Brodburger — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

Starting life as a late-night food van, Brodburger - who made their first bricks'n'mortar store tucked away behind the Canberra Glassworks - is no doubt familiar to most Canberrans. While you enter through an attractive indoor-outdoor dining area full of large, wooden shared tables, you’ll find the service area tucked in a cramped little nook at the rear. The menu is displayed paste-art style on a wall, with beers and ciders arranged on a shelf behind the cashier.

Despite the queue, staff are wonderfully communicative. They tell us our burgers will take twenty minutes and check - before we pay - whether that’s okay. We tell them it’s fine but we’re starving, and they tell us: “What we can do is bring your chips and onion rings first." Gotta love a can-do attitude! We’re handed a table number and our craft beers and told to carve out a space for ourselves at one of the shared tables.

By the time we’ve loaded up with bulk napkins, and necked some of our beers, our sides arrive (within five minutes). Pact Beer Co.’s Mt. Tennent Pale Ale ($8) is a pretty, hoppy, citrussy quaffer, great for slamming down against fistfuls of skinny Chips ($3/small). The chips themselves are pretty unremarkable, though I like the Onion Rings ($4/small) made on thick cut loops of red onion encased inside fluffy, crisp batter. They stand up to our tinny of Capital Brewing Co.’s Trail Pale Ale ($8), which shows a bit more bitterness than the Mt Tennent.

With soft honest buns that deflate to envelop their contents, the burgers here are far from the most ‘grammable beasties I’ve seen. Brodburger's paste-up ads are definitely photographed on a very good burger day. Where Brodburger do excel however, is in eatability. They’re easy to handle, they’re tasty to eat, made by great flame-grilled beef patties, lots of tart pickles and in the case of my Single Cheese ($14), a decent hit of pungent blue cheese. Generous saucing (and good mustard) does make ‘em a little drippy, hence the not-so-aesthetic, old school paper wrapping.

The Capital ($15.50) tastes even better, though it might be the one buck beetroot add-on that (along with making it a proper Aussie burger) mingles wonderfully with Jalapenos ($1) and the same tangy, blue cheese. Both burgers were substantial in size, and we struggled to finish them. We left Brodburger happy, though if you’re looking for an Insta-worthy burger, my advice is...

This place is brilliant.

To everyone complaining about how long the orders take to make - it's because it's QUALITY and we're lucky enough they give us quantity too! Whilst you wait, why not sit back and relax and enjoy and have a good catch up with friends (rather than spending it on your phone complaining!)...have a few drinks, take a card game/board game - we do, love having an excuse to have some great quality time with family and friends! Order some big baskets of fries and/or onion rings to keep you going (they come out quicker). And, if you're in that much of a rush - maybe have some fore-thought and use either their web-based ordering system or the ap and order AHEAD of time!!! We're able to time it so that we're only there for a few minutes and our order is ready - it's seriously not that hard!

The burgers take a while to make (active 20 mins per burger), they put love and care into each one and they taste AMAZING! LOVE the variety on offer - especially the vegetarian and gluten free options! The only small grumble (hence 4 stars) would be the fact that the AMAZING looking fries are cooked in the same oil as the onion rings and therefore aren't gluten free... could this pretty please be changed? This celiac would LOVE some fries ;-)

Seriously people, you know what you're getting into.... the wait, the rustic 'group' tables - it's part of the charm. If you don't like it then please go somewhere else and leave the Brodburger goodness to us - keep it up guys, whenever we've been there (which is in the dozens) you have consistently and brilliantly...

How long does it take to make a burger and fries? Apparently 50 minutes if the amount of time that it took between ordering at the counter and receiving my burger is to go by. Atrocious wait times for dine in (I overheard a 40 minute wait for take away). I understand it’s a Friday night in the time of COVID but it doesn’t excuse the fact that it took just under an hour to put a piece of cooked meat stacked with salad between two pieces of bread, and deep fry some potatoes. Though I assume some take away orders were initially ordered before us, my partner and I watched numerous others come in to order and receive their food before us, suggesting that takeaway orders were being prioritised over dine in. When we finally did receive our food the fries were over cooked and lukewarm, and the burgers did not warrant the praise other customers have given them - they were standard at best. The quality of the food that we received suggests that we may as well have ordered to takeaway. Customer service was sub par with no initial warning of wait time (given the length this should not fall on the customer to ask), no follow up despite literally sitting in front of the counter, and no apology upon final delivery of food. I’m not normally one to complain but my entire experience was just appalling. Perhaps it would have been different during the afternoon or another week day but I am not willing to risk another lengthy wait time to be disappointed again. I would not recommend Brodburger as a burger...