The Burgers are better at Huxtaburgers

23. Dec, 2011

Food doesn’t need to be complicated to be good. This is something that Daniel Wilson, owner and chef at Huxtable knows all too well. The Smith Street restaurant prides itself on making simple food with quality ingredients, and it’s a philosophy that Wilson has carried over to his new burger outlet Huxtaburger.

Opened this week, Huxtaburger is located opposite its big brother on Smith. While the interior remains half closed in a state of renovations, they’re nonetheless open for business with outdoor seating, burgers and cans of beer.

The default is the Huxtaburger (beef, cheese, tomato, lettuce, pickles, $8), there’s the Bill (add bacon, egg, pineapple and beetroot, $10), Theo and Denise (sadly no Rudy). There are also no vegetarian burgers at this stage, though the salad of the day was a roasted cauliflower, quinoa, goats cheese, pomegranate and mint number.

At the moment it’s cash only, and I had just enough change for the Huxtaburger. While smaller than a standard pub burger, it was tasty with a nice balance of ingredients and flavours. I could definitely have eaten another one. Or three.

The toasted sesame seed bun was crisp and glazed on the outside, soft in the middle. The mayo, mustard and ketchup formed an equilateral triangle of taste while the pickles, lettuce and tomato added freshness. But the beef was the real star here, as it should be in all good burgers. Huxtaburger uses Moondarra Wagyu from Holly’s Garden.

My companions ordered chips, which were of the frozen crinkle cut variety – fine because they were chips – but not at the same lofty heights as the burgers. I’d love to see some amazing hand cut chips worthy of complimenting them.

As it is now, Huxtaburger is a great place to get a simple, tasty burger on Smith Street. Once they’re fully up and running, I get the impression that this is going to be a fantastic place to hang out with mates to chow down a few burgers over a fair few beers.