Burgatroyd

It was an OK burger. Not splendiferous, amazingly flavorful, with juice dripping down my arms. I have an obsessive need to go somewhere I can order a medium or medium rare burger and receive it served with that beautiful stripe of pink down the middle. Anyone can grill to well done.
I ordered the Garden State upon recommendation from the employee du jour — that chili aoili had no kick, and the pickled onions overwhelmed even the taste of beef.
I would give it a 2^nd try if someone else wanted to, and if I am more impressed, I will report back.

I’ve had a craving for a good burger for about a month now. I have many reasons why I’ve been neglecting my craving — been trying to cut down on my cholesterol, work out more, but ultimately, I’ve been afraid that my occasional red meat treat would not satisfy my need for a great burger. Boy, am I glad I chose to have lunch at Burgatroyd today!
Mississippi Marketplace has so many truly great food carts (it might even better than the A La Carte pod). I was torn between Koi Fusion and Miss Kate’s Southern Kitchen, but was drawn to Burgatroyd. I was met by the friendly lady who warmly greeted me even though she was working on other orders. I had the Classic, and she asked if I wanted fries. Why not? Might as well be bad all at once! A short while later, my lunch was ready. The blend of fresh ingredients and perfect seasoning made the flavors unforgettable. My husband remarked it reminded him of In-​N-​Out; I thought it was if In-​N-​Out went completely gourmet with that spectacular sauce and bun not to mention those fries. Sigh… I need to work out even more than ever so I can come back sooner! My only regret is that I never tried Garden State…

The fries are great! That’s generally all I order from here because I don’t eat beef. I know, poor me right? No no, this place smells great and often times it’s tempted me to buy a burger and dive in. The lady that runs it is very friendly and quick with the orders. Five stars!

Super friendly service and damn good burgers.

The Wholy Guacamole burger is amazing! I can’t wait to go back.

Holly guacamole, Philly cheese burgers, and the fries rock!

Really Awesome. Really, really awesome.

After getting a taste of the Bistro burger from my wife’s plat last week I ordered the Bistro burger yesterday. Wow! I this may be the best burger in Portland. Horseradish and pickled beets on a burger… equals good.

Oh, this gal delivers the goods. Sweet momma, I’m comin’ home…1
The preggo is more than a little reminiscent of Killer-Burger’s pb-​bacon-​pickle madness in a bun, sans the bacon… so of course, I paid the extra buck for bacon. Huge, meaty, juicy burger! mmm!
The Hawaiian/​Islander was a little sweet for my taste — but what did I expect, it came w/​pineapple AND terriyaki!!! I added an egg and for the second time in as many outings, had my exceedingly robust appetite conquered like it was a little sissy boy.
The gal servin’ ‘em up was nice enough, quite proficient, and my only c/​o is that the patties weren’t all the way cooked… they were pink in the middle on both sandwiches. I don’t mind waiting a few extra minutes to ensure the thing is properly cooked…
I foresee a rendezvous or two in the not-​so-​distant future, w/​the Intergalactically awesome Burgertroyd!!!

FINALLY!
I have been on a quest for an incredible burger in the city. Not a cute little burger (I love them so, but they’re in a unique category in my mind) — a real, juicy, delicious, reliable burger. THIS. IS. IT.
I couldn’t resist the Brown Butter Burger. The minute you caramelize onions and grill a tasty bun in some butter, I’m already on board with the concept, no doubts, but you can’t just take a crap burger and dress it up and expect it to wow. But Burgatroyd TOTALLY gets it right, from the AMAZING bun to the tasty, perfectly cooked, juicy, flavorful, did I mention tasty, meat, to the melty cheese, the sauce, the onions… This might be one of my new favorite bad for me meals in the city. Seriously.
The texture and flavor of everything was perfect, service was super awesome, just simply a WOW burger from start to finish. If the fries had blown my mind, it would be a five star lunch — the fries are good, hot, salty, and a great side for a burger, but the burger here is really the stand out. THANK YOU for convincing me there are great burgers to be had here in Portland!!!

I’m a little conflicted on how I feel about Burgatroyd — great service and she obviously uses high quality, fresh ingredients. But the burger patty itself was lacking — I didn’t care for the texture of the grind and it needed more seasoning.
I went with the mushroom and swiss with added bacon and egg for $ 8. It was a huge burger — REALLY greasy and honestly a little hard to eat with how tall it was. I would skip the garlic aioli it comes with, it kind of just conflicted with the rest of the flavors. The egg was a great addition, but the bacon wasn’t crispy.
The assembled burger as a whole was pretty tasty, and I’d definitely try it again despite the negatives. I saw her slathering fresh guacamole on someone else’s burger and it looked amazing, so I’ll give that a try next visit and ask for the bacon crispy like my friend did.

(UPDATE Feb 2013: Now five stars, see other review. There’s a separate listing for Burgatroyd’s new location at The Row food pod near SE 2^nd and Oak. Burgers are also now $ 7.)
First of all, Burgatroyd is one of the coolest food cart names I’ve ever seen.
Anyway, all Burgatroyd burgers use Highland Oak beef patties, Fleur de Lis brioche buns, lettuce, onions, and special sauce. They currently have six burgers on their menu (each $ 6), but you can even build your own if none of the menu items appeal to you.
I went with one of their signature burgers, the Garden State burger. Calabrian chili aioli, provolone, pickled onions, and tomato joined the lettuce, onions, and special sauce. I added an overeasy cage-​free egg (75 cents) and a slice of their pancetta ($ 1), making the grand total $ 7.75 for this epic burger.
I think it’s extremely fitting this burger has the name «Garden State» on it. Anything that has Kevin Sandri’s name on it has to be freakin’ awesome. This burger was just incredible. My taste buds got bombarded with flavor, flavor, and more flavor. The beef patty was cooked to a perfect medium, just how I like my burgers. Sure, the aioli and special sauce contributed to the messiness this burger eventually created, but I didn’t care.
Pancetta. Yeah, the Italian version of bacon. Yeah, it makes everything better. Yeah, I was a damn happy panda. Enough said.
It doesn’t appear at this time that Burgatroyd has a vegetarian or vegan option (aside from their fries). Perhaps that could make its way onto the menu in the future.
In the meantime, go get a burger at Burgatroyd. Add some pancetta. Thank me later.

It was a cold summer day and the clouds were threatening above. What does one eat in this kind of weather — a burger. And not just any burger, one from Burgatroyd. Having not eaten there before (stupid me!), I ordered a basic cheeseburger with swiss cheese. The helpful operator suggested from roasted tomatoes and I added an egg.
The burger came out looking so fantastic and wet with flavor that I didn’t have time to take a picture. As the burger was cut in half, brightly colored egg yolk rolled out onto the plate. As I took a bite, roasted tomatos fought with egg which fought with special sauce in a delightful disaster that burned my hands and face. But I didn’t care.
The whole episode took only minutes and when it was over I had to do an entire body check (hands, arms, lap, face, hair) to make sure that I hadn’t exploded burger onto myself.
Can’t wait to do it again!

Yay for Burgers and Yay for Burgatroyd!
I don’t actually eat red meat… it’s one of those forbidden fruits I try to save for special occasions… so I’m a little concerned about what holidays I’m going to have to invent so I can start going to Burgatroyd regularly.
I mean, excellent burgers made fresh to order with fries for under $ 10. Who can complain about that?
I got a standard burger with pickles and fries for 7.25. You can dress her up and make her look pretty but at the end of the day, it’s the meat that counts… trust me, it’s high quality and delicious.

Ah, the spin-​off.
For about as long as the world has had people, it has also had spin-​offs: the Carthaginian Empire was a spin-​off of the Phoenician; in film and television, there’s «Joey,» «Frasier,» and «Ewoks: the Battle for Endor;» and religions, too, like Christianity, Seventh Day Adventism, and Family Radio.
The Burgatroyd spin-​off is particularly storied because it is a spin-​off of Garden State, formerly named Garden State North, which was itself a spin-​off of the original Garden State, in whose cart Burgatroyd currently resides. Whew!
So I’ll pose a question, Abed-​style, about the future of Burgatroyd: will it follow the path of «The Colbert Report,» which has coexisted alongside «The Daily Show» for years; will it prove to have been a massive miscalculation like «A Very Wookiee Christmas;» or will it become so popular that it actually forces the original out of business, like «Xena: Warrior Princess» eventually did to «Hercules: The Legendary Journeys»?
Right now my guess (and my hope) is for the Report/​Daily Show scenario, but I think a more Xena-​like outcome is also a possibility. (Update: Garden State is now closed; Xena wins.)
Burgatroyd is a spin-​off what had been Garden State’s most acclaimed product, the burger (
). Burgatroyd allows the customer to choose what goes with the 6 oz patty and presents a daily special of seasonal accoutrements. The result is very much reliant on the whims of the customer. Fortunately, the Garden State burger is still available (correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe you just add pickles, roasted tomatoes, aioli and pancetta). For my part, I’m nearly always wholly satisfied with either the special or my own creation.
What I’m not satisfied with is the burgafries. Sometimes they’re good, but sometimes they’re a soggy mess, with a fair proportion of them undercooked. Booooo.
Of course, the fry failure might well be intentional — they could be going for the original/​spin-​off cross-​over to keep you interested in both carts, like the plot in an episode of «Angel» being vital to the overall storyline on «Buffy the Vampire Slayer» — get your burger at the ‘Troyd, and get your side of trusty risotto balls at the ‘State.
Indeed, a burger and risotto balls go together like Buffy and Angel.

This is one of the best food carts in Portland, the burgers rule!
I got mine with giardinera-​pickled veggies. AWESOME.

Their menu with all the creative options gets you excited, but the finished product borderline disappoints. Not so much as it’s bland or bad, but from a burger specialty cart, I just expected more. Another thing — and this is common with most creative burgers — is that it was difficult to eat. The meat slid out and you have to re-​center it or end up with slop. Not sure how to remedy this, but some places manage to do so. Maybe I just had too many toppings. Lastly, and not lashing because of bad service or anything, but the inside had an «unclean» feel to it. The people making the food had me second-​guessing. Face it: some carts scream sanitary, most are in the middle, and a few… well.
…I was a huge fan of the burger when it was at Garden State, not sure why they went this route.

After two visits I found the texture of the beef off putting and didn’t enjoy the amount of seasoning.
The ingredients seem to be well sourced and thought out though.
I prefer a more traditional beef patty. Other people may disagree.

Burgatroyd is enough to keep me from becoming a vegetarian. I asked for their most popular burger, which I quickly forgot the name of. Long story short this burger was without question the best burger I have ever had.
Im sorry cows of the world, if the Burgatroyd cart is still in business you have no chance. They make you too tasty!

The latest creation from Kevin Sandri (Garden State), this cart may look familiar to those of us in the Sellwood area who found themselves making the trek to Garden State back when they were still in the SE.
Now its located in the pod on N. Mississippi & N. Skidmore.
My adorable wife and I have been so excited to try this cart and we made our way North on a sun drenched Saturday afternoon.
We ordered a cheeseburger and a burger (both ‘build your own’ style). The specials were indeed intriguing but… the ability to customize with a dizzying array of toppings was just too seductive.
After catching a glimpse of the shoestring french fries I had to have them.
The food arrived expeditiously.
The simplest explanation is that a gastronomigasm was experienced here today.
The detailed explanation:
The burger patty was perfect. It was cooked between medium rare and well done. Juicy but not too greasy. Seasoned perfectly.
The french fries… f-​ing amazing. My new favorite.