Of Lambs and Lions...

It hurt to review the burger at the Three Lions Cafe on Broadway at Ontario. It hurt because the food at Three Lions is generally pretty good. Why would I order a burger over bangers and mash? Or curry chips? But it would appear I'm on a mission to find excellent burgers in Vancouver and so I invested in the lamb burger. With cheese.

I already knew the food here was generally pretty good so I had high expectations for the burger too. That could work against it, the expectations. The burger almost needs to be brilliant just to live up to the preconceived notion of it being "good."

The waitress copped to being a vegetarian when I asked her if the lamb was worth the extra buck. She had to fetch someone else off the staff to give me an honest opinion. He said, "Yes. Yes it is," and then mumbled something about Guiness and cheese and juicy and gravy. It was all a blur but the one thing that was clear was that he liked this burger and his like of it seemed genuine.

These pictures don't do the burger justice. That gravy infused cheese was hypnotic. It seemed forever deep and impossibly beautiful in its spectrum of dark meaty delight to golden cheesy lightness. Biting into it all was a pleasure. The bun was soft as a plush busom and had a perfect neutrality to it that didn't compete with the flavours it was a vessel for. Fresh tomatoes and crisp greens as subtle companions made for a nicely balanced relationship between burger and condiments. It would appear the patty has been touched by caring human hands and not the product of a lab or assembly line.

Is it burger perfection? Not quite. It wasn't too expensive. It was deliciously prepared. I'd have another in a heartbeat. I will say that the idea of a lamb burger seems a little pretentious for what a burger represents. There are any number of four star chefs that have turned their attention to burgers at one point or another making them out of Kobe beef or similar in an effort to find the burger to rule all burgers but that may be too much. A burger should be made of beef. I think the best beef patty will be greasier and less "delicious" than a lamb patty but in the spirit of a good hamburger I think the beef patty would be more soulful to eat, if that makes sense. I'd like to go back to to Three Lions Cafe and try a beef burger. I don't think it comes with the acid trip cheese and gravy treatment but I bet it's a better burger than this one, and this one was pretty damned good.