CRIZ BON APPETITE

It looked like Penang has its personal halal street burger challenges amongst the burger stalls surrounding the island as more and more stalls are coming out with more innovative ways to promote their burgers. Initially, it was the “Ramly Burger” style where the owners tried to outdo each other by increasing the factory made patties until double burger special with added eggs, cheese, etc, such as the one at Old Trafford, Lebuh Chulia, Penang. Then, it was a matter of adding in more extras such as potatoes as at Post Burger, Jalan Gelugor, Penang. As it got harder to tower up the burgers, the diameter of the bun has increased tremendously until 8”-10” such as at Zul’s Burger, Sungai Nibong, Penang. As more and more people got to watch Asian Food Channel through the Astro channel, the burger cooking methods has changed to grilling over cooking grids. One such method of cooking was the sloppy burger style with homemade beef patties and grilled chicken at Hero Burger Bakar, Astaka Stadium Bandaraya, Jalan Perak, Penang. The latest opening of yet another stall with grilling style is the Street Grill – Burger Bakar Penang, Lebuh Sungai Pinang 1 (beside Ocean View Apartment), Sungai Pinang, Penang.

The differences between Street Grill and Hero Burger Bakar, lies in an additional supply of mutton patties. Street Grill would serve you with boneless chicken thighs, homemade beef and mutton patties, all marinated with their secret recipes. All the meat would be grilled on their custom-made cooking grids. The other difference was that each meat piece would have a special BBQ sauce brushed on to maintain the moist and served with your choice of dressing such as their homemade black pepper sauce, thousand island sauce or mushroom sauce, on top of the normal dressing of chili sauce, tomato sauce and mayonnaise. Only chopped up iceberg lettuce and slices tomatoes were provided as some of the sauces had some chopped onions added in. The buns were also grilled with a little crisp.

We were first served with the Grilled Chicken with Cheese (RM5.50nett), topped with Black Pepper Sauce. The grilled boneless chicken was indeed flavorful with the nicely sealed in marinates. However, the evenly balanced bite was not there. Somehow, the meat shrunk quite a lot after grilling. Thus, it looked as though the bun was bigger than the grilled meat. Alternatively, they can seek smaller buns or spread cut the meat to ensure a balance bite size in ratio to the bun. On the other hand, the black pepper sauce was rather spicy and the onions were a bit too chunky to stay within the bun. They should have finely chopped the onions further and evenly break them apart to ensure they stay in the bun with each mouthful. The chopped iceberg lettuces were also falling apart due to the lack of sauce to hold them together. Maybe they could just serve each burger with one whole leaf? They would have to look into the stacking steps to ensure the perfect bite.

The next was the Grilled Beef Patty Burger (RM4.50nett). The grilled beef patty had chunky bite and obviously with less veins in it. It had the necessary marinates to subtle up the beefy flavors. This burger came with their homemade thousand island sauce. Personally, I felt that it would go better with black pepper sauce. I also find the patty to be rather fibrous and lack of moist. I wonder if it would be wise to ask for a medium rare version during my next visit? 😛

The Grilled Mutton Patty Burger (RM6.00nett) was actually our target as you would hardly find this burger in the menu of most stalls. Indeed it was the best pick of the night as the meat was more tender and flavorful with the right amount of marinates. It was undeniable the best choice of meat for the burgers served here.

There also do serve half kilograms homemade meat patties (beef: RM15.00nett, mutton: RM25.00nett). One day advance booking would be required. Obviously, we opted for the 1/2kg Grilled Mutton Patty Burger (RM25.00nett) since it was rather rare. The burger would come with an 8” custom-made bun. Taste wise, the mutton patty was perfect except for a little hiccup in the utilized bun. The 8” diameter 500gms mutton patty eventually shrunk to almost 5.5” in diameter after grilling. Thus, the ratio of the patty versus the bun was 1:2, resulting in a double amount of bread compared to the provided patty. The management was aware of this issue and would rectify it with their vendor for a custom-made 6” bun after the Hari Raya Aidil Fitri. It would be a good move too as I also found the bun texture to be drier compared to the rest of the buns.

Just look at the juiciness of the mutton patty below. Isn’t it delicious? However, let’s hope that they rectify the size and texture of the bun soon.

It has been said that interesting food would always get the attention first rather than the hungry tummies~ LOL! Regardless of gender, there would always be the camwhoring session amongst the guys and ladies~ 😛

Overall, the taste for the burgers here can be quite good, especially the mutton burger. However, there were no proper sitting places for savoring the burgers straight from the grill. Even if there were stools provided, there were no sales of any beverages to quench the thirst. It would be advisable to bring along some personal drinks if you planned to dine there. The other suggestion I have would be on the availability of egg usages. With the current setup of only cooking grids, there was no way they could have cooked any egg to go with the burgers. I kind of like the one served at Hero Burger Bakar as the given runny egg was a great complement to moist up the overall bite.

If you know where the new Sungai Pinang coastal area is or where the Sungai Pinang “Si Ki Tiang aka 4 tall blue pillars” is, you won’t get lost. LOL! If you are coming from the Penang Bridge coastal highway via Tun Dr. Lim Chong Eu Expressway, you would drive pass eGate/Tesco. Drive on ahead. Go over the first flyover. As you are about to reach the second flyover when you see Shell petrol kiosk on the opposite direction, keep to your left and follow the sign towards Sungai Pinang. At the traffic lights (Sg. Pinang Food Court at the left corner), turn right into Lebuh Sungai Pinang 1. Move on until the next traffic lights and turn left. You would see the roadside van stall with a standing banner stating Street Grill just 100m away on your left before the Ocean View Apartment entrance.

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Name: STREET GRILL – BURGER BAKAR PENANG
Address: Lebuh Sungai Pinang 1 (in front of Ocean View Apartment), 10500 Penang, Malaysia.
Contact: 012-571 1050 (En. Abu Hasan Abdul Rahman)/012-465 9066 (En. Zain)
Business Hours: 7.00pm-1.00am (Closed Sunday)
GPS: 5.398042, 100.327887
FB: https://www.facebook.com/streetgrillburger

RATING:
Ambience: 5/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 classy)
Food Choices: 7/10 (1-4 limited, 5-7 average, 8-10 many choices)
Taste: 7/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 7/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 7/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)

George Town, Penang is truly a food paradise when it comes to having multiple choices of cuisine to suit the palate of locals as well as tourists. The wide exposure to channels such as the Asian Food Channel has brought about a huge change in the cooking methods of street food vendors. More and more of them are investing hugely on proper kitchen equipments by the thousands to serve diners with the best ever cooking solutions for the best taste. One such person is Encik Mohd Hilmey Ibrahim, an entrepreneur with a long history of burger making. He’s the brainchild behind the barely few weeks old Hero Burger Bakar, located within the Astaka Stadium Bandaraya premises along Jalan Perak, Penang.

So what’s the difference between Encik Hilmey’s burger compared to the rest? Obviously, it’s his homemade beef patties and specially marinated boneless chicken drumsticks, all with his secret recipes. Secondly, it’s his method of cooking. The beef patties are BBQ grilled on cooking grids over high heated lava stones while his meaty chicken fillets are skillet grilled. Thirdly, it’s a sloppy burger where you would have dressings such as black pepper sauce, cheesy sauce, chili sauce and mayonnaise splattered all over the juicy grilled meats for all orders. Lastly, it’s the egg… runny egg with the semi cooked yellow yolk oozing out to provide that extra creamy richness on your burger.

Most of the diners here would opt for a combination of beef and chicken. Do try out their Double Trouble (RM14.50nett). The set would come with the usual burger bun laced with romaine lettuce, tomatoes, capsicum and onions topped with one BBQ grilled beef patty, one grilled chicken, 2 pieces of cheese and 2 semi cooked eggs. Of course, the black pepper sauce, cheesy sauce, chili sauce and mayonnaise would be on each burger ordered. Alternatively, you can also custom make this set with less one egg and one cheese for RM12.50nett.

For non beef eater, there’s always the Duo Boneless Chicken Special (RM14.00nett). This set would have two pieces of grilled chicken, topped with a piece of cheese and a semi cooked egg. This order would also have the standard 4 dressings.

For a lighter meal, you can have the Solo Boneless Chicken Burger (RM7.00nett) with the standard 4 dressings.

Alternatively, you can have the Solo Boneless Chicken Burger Special with Cheese & Egg (RM9.00nett) with the standard 4 dressings.

For those who love to have only the lighter version of their delicious herb packed beef patty, you can opt for their Solo Beef Patty Burger with Cheese (RM7.50nett) with the standard 4 dressings.

You can also try out their Solo Beef Patty Burger Special with Cheese & Egg (RM8.50nett) with the standard 4 dressings.

Here’s a quick reference with what they have in their menu and the pricing you would be expecting. Please click to view a larger size.

The taste for the burgers here was quite good to my liking, although I usually do not quite like my dish to be overdressed and sloppy. The balance of the dressings was quite good, having the nice combination of black pepper sauce, cheesy sauce, chili sauce and mayonnaise. The only few things lacking are the choice of serving dish and food presentation. Styrofoam plates are not the in-trend for a “Going Green” Penang’s choice even though it would cut down on washing time. If other choices of firmer serving dishes were to be utilized, then a better food presentation would surely boost up the interest of diners. It could just some fresh green salad or even some fries as side dishes. The beef patty (~170gms each) was superb as it has all the beefy flavors and chunky bites with the necessary herbs and seasonings. The meaty and juicy boneless chicken (~200gms each) was also flavorful but only on the surface. If only they could pierce some holes onto the meat with a multi-spike ice picker, the meat would be able to seep in more flavors from their secret marinates. Overall, their “Burger Bakar” would be quite ideal for those who love to have their burgers in a sloppy wet way.

If you know where the City Stadium is, it won’t be hard to locate the food court as it’s just next to the Shell petrol kiosk along Jalan Perak. If you are not sure, let me lead you there. If you are coming from Jalan Dato Keramat via KOMTAR, when you see Padang Brown, keep to your left. At the traffic lights (Jalan Dato Keramat/Jalan Perak), turn left into Jalan Perak and keep to your right. Drive on about 100m and you would see a Shell petrol kiosk on your right. Turn right into the lane (Lilitan Stadium) after the kiosk. Find your parking space within the vicinity of the food court located just next to the petrol kiosk.

Name: HERO BURGER BAKAR
Address: Astaka Stadium Bandaraya, Jalan Perak, 10150 Penang, Malaysia.
Contact: 011-2642 0334 (En. Mohd Hilmey Ibrahim)
Business Hours: 6.00pm-12.00am (Closed Tuesday)
GPS: 5.411073, 100.315807

RATING:
Ambience: 6/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 classy)
Food Choices: 7/10 (1-4 limited, 5-7 average, 8-10 many choices)
Taste: 7.5/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 7.5/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 7/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)