Stopped into the Burger Shoppe with friends last night looking for some fast food done right. I'd had one of their organic beef burgers in the past and it was fantastic, so I figured a full visit was in order.

Got the quality, got the flavour, but also (for better of for worse) got some serious grease on the side.

A hungry bunch, we order up a classic burger, cheeseburger, chick(en)burger, and baby burger with sides of both the fries and onion rings.

All the burgers were awesome (and yeah, I had a bite of every kind, so imagine my dreams last night). The baby, classic and cheeseburger are all fresh beef patties and get a sloppy double thumbs-up from everyone at the table

Compared to the organic beef, I can't taste the difference. If you've got the extra dollar go ahead and spring for the healthier beef, but either way, Burger Shoppe only serves fresh, never frozen, and you can taste the difference in both flavour and consistency compared to other burgers.

The "all-white-meat" chickburger is also really juicy and, as expected, a lighter tasting choice. Added a little salt n pepper to perk it up a bit, but that's just me.

The sides I didn't enjoy as much.

The Burger Shoppe advertises the use of only trans-fat free oil, and that's what you get -- and lots of it.

While the fresh cut fries are a nice cross between New York and shoestring style, they were just too oily. Either they should be thicker so they dont wind up soggy, or we need to be getting these out of the deep fryer a little quicker. Ask for extra napkins.

The onion rings are the same story. They looked great... huge , thickly-sliced onions, battered and fried to a dark crisp, but that crispiness was just an illusion. Pick it up and if it doesnt slip out of your hand first, it'll fall apart as you eat it.

If you can stomach the grease, dig in. If you can't, stick with a burger-only order. No regrets there.

--

For another look at the Burger Shoppe, see how it fared in our head-to-head battle with Riverside foe, Dangerous Dan's.