Romers Burger Bar: Its All About the Buns

Romer’s Burger Bar

1873 West 4th Ave., Vancouver

Nestled amongst the salad bars and surfer shops on the leafy green tree lined streets of Kits is Romer’s Burger Bar. The motto at this trendy burger shop is ‘Beyond the Ordinary,’ and after tasting a few of their burgers, I can attest that it’s true. Their burgers are creatively named and each one totally lives up to its name.

The first burger I tried was a combo of my ultimate favourite flavours as evident from this blog, I love maple bacon anything so when I saw the maple bacon pork burger on Romer’s menu, I was sold. I loved that there was more than just beef burgers on the menu at Romer’s. For non-beef eaters, there is also turkey, chicken, salmon and portobello mushroom.

The maple bacon pork burger came piled high with matchstick green apples inside and a swirly squirt of gorgonzola garlic sauce. There’s another thing to know about Romer’s: it’s all about the buns here. They use soft brioche buns for their burgers. The top buns are brushed with butter and glistening with rich flavour, are perched on the side of the burger when served, so it sits there smartly like a fascinator on the burger. The texture of these brioche buns are so delicate and soft, it’s impossible not to totally squish the bread when you grip the burger with both hands. But it really does kick the burger up a notch to the level of gourmet burger as opposed to a regular fast food burger you get at McDonald’s or Burger King. Somehow these delicate brioche buns are still sturdy enough to hold up the incredible burger fillings though.

The pork burger patty was so tender and flavourful, I don’t know why every restaurant doesn’t have a pork burger on their menu. The slices of bacon in the burger were salty and crispy and a great contrast to the maple syrup flavour. The green apple sticks also added a refreshing juiciness to the burger and the tangy gorgonzola sauce was the perfect topping. I would order this burger again in a heartbeat.

The Magic Mushroom burger has a cool tongue-in-cheek name and is served with generous dollops of soft and creamy Boursin cheese. The well-seasoned BC portobello mushrooms in the burger are delicious, they really have a bite to them in texture and taste. The caramelized onions also add a sweet crunch to the burger and also enhance the fresh sweetness in the arugula.

Like its name, the mushrooms were definitely the star of the show in this burger, but the all-beef patty was also very moist, juicy and flavourful. You can hardly see it in my picture under the massive pile of mushrooms but I have to admit, nothing quite compares to a bite of this burger when you get a nice big chunk of beef burger with mushrooms and that wonderfully creamy cheese all in one mouthful.

The fries at Romer’s are alright, they might take a backseat to the incredible burgers on the menu though.

The last burger we tried was the port and stilton burger with port-braised onions, melted stilton cheese and fresh thyme leaves. The smell of this burger is incredible, and the port transformed the onions into a deep, rich red. The taste definitely lives up to the colour, the onions were sweet with the aftertaste of summer berries, it was a great match to the juicy beef burger and the sharp flavours from the stilton cheese.

I loved the burgers that I tried at Romer’s and will definitely go back. I’d also love to try their famous drunken doughnuts next time!