty well so maybe that was a one off thing.  Could probably have done without the pineapple as for me it doesn't really add much to the burger, unlike the semi-mandatory bacon and onion.  All up I was pretty impressed with the burger and its full flavoured approach.  

The accompanying crinkle cut chips though were a definite disappointment, soft rather than crispy.  The original service was friendly but we seemed to wait a long time for our burgers to arrive and I suspect that the chips were hanging around for a while waiting for the burgers.

Overall

Quite a mixed experience, with service friendly but slow, burgers good but chips not up to par.  All fixable things which were more annoying rather than something which stopped us enjoying our lunch here or wanting to return.

Verdict

Food - 7
Ambience - 8
Service - 6
Price - 7

Address

Fulham Place
Off Flinders Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel: (03) 9417 6328