Handsome Burger — Restaurant in Dublin

Very good burgers. Eponymous "Handsome" burger is a normal, thick beef patty with pickles, rocket & grilled onions with a house sauce on a potato bun. Patty was juicy & cooked through; potato bun tasted fresh, soft and had a delicious chewy texture; grilled onions & rocket were great background additions while the sauce was a tasty & appropriately layered. It wasn't messy, it is a neat enough handheld sandwich. I gobbled it within 2 or 3 minutes, probably good signs for the chef, bad signs for my stomach ulcers. I forgot to add the cheese for 50c extra, which would've pushed it from 10.5 to 11e for the burger. Decent value. I went for the accompanying rosemary chips for 4.50e. They were OK. The portion was fairly scabby. There is such a mark-up on chips that the small carded basket felt like supremely minimum value. I would not recommend on sheer cost alone. It is not of my taste to have the crispy end-bits of chips too, which are basket was 50% composed of. I prefer fluffy, thick chips (less oil, more bite). I was a guiltless pig after my burger & chips that I opted for the cheaper smash burger for dessert. At 8e it is decent value also. It was served with ketchup, mustard and I think chopped pickles. The patty gave lots of different flavours & textures. Delicious also but it didn't take the Handsome Burger off the top spot. I paid 7e for a 330ml beer can. I was expecting some pint or at least bigger than a can. I was shocked. Never again. I actually paid 7.15 for the beer because of the deposit charge. Perhaps my angst is misdirected but our group of three had a drink each, three cans, and three deposits of 15 cent we all had to pay. Felt quite ridiculous unless we were able to deposit the cans back at the counter to ask for our money back? Otherwise all sit-down customers are required to bring home their rubbish - or go on the hunt for a RVM for our 15c back. This left a bad taste. Next time I'll ask for some tap water. Interior is lovely and they have plenty of al fresco seating too. Casual setting but they obviously spent a bit to get their colour scheme & furniture spot-on. It was immediately obvious how the workflow was meant to go down, i.e. does the customer take a seat or walk straight up to the counter? It was explained to us while we were reading the menu. Perhaps the restaurant interior could be designed to make that more apparent on the flow to newbie customers. Staff were...

The thing with hype is, it creates expectations. Handsome Burger have been on a PR drive lately so I thought I'd pop in and check it out. First thing you notice is the rathar confusing signage and ordering arrangement. Host was very pleasant if a bit robotic. Decent selection of burgers and sides. Went for the Handsome Birher with extra bacon and fries. 10 minutes to the table, not bad and again, pleasently served. Fries were fresh, hot and crispy, fluffy in the middle in a way few fries are. Worth the visit alone. The star of the show on the other hand was below average and pretty disappointing (I blame the hype) The bun was one of the softest I've come across but it doesn't keep the contents inside. It became very messy to eat as the burger and sauce slid all over the place. Not at all helped by the burger breaking apart (pretty basic lack of egg yolk mixture for binding) I don't mind a tasty messy burger but this one lacks any flavour from either the "handsome" sauce, meat or bun. Bacon was nice. €18.50 for a burger and fries and no drink is on the rich side. Quite possible the chicken is where it's at. But don't let this "best burger in Ireland" title fool you. It's...

I like to visit somewhere a handful of times before I leave a review to make sure I don't just catch them on a particularly good or bad day. I've been to Handsome burger 3 separate times, including high lunch rush hour and less active times. Every time I visit it has been better than the last.

My order is very simple, Double smash burger with crispy onions and no mustard. This comes to €10 and although I have gotten the chips before and they were also fantastic, if you're just stopping by for a quick lunch there is more than enough food in just the burger.

This is certainly the best smash burger I've had in the city and potentially one of the best burgers.

The only 2 notes I would have that stop me from giving 5 stars are personal critiques that others may not find relevant, but they are as follows: There is no option for grilled onions on the menu to add to a burger. And the burger arrives with just a slight bit too much oil from cooking still on it. If the burgers were just let to sit on a wire dripping rack for a moment before serving this could be avoided.

For some people those above points won't be relevant, and in that case you can assume this review...