Backstairs Burger — Restaurant in Edmonton

I'm a regular at this place so normally I wouldn't review it, but I was asked by someone. I felt I owed these folks a longwinded review. I will say that this place has the best smash burgers I've ever had and it's not even comparable.

For the review I'm going to give the Google categories a try instead of my own, starting with:

ATMOSPHERE: The interior of the place doesn't look the best or even very appealing to me but you can tell it's a relatively "newer" place, so it's not in the image that the owner's want yet. The area is small but not bad in the summer/spring since they have a few outdoor tables. The establishment would greatly benefit from expanding to the unit either north, south or both.

The floor does need to be redone. It has quite a few cracks and imperfections. One day last year I was sitting in the northwest corner of the shop and my chair leg fell into an open vent. I fell back and hit my head on the window. Luckily no one saw this and I just acted like it never happened 🤣. But this could happen to anyone so some maintenance wouldn't hurt.

Of course the main thing that keeps the atmosphere at such a high mark for me is the music. My genre; 90s, early 2000s and 2010s rap, hip hop and RnB. Crazy good music, the only restaurant that tries to step out of the boring music fad without resorting to a lounge or bar setting. I would eat in this place just for the music alone.

SERVICE: Everyone for the most part is friendly. All the folks working the kitchen have manners and are very polite and oddly enough, this has nothing to do with the grade I've given backstairs. No, the main issue with the service is their setup. Up until recently when I spoke to one of the staff, they've been using the "pay before you eat" form of dining. Paying before you receive the service you're tipping for is a good way for people not to tip.

Most places that do this usually don't get a tip, especially on someones first visit. People usually tip for the previous service we received, not the future service that we may or may not like. Now that being said, the tip option hasn't shown up on the system the last few times I went. Meaning now I can't tip at all to support the staff here. Quite disappointing that it's either the bad prepayment system or it's no tipping at all. These guys definitely deserve tips.

One main issue that i see is the absence of a staff member in the front usually. Yes i realize that they have down time and yes I understand that anyone might be required to cook in the back, but this creates an obvious opportunity. I never saw it happen here myself but I'm willing to bet my right leg that someone has walked in, grabbed a drink and left. I've watched people come in stand in the front for a few seconds then leave when I asked them if they needed something. I've told 2 people that the washroom isn't for the public because I was the only person around. Hell, theft is rampant in the Rexall across the parking lot, so there's no way a small restaurant with visible drinks haven't had some stolen. Not sure if it's an option now but maybe when the restaurant gets bigger then the establishment should have a person at the front full-time.

FOOD: Believe it or not, I don't have much to say here. I've tried nearly every item on the menu and I try the feature burger whenever I'm around for it. For reference, the feature burger changes every month and they usually have collaborations with an influencer of some sort. I personally couldn't care less about the influencer but the burgers are phenomenal. I haven't came across any misses at all. Some random items like duck wings are crazy good. The poutine, along with all the fries are excellent. I really can't say much more about the food. Go try it, it'll be worth it.

OVERALL: Prices are fair, most normal eaters would be okay with just the poutine or 1 burger. There's nice people and great food. If you like burgers come here. If you don't like smash burgers from other places, then come here and the food will change your mind. Vegans stay away, you...

Remember when you were young and your mother told you if you didn't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all. Well, I'm not a kid anymore and I need to say something. Not to slam the restaurant but to encourage the owner to heed my words. I so looked forward to checking this place out. The online reviews gave me a real sense that Backstairs would be worth my hard earned money. So after my wife and I spent several hours at the Bountiful Market, we decided to get something to eat. I always have a list of restaurants or eateries in my phone to check out. When I find out about unique places that peak my interest, I jot them down to eventually go and check them out. When I decided Backstairs Burger would be the place to go, it was a commitment to drive the extra distance to have a smash burger. There are many places to satisfy my craving for a burger, but after re-reading the reviews I told my wife to check out the menu. And because she is a vegetarian, I wanted to make sure there would be something for her as well. She told me there was a Portabella burger so we headed over. When we arrived we immediately realized it was a much smaller place than I expected. There was only 4 tables and only one table available for 2, so we lucked out. After a few minutes a young girl came from the kitchen and handed us a couple of menus. After a few minutes I went to the till and told her that it was our first time coming to Backstairs and asked her what she would suggest that I order for our our dinner. I ordered the OG burger, and my wife ordered the only option, the Portabella burger. It was suggested that we get the Crack Fries, as this was understood as their specialty item to be enjoyed with the burgers. When the burgers finally came to our table, I was stunned to see what an absolute mess this was going to be to eat. I honestly should have taken a picture, just to see what it looked like. Remember the movie Falling Down with Michael Douglas. Remember the scene when he compares the Whammy Burger picture to what he actually received. Now, I don't know if they just recently hired someone in the back to make my burger, but there was sauce everywhere. It was a mess. Since it was our first time coming here, you would think that they would have wanted our first experience to be a good one. I'm not expecting perfection...just serve me a burger that didn't look like it was created from 4 feet from their work table. Then my wife opens her package to reveal another mess. Now we've been to several restaurants who served Portabella burgers, and they usually grill or flame broil the whole mushroom cap, but this one was cut in pieces. Not a burger at all. Unfortunately our experience came up short. My biggest thing I could suggest to an owner of a restaurant...any restaurant. Consistency. You need to treat everything that leaves your kitchen to be 100% up to your standards. You need to know what leaves your kitchen 100% of the time. As a former restaurant owner myself, nothing left the kitchen until I saw it before the customer did. Maybe it was a bad day, I don't know, but unfortunately there are too many smash burger joints that want my business way more than you do. I hope your establishment does well going forward, but unfortunately we will...

Had a disappointing experience getting lunch with my family. We ordered three burgers, three fries and two milkshakes with a couple other drinks. While the food was good, the service was really bad.

We told the lady taking our order that it was “to go.” They brought our food out on a tray and went back into the kitchen saying our milkshakes would be a few minutes before we could say anything. Then someone else was given their order before ours. When that happened, I took my 3 year old to the car as they were getting restless while my husband waited.

It was another 10 minutes before we got our full order and a bag to take out. My husband made a point to mention the long wait and careless service of our food getting cold waiting for milkshakes, someone after us getting their full order before us, having to grab our own drinks and ask for a bag twice. There was no apology, no acknowledgment, just a bunch of excuses and that we should just be more patient.

After dropping $80 bucks for lunch for our family it was beyond off putting that there was no customer service to make the experience enjoyable. It would have been a simple, “you are right sir, we should have been more on it today with our service. Thanks for being patient with us and we hope to see you again!”

We usually don’t say anything, but it just sucked when we really enjoy the food but cannot tolerate the crappy service. This was our second time as a family getting lunch and this was Backstairs Burger’s second chance to get it right. We had been in June and our burgers were undercooked and we waited like 40 minutes. The worst part of it all, is they got our fries order wrong. We asked for plain fries for our toddler, but they were covered in their “crack” seasoning that they refused to eat, and also covered my fries with sauce that I did not want or ask for.

Wish I could recommend this place because the food is honestly fantastic. But the entitled and arrogant response when a customer says something after TWO bad service experiences just makes it impossible to do so. We will go spend our money with local businesses who value our patronage. Grow up and learn how to run your business like grown ups and not...