Soon it will be too late
Bobbing for apples can wait
I know you're used to
16 or more
Sorry we only have 8
Another Tuesday... another Taste!
We've done a lot of cheeseburgers here in the third edition/incarnation of the TT... and some darn good ones. Whether it be the sheer greasy wonderfulness of Harry's, the simple precision of Friday Burger Co, the satisfying BBQness of Montana's (indeed a mighty fine burger), or an American classic (grilled onions, pickles and smashed beef) emulated brilliantly via Burger Drops.
Forget my 'Taco Month' thingy I attempted to make a thing (damn tricky thingys)... summer 2024 has apparently been the year I review exceptional Toronto burgers. Montana's is seriously the one out of place among those four... and it was still pretty good! Those other three though... goddamn.
No pressure, Slayer Burger, but also... PRESSURE! The burger quality bar(TM) at this point in time is seriously raised. These aren't the old days where I hadn't yet reviewed Burger King and so kinda had to... only to struggle to invent anything positive to say about a Whopper. A current Whopper compared to any of these 2024 burgers we've had on the TT... it's like comparing a freshly made beautiful pasta dish (noodles pressed and made fresh the same day) to eating Kraft Dinner with a side of store brand ketchup as the singular addition, and the macaroni was boiled far too long.
Slayer Burger is a mini-Toronto burger chain that (seems?) to have set their roots in 2020, now with three locations at the moment (and possibly still a food truck): one in Midtown Toronto on Yonge Street, one up in the fringes of northern East York near O'Connor and St. Clair Avenue, and one on the corner of Lewis Street and Queen East, a good outfield throw away from the Riverside hub of Broadview/Queen. You can guess which one this reviewer Beaches cat visited.
If you were thinking "Hey, Slayer is also the name of a famous hard metal band. I wonder if there's any connection?" Well if so, all those years of headbanging have rattled your brain juices around for good! Slayer Burger is indeed a reference to the legendary thrash metal group, and they've leaned into the heavy rock aesthetically as well.
Objectively, you can't deny that's a pretty rocking mural of guitarist Jeff Hanneman. Here's the artist's website, Medeio, including video of him starting it from scratch.
I could chat about hard rock forever, but lets push aside the dressings for now and jump into Slayer Burger's menu. Slayer appear to be a type of hamburger hybrid: offering both a smash style patty and a more traditional grilled one. As mentioned above, this accidentally has become the summer of smash burgers in these parts, and so I went for their signature Slayer Burger Smash. With a side of regular fries of course (they also offer truffle fries, which was incredibly tempting but this was going over budget already).
The Slayer Smash! A very straightforward affair: burger patty, melted cheddar cheese, bacon, caramelized onions and Slayer Sauce, all on a sesame seed bun.
This sesame seed bun (strange to start there I know) is something I found most curious, in a good way. Hero Burger likewise uses sesame seed buns for their burgers, and I think as such that's the place Slayer reminded me the most of. The beef however is where they take different paths, since Hero is exclusively a grilled, thicker and more firm patty than this. Hero did attempt to jump in on the smash burger craze for a brief time, with pretty meh/okay-ish results.
Back to Slayer... I have to mention how wonderful this burger smells. I mean, it takes impressive skill to screw up a bacon cheeseburger (and yet it happens so often)... but this Slayer burger, um... slays (groan) with its scent. An instant whiff of sweet onions and freshly fried bacon? Your mouth might already just be watering by the mere thought of it.
Diving deeper, the burger itself has the tender juiciness of your typical smash offering, only without the greasier edges (or greasiness in general). It breaks apart pretty easily once you're halfway in, but it also maintains that juiciness start to finish. Very consistent texture and flavour, and both those things linger nicely after each chomp. Even those last bites, the meat cold and the bacon a little tougher... the burger remained extremely tasty. There's a general BBQ smokiness throughout a lot of the flavour (mostly the bacon) that is prominent but never completely takes over.
In my mind, the caramelized onions are really this burger's secret weapon. While neither the beef patty or the bacon are aggressively salty, the sharp sweetness (you really taste the brown sugar) of these onions give this burger another dimension that both balances out the other elements and adds a pleasant flavour in its own right. It elevates this Slayer burger from pretty good to another, more memorable, level.
Back to the bun! It's like Wings' "Back To The Egg", except better (I'm guessing maybe one out of every potential three hundred people reading this will get that joke). A short point about the bun I only realized while finishing the burger: there's a butteryness that reminded me of a biscuit, except without the crunchy exterior. Bit of sweetness as well, the kind you get in a potato bun (Slayer do offer potato buns for their other burgers, not sure if the sesame seed ones are).
How about them fries? Seems like every time I go review one of these smashy smash burger joints, crinkle cut fries are always tagging along for the ride.
Simplicity is the game here. These are good fries: consistently crispy, not much seasoning at all (just a bit of salt) and the portion (this was an individual side order, I don't do combos) was huge. Not much else to say... very enjoyable and the leftovers held up okay on a reheat.
There's also a dip they threw in (you can see it in the lead photo) which your standard "chipotle mayo" type of thing. More smokiness to it than heat, solid creaminess, and a bit of a citrus sting to it. A quality dip that won't blow you away (very light).
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Overall! I was most impressed by the continuous taste throughout Slayer Burger's offerings... it is always a good sign when a mix of flavours pleasantly stay on the tongue a solid moment afterwards.
It's a tower of a task to completely reinvent a bacon cheeseburger, so instead of turning a wheel into a hexagon Slayer simply makes a high quality one with some little details to make it their own. I don't quite think I liked this as much as Burger Drops or Friday (and certainly not Harry's) but Slayer was extremely good nonetheless and I would recommend checking them out.
Just another very good small-ish local burger chain that sure kicks the heck out of your super-gigantic fast food burger options. If I'd tried Slayer two years ago, back when I was reviewing the likes of Burger King, McDonald's and such... this probably would've completely blown my mind by comparison. As is... mighty damn rocking fine in its own right and filling too.
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Burnt Ends
Been writing other review-y things! Checked out another little Toronto restaurant chain, Mercatto, and tried their pizza again (who is at all surprised). Also wrote up a new Toronto pizza slice joint in the west end, Gram's, which I really really enjoyed (spoiler, but go read the review anyhow!). And finally, in the final gasps of 'Taco Month' I checked out Dirty Birrias here in the Beaches.
Plenty more to come! Maybe even something(s) that aren't food related (gee it has been a while).
Tuesday Tune
It would've been so easy to put a Slayer song here. So obvious! Alas... I um... don't really know Slayer at all.
Devil horns revoked, indeed.
Instead you're getting the opposite of that... 1970s Yacht Rock! Okay, calling Steely Dan "Yacht Rock" is a seriously inaccurate assessment. Okay... yeah fine they kinda are (Michael McDonald was in the freaking band for a while fer-cryin-outloud) but there's a lot more to the songcraft and Donald Fagen's storytelling and lyricism than just your generic "soft rock blandness". I don't care much for the likes of Christopher Cross or Doobie Brothers among others, but I've loved Steely Dan essentially my entire life so damnit I'll perish upon this very short hill.
Here's a song from 'Katy Lied', their fourth album (and one I don't even like all that much!). But it's a great tune... light-hearted and softly groovy in tone, but with a weird and very creepy lyrical underbelly that makes Steely Dan so clever and different, he says while digging into that hill (dig up, stupid!).
That's all for this week! Until next time... you know the drill. Stay safe, stay cool and don't spill that mustard.
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