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The warm and sunny days have finally arrived in Halifax, and it’s a great time to be a food-lover in the city. Patios are open, and nothing beats the heat like a cold beer and some tasty eats. I finally had some spare time (it’s been a busy past few weeks for me), so obviously getting a burger was high on my list of things to do. I noticed that Gahan House had added a new burger to their menu since the last time I was there, so I decided to give the Brewmaster’s Burger a try.

Stats

From the menu: “Atlantic beef, Gahan cheese sauce, Montreal smoked bacon, onion jam, Porter mustard, buffalo ketchup, tomato, lettuce, pickle, Iron Bridge bun”

Appearance (7/10)

Once I was able to take my eyes off the big pile of onion rings (they are a must-have each time I eat here!), I went in for a closer look at this burger, and I realized that I was in for a saucy time. There was a huge scoop of the Gahan cheese sauce dripping out the sides of the burger, and there appeared to be quite a bit of the buffalo ketchup, which had the potential to be either good or bad flavour-wise.

The Iron Bridge bun was on the larger size, and I was somewhat worried that there was going to be to much of it given that the patty looked to be on the smaller size.

Taste (6.75/10)

There was some great things that I enjoyed about this burger. My favourite had to be the delicious Montreal smoked bacon, which had a great smoky flavour to it, and there was the perfect amount on the burger. I really liked the huge portion of cheese sauce as it added a creamy texture to every bite, and was also pretty tasty!

While the patty was more well-done than I would have liked, the beef still tasted great. I would have liked more of the onion jam as I couldn’t really taste it on the burger, which was a bit of a let down because I feel it would have added a great layer to the overall taste.

While the onion jam was lacking, the buffalo ketchup certainly was not, and it was almost to the point where there was too much. Some people might welcome this abundance of heat on their burger, but I found that it was a little too overpowering for me, and I would have liked just a little bit less.

Cost vs. What You Get (7.25/10)

The cost of this burger is $16 (plus $3 if you want to get the onion rings, which I highly recommend). This is a pretty typical price for a burger of this caliber, and while there are some small things I would like tweaked, it’s still fairly reasonable.

Overall (7/10)

I’ve had some really great burgers at Gahan, and they tend to land in my “favourite burgers” group (their burger creations for Halifax Burger Week snagged a spot in my Top 3 for both 2015 and 2016!). When it comes to the Brewmaster’s Burger, I would have to say that it would be my least favourite burger I have had here. That being said, it was still a tasty burger, and there was a lot of nice parts to it, but it just didn’t reach that level of greatness that other Gahan burgers have achieved in the past.

Gahan House
1869 Upper Water Street, Halifax, NS
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