Restaurant Review: Apache Burgers

APACHE BURGERS

5236 Dundas Street West Twitter: @ApacheBurgers Co-Diner: Tim Golem

As someone who lives in Etobicoke, when I heard that Apache Burgers (just down the street from my house) were known as some of the best burgers in Toronto, I had to check it out. blogTO calls them the #1 Best Late Night Burger in the city, which makes sense because they stay open until 2 or 3am every night. Open since 1969, the diner-like restaurant looks like it's straight out of the 60s and that not much has changed since it opened. The place is unmistakable with is neon signage and perfect diner decor. The colour scheme is red, white and silver with tons of shiny vinyl all around. The pop art is cute and the headdress-adorned Indian chief logo suits the name of the restaurant. The vibe is casual and laid-back but certainly serves up more ambiance than your typical burger joint. I visited on a Thursday evening and even on a nondescript weeknight the customer traffic in the diner was constant. It's obvious that this is a tried and true, generational type of place that many people rely on. Like most fast food situations, you place your order at the counter and grab a table wherever you like. The menu is pretty straight forward, featuring a list of burgers, sides and beverages. To drink, I gravitated right to the milkshakes because a 60s diner obviously calls for a milkshake. Don't be doing it wrong! They serve the usual style but I was much more interested in the Malted Milk Shakes ($5.69 for a medium) which come in chocolate, strawberry or vanilla.

The woman taking my order recommended that I order the chocolate flavour (I wasn't sure which to choose) and I appreciated the advice! What makes the milkshake malted? Malted milk powder is added. Think about the inside of Maltesers candies and what that flavour is like. Now imagine it in milkshake form. That's what this is. I really, really liked it! The milkshake was ultra creamy and I loved the sweet, rich taste that the malt added. I would get this every time. The next order of business, of course, was BURGERS. There are seven burger types on the menu, along with a few other sandwiches featuring steak, chicken, bacon, and hot dogs. They even have a veggie burger, which I'm willing to bet didn't exist back in 1969. One of the burgers is called the Apache Burger, which seems like the obvious thing to order, being that it's their namesake item. However, the burger is really big and involves two patties which seemed like a bit much for me. Instead, I opted for the Banquet Burger ($7.60) which contained everything that I wanted.

Like most good classic diners, once your burger is ready you get to watch your burger get dressed. This is when you specify which toppings belong on your perfect burg. For me it's almost everything; lettuce, tomato, pickles, banana peppers, BBQ sauce, ketchup, mustard and relish. Really the only thing that I don't want is onions. The Banquet Burger comes with cheese and bacon, which is ideal. It was ready in no time at all and I was excited to sink my teeth into it. I really enjoyed this as a real burger. I appreciated the taste of the flame-grilled meat, which truly tasted like real food cooked on a BBQ. On the other hand, I found my patty to be a bit overdone, which caused quite a lot of unfortunate dryness. The bun was squashy and good. For the most part the toppings tasted bright and fresh - except for the lettuce which was a bit brown and had probably been sitting out all day. I liked the idea of this burger but the execution wasn't quite there. Lastly, we were sure to grab a side and the Fry Ring Combo ($5.30) seemed ideal.

The best of both worlds? The fries were very good. They seemed to be fresh-cut and were fried to a golden perfection. The onion rings looked perfectly battered, just the way that I like them, however I found them to be a little bit too hard. The batter seemed overly heavy-handed. At this point I began to draw comparisons to Johnny's Hamburgers in Scarborough. They also feature a Banquet Burger on their menu. Except Johnny's opened in 1967, making them the original. I would have to say that Johnny's is doing it better. I would also say that Webers in Orillia offers a similar product as both of these places and they opened in 1963... Which leads me to believe that similar burger joints began to open in the city in an attempt to offer a similar experience. Dare I say that Webers does it the best of all? They're just such a well-oiled machine. Apache was fine. The prices are certainly right and they offer a really nice neighbourhood experience. I would rather support a business like this instead of eating at some massive fast food chain any day.