Craft Burger

Craft Burger
Address: 573 King St. W.
Phone: 416-596-6660
Hours: Mon - Thurs: 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.;           
Fri: 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.;
Sat: 12 a.m. - 11 p.m.;
Sun: 12 a.m.- 8 p.m.
Dinner for 2 w/tax & tip: $25
**** (out of five)

The once-lowly burger has been revamped and renovated on countless fine dining menus lately, from the gilded burgers offered at Mark McEwan’s Bymark and One, to Trevor Wilkinson’s trio of little Kobe sliders at Trevor Kitchen and Bar. Its simple form and popularity makes it a kind of gold standard by which ambitious chefs can showcase their skills, not only at cooking, but at presentation and sourcing of ingredients. The burger has become the culinary version of the sportscar, available in almost every price range.

Mustafa Yusuf’s Craft Burger opened a year ago just a stumble away from Susur Lee’s twin eateries and Marc Thuet’s Bistro on King St. West. Yusuf had spend his adult life working his way up from a dishwasher at the Keg to the manager of its $5 million-dollar-a-year London location before moving on to operations manager at The Drake when it opened. He had an idea, however, for a stripped-down burger bar where the lack of frills and extras would allow him to offer the best patty in the price range, and bought the King West business where Craft Burger would open.

“This neighbourhood has all these huge offices and businesses,” he recalled, “and there was a need for a good burger joint. You have your McDonalds and all that down the street, but there was a ton of people, and we've been getting business at dinner now because of all the condo-dwellers coming in looking for a bite.”

The menu is straightforward – a half dozen or so burgers, ranging from a cheeseburger and a spicy burger to the top-flight organic patty from the nearby Healthy Butcher, with a select group of sides and toppings, and an even more basic choice of drinks, including a famously rich milkshake and Boylan’s sugar cane-sweetened sodas. The storefront is narrow and compact, and take-out business encouraged.

It’s also a damn fine burger – the Healthy Butcher organic patty tastes like real meat, with an almost gamey hint, and the hand-cut fries are some of the best in the city. Yusuf doesn’t want to confuse his customers with too much choice when volume is the order of the day, and he’s happy to let the product speak for itself.

“The burger is a traditional food that everyone's used to, that they can do in their backyard. We do everything fresh - no fillers. We carry an organic burger from literally down the street - it's the simple factor for us.”