Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Is the meatloaf new? Coulda sworn I had that at the Vegas location a couple years back.

Well, I can't speak for the Serious Eats staff, but I do think that when you're reviewing a restaurant, you're reviewing the default service -- so if they over/undercook something, you need to mention that in the review, regardless of whether you later decide to send it back.

Yep -- I can't say I'm surprised that the Keg serves a frozen burger. Welcome to Canada! You can get a decent burger here, but it's much harder than it needs to be.

Sad but true: here in Toronto, a place called Johnny's is frequently named as one of the best burger joints in the city, if not THE best. The problem? They serve nothing but frozen burgers.

I wish I was joking.

@Beergal314: I was thinking the exact same thing. I know that pizza lovers like to espouse the merits of "char", but come on -- that's straight-up burnt.

@Erin - Oh trust me, I would not be surprised at all -- aggressively spiced "hamburgers" are a big pet peeve of mine. Perhaps calling it a meatloaf sandwich is a bit hyperbolic, but definitely I think that once you add garlic and/or onions and other spices to a hamburger, it stops being a burger.

I think a burger, at its core, is far too simple to allow for changes like that without completely destroying the integrity of the dish. A patty with garlic and spices tastes very, very different from a patty of pure ground beef seasoned with salt and pepper. I'm not saying it's necessarily WORSE, but it is definitely different enough that it shouldn't have the same name. Here in Toronto a burger like that is frequently labeled as a "homeburger," which I think is a fair compromise, name-wise. I just wish that this would be a universally-accepted standard so I wouldn't have to be unpleasantly surprised when I just want a good ol' hamburger.

A "burger" with garlic and other spices mixed in is a meatloaf sandwich on a bun, not a hamburger.

This is a little dated at this point, but I couldn't resist:

http://bit.ly/enrb8e

Do you say Paris, or Par-ee?

France, or Frawnce?

Karate, or Kar-ah-tay?

Pho, or Fuh?

If you use the latter pronunciations, and you're not French or Japanese or Vietnamese, then your friends probably find you a little bit insufferable (particularly so if you smugly correct them when they say these words with an American dialect). Sorry to have to be the one to break it to you, but someone had to do it.

If you want to have an authentically Canadian burger, it would have to be either

a) frozen

or

b) have onions and all kinds of spices mixed in.

Yes, Canadians are terrible at making burgers (or at least Torontonians are). It is possible to find a decent burger in Toronto, but it's much more difficult than it needs to be.

@danniii -- I don't know which part of Canada you're from, but here in Toronto we have an annual event called the Ex, which is essentially a state fair, complete with a lot of this kind of food.

Isn't this review kind of a conflict of interest, given Peanut Butter and Co.'s sponsorship of this site? Is this a sponsored post? Hmm....

Have you been freezing your beef? Because I find that burgers made from previously-frozen ground beef tend to be a bit mushy.

I don't think I've ever seen a website redesign be so unanimously hated. Serious Eats guys (and gals): I'm not suggesting you let an angry mob dictate what you do, but I think it's time you took the hint.