WOAP2015: Thunderbird Cafe
Where? Thunderbird Cafe (Wellington CBD, Wellington, New Zealand) Map Menu
When? Wednesday August 19, 2015
Who? Jordan, Nic, Tim, Rob, Sarah
Food Style? Southern American and Tex-Mex
People often draw comparisons between Thunderbird Cafe on Featherston Street and Sweet Mother's Kitchen due to their similar menu styles - hearty, soulful, southern American and Tex-Mex food with staples like burritos, tacos, gumbo and fried chicken. Fortunately for Thunderbird, they're closer to work than Sweet Mother's is, and I was quite impressed by their southern style crayfish burger last year. Their Dine menu did look rather uninspiring though (macaroni and cheese? Really?), so the six of us that went were all happy to contend with their Burger Wellington entry.
Burger: Mothertruckin' Monster
Island Bay Beef patty with bacon and Swiss cheese in a Pandoro bun with house made onion ring and hundred thousand island dressing
The entry on the menu for the burger came with a disclaimer: note this entry differs from what was printed in the guide. For reference, the guide had: "Wagyu beef patty, Randwick Meats bacon, Kāpiti smoked cheddar and Thousand Island dressing in a Pandoro bun, with onion rings and dirty milkshake shot". So essentially the same set of ingredients, maybe not as high quality as Wagyu beef, but unfortunately missing the plural on the onion rings (the burger only had one) and the dirty milkshake shot.
Anyway, thanks to some solid organisation from my part, our burgers arrived literally the moment we sat down. Good start! Onto the verdict.
The bacon was the star of the burger. Crispy and succulent, it lent a lot of character to the dish. The beef patty was okay, and I wish it was wide and thinner - the burger itself had a lot of height and was a bit difficult to eat at times. I wish there were more onion rings, because the one I got was pretty good and added some nice crispiness. Nice job, but a step down from last year's crayfish burger - which is to be expected, really, because crayfish is amazing. It doesn't come with sides, so consider ordering some curly fries or a milkshake to share. I'll give them a seven out of ten - greater attention to the finer details of the burger would have earned them a higher score, but still a quality burger with lots of flavour.
Posted by Jeremy at 5:50am on Thursday August 20, 2015 :: 0 comments :: 