The Tuesday Taste - Atomic Burger

 

 

One more

weekend

of lights and evening faces

Fast food

living nostalgia

Humble pie or bitter fruit

 

 

Another Tuesday... another Taste! This week we're blasting off to a new burger joint in the eastern quadrant of the Toronto Galaxy... set your phasers on fun because it's Atomic Burger! 

Oh if only I were paid by the cheesy astro reference... that's me seriously reigning it in, folks. 

 

The origins of this latest entry onto the Toronto burger scene actually connects to a Jordanian style diner in Regent Park that closed their doors earlier this year. Fattoush Sandwich Club, opened up by three chef friends from Vancouver during the middle days of the COVID pandemic, was a quaint well regarded spot known for their excellent falafel and various other takes on popular middle eastern cuisine. After a few years operating Fattoush the team decided to shift gears, moving further east on Gerrard to take on the new challenge of opening a (proudly) non-smash burger joint just on the fringes of Toronto's Little India. 

 

 

Atomic Burger had caught my attention both via their Instagram ads (geez it's like the algorithm knows I review stuff or something) and by being located across the street from Greenwood Park where I occasionally play softball on various days of the week (such as the very Sunday I went to try them).

Walking inside you can tell the sparse space was previously an old storefront of some kind (Strickland's butcher shop to be precise). The layout of their mission control is extremely minimalist: little framed artworks on one wall (including a Jetsons poster) with some funky (spacey) shaped cubbyholes on the other wall featuring some merch, cards and other astro-themed delights. Very retro-astro if that's a term that exists somewhere in the universe. 

 

 

Atomic Burger does not have a single seat inside on which to sit (something I wonder if they'll remedy for the winter months when the nearby park is a less appealing spot for eating) so I obviously got my order to go. The incredibly sweet lady behind the counter (who I think may have been one of the chefs/owners) noticed my baseball gear and wished me good luck in my game! Sadly we actually lost (my Sunday team is pretty um... terrible) but at least I had those well wishes and a burger/fries to enjoy before another gruesome defeat. Hey, speaking of that...

 

 

These are Atomic Burger's "Asteroid Fries" with a side of "Atomic Sauce". See, I barely even need to make any corny sci-fi allusions when the names of all their items are doing it for me.

The Atomic Sauce tastes very much like (if it isn't) a ketchup mixed with yellow mustard kind of deal: there's the distinct sweetness and sharpness to it that you'd get from either one, though thankfully both are muted enough (there might be a bit of mayo in there to lessen that) to actually compliment each other rather than clash. As a kid I used to mix cheap ketchup and mustard together as a french fry dip and lemme tell ya... it was a harsh mixture. 

This Atomic Sauce takes the spirit of that and improves on it considerably, as on tasting it again the next day I definitely got more of a garlicky flavour to it alongside the sweet and sharp in the aftertaste. Possibly something tangy, like a BBQ sauce in there as well (maybe instead of ketchup even... it's more that kind of sweetness). 

A sauce that ages like a fine wine? I thought it was pretty solid in the moment, but after a night in the fridge it became incredibly good. Quite intriguing.                    

The fries themselves have a very homemade quality to them. They really really taste of earthy potato and have a noticeable oiliness (I'm no oil expert so I couldn't tell you what type they're fried in... my guess would be vegetable or sunflower). There isn't much fluffiness on the inside of them, rather more of a dry and crispy texture... meaning they go a bit stiff once they go cold. However their crispiness is indeed very enjoyable when still fresh, while the touch of salt is just the precise amount to really pop. Very much a DIY/home kitchen type of fry.

 

   

Tomato underneath the beef patty? Truly this burger is from another galaxy...

Their flagship Atomic Burger is a 5oz dry aged beef patty with your typical fixings of lettuce, tomato, onions, pickle, cheddar cheese and the Atomic Sauce I mentioned above. Considering both their simple space-themed motif and the relative straight-forwardness of their menu and recipes... clearly the intent is to blast your taste buds off to unexplored corners of familiar stars rather than a whole new galaxy all-together. Or something like that.

 

 

Lots of cheese! For a simple burger, this thing packs quite a bit of flavour. The beef itself is wonderfully juicy (there will be some dripping), with a crispy griddled layer on top complimenting the tender ground texture within. It's probably cooked between medium and medium well (very little pink if any) but it's way softer and juicier than that level of cook would suggest. It also holds together extremely well: there isn't any crumbling apart from the ground beef whatsoever despite the crispy layers and it's drippiness. 

The seasoning is also light and simple: salt, pepper... that's all it needs. Exceptionally tasty considering that simplicity, while it lingers in the mouth for a pleasant period of time as well. Clearly they're using some very high quality beef here and preparing/treating it with the tender (see what I did there) love and care it deserves. 

I suppose my singular (and very minor complaint) would be: too much tomato! It's a very thick slice (nearly as thick as the burger patty itself) and I found on certain bites that the tomato was obstructing the amount I could taste the beef. If anything it's another point in favour of how delicious this burger was... I wanted to maximize my enjoyment on every bite of that succulent patty (out of the way, fruit!). 

Everything else on the burger does a fine job in a supporting role. Not entirely noticeable but that isn't a bad thing when the beef tastes this good. I found the shredded lettuce an interesting choice (normally I'd prefer the watery crunch of iceberg but this works too) and the real cheddar cheese on here is nicely melted and blanketed all over the burger, giving a nice bright sharpness on nearly every bite. Likewise the bun: somewhat wheaty, not much of a presence but it is soft and firm enough to do its job more than adequately. 

 

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Overall! While researching the backstory of Atomic, I came across a Reddit review which favourably compared their burgers to A&W's (like A&W done really well, to paraphrase). I think I get the comparison, as the Atomic Burger is composed similarly to their Uncle Burger (both have thicker patties) and both taste distinctly of salt. I'd most certainly agree in that Atomic is far less overseasoned than A&W (I'm notorious in my liking of A and Dubs but their burgers are often way too salty) and that their beef is simply light-years better. 

This was an incredibly good cheeseburger, no matter what planet you're coming from. While the fries were also fairly good (until going cold) the main reason to visit (and why I'm going to strongly recommend) Atomic Burger is definitely for the namesake. Thick, juicy, wonderful taste and texture... just plain awesome first bite to last. 

Fire up those rocket packs and check them out! I'll definitely go back again before one of my games (need something positive to take away from these rough losses). Considering their previous venture as Fattoush, I'd be genuinely curious to try their Martian Burger... which consists of a falafel patty. Definitely one of the best burgers I've had in a while and it's nice to see another new burger joint steer their warp engines away from the heavy asteroid traffic of smash burgers.        

 

Tuesday Tune

While I'll still grumble at my dad for placing Lodger ahead of Low on his otherwise excellent article ranking David Bowie's albums (but seriously though?), this is a pretty damn good song off that (in my opinion) fairly middling record. Carlos Alomar's guitar really shines on this one too. 

 

 

That's all for this week! It's looking smokey out there (I'm sure all these more frequent wildfires and climate change are totally unrelated...) so stay cool out there, stay safe and most of all... don't spill that mustard.