Lil' Empire Burger - Bridgeland — Restaurant in Calgary

The Best Burger in the City

Wow, what a delicious meal! There was a bit of a wait for my order, but the quality of the food made it obvious why. This was not a burger thrown together in five minutes. We have tried burgers from every major chain in the city as well as plenty of local mom-and-pop shops, and this was by far the best one.

Fries and Gravy The fries were fantastic: still hot and crispy even after sitting in a delivery bag for 10 to 15 minutes. They are made from skin-on russet potatoes, full of flavor, and perfectly seasoned. The gravy was delicious as well, though the portion size felt a little small for the price. I would suggest either lowering the cost or serving it in a container at least 50 percent larger, ideally double.

The Burger I ordered the Empire Burger (two patties) with cheese on a gluten free bun. As someone with Celiac Disease, I cannot overstate how rare it is to find a meal that gives true satiety without compromise. Many places either have no gluten free options or offer a lettuce wrap, which always turns into a sloppy mess. Other restaurants may provide a gluten free bun, but it usually has the wrong mouth feel. You can tell it is made with rice flour: it tastes like flavored air, throws off the balance of the burger, and I often end up ditching the bun halfway through. It feels like a waste of the upcharge.

Lil’ Empire Burgers gets it right. Their gluten free bun has the same soft feel as a regular bun, holds together beautifully, and even survived the steamy delivery bag. The restaurant also packed and labeled the gluten free items separately to avoid cross-contamination, which was a huge and much-appreciated detail. The pricing of the gluten free bun was also very fair, comparable to what I would pay in a grocery store.

As for the burger itself, it was flawless. A true double smash burger, well seasoned, with caramelized edges and cheese melted to perfection with just the right amount of crisp. The house sauce was excellent and tied everything together. The serving size was very generous, with a larger burger and fries than anything from McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Dairy Queen, or Burger King.

Value and Sustainability What impressed me even more was the value. The price was comparable to, or even lower than, the big fast-food chains, but the quality and serving size were far superior. They also ask how many condiments, napkins, and cutlery you would like, so nothing goes to waste, and all packaging is compostable and eco-friendly. No styrofoam here.

Final Thoughts I am a chef, and this was a better burger than I could have prepared at home. Lil’ Empire Burgers delivered not just a meal, but an experience. Quality ingredients, gluten free care, eco-friendly practices, generous servings, and absolute flavor. This will be the only place we order burgers from going forward, and the next time we are in the area we will definitely be popping...

Here’s a full breakdown of what you can expect:

Customer Service: (5/5) Kale is really energetic and friendly and makes you feel right at home , he is someone I would feel comfortable hanging out with but not to eat at the restaurant based on the other category reviews below👇 😅

Price : (1| 5) extremely overpriced for what you get , the Pattie’s extremely thin and tiny and are equivalent to the Patties at McDonald’s in size and portion but your paying $8 for a McDonald’s sized cheeseburger , so after paying close to $15 I left hungry whereas five guys would’ve filled me up for half the day at the same price.

Taste/quality: (3/5) trying really hard to get over the unjust pricing and poor portion , based on taste and taste ALONE , it’s slightly better than Clive burger.

Verdict: ( 2.5 / 5 ) : At first glance it left me wondering “Where’s the rest of the burger?” Buuuuuuuut (wait for it) 👇you can have a decent experience if your looking to dish out $25-30 for your meal based on their kids meal sized portions with five guys pricing, I’d say just drive to five guys if your able to , or if your 5 year old child is starving and whining then bring “THEM” here. (Stomach is currently growling while writing this review, thank god I brought a protein shake with me in my car 😁). Please reduce your prices to match your portions or increase your portions to match your prices , if these changes are implemented then it can be bumped up to a solid 3.5/4 out of 5 , but as of now I can honestly only give it a 2.5/5 based on Overall Experience

Honest Customer...

We were actually extremely disappointed. We came to Calgary and stampede saw a video on YouTube about this place decided to try I thought it was going to be really really good food. We ordered three empire cheeseburgers and one little empire cheeseburger and three chili cheese fries. Chili on the cheese fries and the fries themselves are really good but you basically ruin it by using processed nacho cheese why not go the extra mile and actually used a nice grated cheese just cheaps it out. Burgers were nothing special that whole order took about 25 minutes and there was only one person in front of us for a smashburger that then should have taken half the time really but when we went ahead and ate it we couldn't even taste any seasoning or how the meat tasted it just tasted burnt the onions on it were just completely black. I realized I should have taken pictures to add to my post but honestly if this is the best burgers in Calgary that's a pretty low bar. Very unimpressed, like I said chili cheese fries you could do so much more by actually using the right ingredients but it just felt cheap with the nacho cheese and very little at that. Burgers sauce was good but that was the only really thing I could say beside the bun maybe Patty was cooked to like a charcoal crisp almost on the outside and for how thin it was because of how long they cooked it it was so dried out honestly I would never go back to eat at any of their locations after having a meal here. Went in with very high expectations ended up being extremely...