3.221 Bacon Cheddar Burger

Cycle 3 – Item 221

13 (Mon) August 2012

Bacon Cheddar Burger

3.5

at Chili King

-Itaewon, Yongsan, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

solo

This place had long been on my list of burger joints to check out. Finally getting around to it this evening, I told the guy taking my order how much I’d been looking forward to tasting the food there. The guy happened to be the owner, a Canadian expat named Kevin (seems to be a lot of Canadian expats in the Itaewon restaurant scene). He thanked me for my support then regretfully informed me that he’ll be shutting down operations as soon as he can secure a buyer for the property, as nobody is interested in taking over the business. So, this first visit will probably be the last.

Which is sad, because the burger was excellent and worth going back for another. Thick, juicy, beef patty. Thick, good quality bacon, cooked to a proper crisp. Thick, mouth-watering cheddar cheese, properly melted to goo. Fresh toppings. Fresh bread, light and chewy. The best part was that it was an actual adult-sized burger, unlike the burgers at other places, where the trend is to make them all cute and dainty. The only negative was that the condiment – some proprietary sauce that looked and tasted like a combo of ketchup, mustard, and mayo – had been oddly placed between the patty-bacon-cheese and the toppings, not on the buns, and just in the center, not all the way to the edges, which made the first bite somewhat dry and made me think that the condiments had been omitted altogether. Still, it was one of the best burgers that I’ve had in Korea, maybe even edging out the bacon cheeseburger at Two Broz. At 9,900 won for the burger plus fries (mediocre) and coleslaw (less than mediocre), not too bad a deal, certainly filling.