Carl's Jnr - Memphis BBQ Thickburger Review

[JuDgE MenTaL]

Description: Memphis BBQ Burger

Pulled Pork with a Charbroiled Beef Patty, Crispy Onion Strings, Melting Cheese and BBQ sauce on a Seeded bun.




Location: Carl's Jnr (G.I. Auckland)

This review is based on 7 key factors that I chose specific to this burger using the Thickburger version for the purposes of review. The opinions are of course my own and therefore subjective.

BBQness 7/10 – Too much BBQ sauce/flavour, the pork is marinated in an almost identical sauce that sits on the burger bun so it overpowers the whole show for my money.
Onion Strings 8/10 – nice addition, not enough of them though IMO (nothing like the pic).
Pulled Pork – 8/10 – had they backed off the sauce elsewhere in the burger this really would have really stood out. Spare Rib-esque in flavour but a noticeable bacon quality about them without any risk having an embarrassing Bacon chin accident.
Burger (meat) – 9/10 – love the thickburger, it loses 1 mark because it seemed to be not as thick as last visit which was disappointing. This smacks of a change that has been introduced as a cash saver by the franchisee, so a possible re-visit Double burger maybe in order. A worrying discovery.
Messiness – 6/10 – held together almost too well and that’s usually a clear sign of being light on content. Extra Onion Strings (as mentioned above) and maybe salad with mayo would fix that.
Salad 6/10 – Onion double up (apparent in the BBQ relish), not that a ‘no salad’ burger is necessarily an unforgivably bad thing, it just scores low because salad always helps achieve higher messiness score. Schoolboy error really, a decent tomato relish would have calmed the almost extreme BBQness.
Bun 8/10 – Still the best buns in the game, much like Kate Beckinsale in that respect..

Recommended side – Crisscut Fries as they could be efficiently used to scrape out excess BBQ sauce from bun prior to consumption.

Overall 7.5/10 – A fine addition to the Carl’s Jnr menu that narrowly beats the Western Bacon BBQ (narrowly because the western does have proper Bacon) but it just doesn’t do enough to top the Guacamole Bacon for me.

Despite the fact this is just my opinion some people feel that too much BBQ sauce is kinda like access to too much porn or being given too much free beer. So let me back that up by saying that for me it’s about balance, “with much porn comes great responsibility” a wise man with one massive tattooed wrist once said.

With both the porn and beer scenarios provided you would still retain control of the quantity in which you chose to consume them, you wouldn’t drink 5 bottles of beer at once if you had a 100 crates sitting there nor would you have 8 twat mags open and 5 browsers open on porntube at once (oh except maybe birthdays). So to try and liken those with this scenario it would then be that the burger had no sauce and I had been supplied with a veritable vat of BBQ sauce to which I could choose to either slap it all on the burger with reckless abandon or go simply add with smaller amounts to reach my acceptable, optimum level. I was not given such an option and therefore I feel that the statement holds up.

To those that have had a chance to sample this limited time special feel free to vote in the poll.

[Retardobot]

Agreed. The Guacamole Bacon Thickburger is Carl's Jnr's go-to burger for me.

Had one of the Memphis burgers the other day with the Thuckburger pattie. I think I might enjoy it more with one of the smaller patties, but with two instead of one big one. It was still a great burger that I did not regret buying.

Chilli cheese fries should be classed as a narcotic.

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

I'll give your review a 9/10. It's informative, entertaining, and has sparked my interested in this burger.

[JuDgE MenTaL]

Cool cheers, I've got your back guys.


@Retardobot: Amen brother, yea I do like Chilli Cheese Fries, I know I shouldn't go there (high on the guilt factor) but I still do.... I felt in this case that they wouldn't make me impartial enough so went with crisscut. I think I will revisit it with the double burger, because it does feel the right thing to do. I shall update with my findings next week. The sauce isn't by any means unpleasant and I don't regret it. It's still a decent burger that would give anything that McD's et al would cough up a run for it's money.

[mycoolcar]

Sounds like a good way to put on a lot of weight.

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

Sounds like a good way to put on a lot of weight.

I'm sure Judge Metal it not running for New Zealand's next top model.

[mycoolcar]

I bet he wants to though.

[Retardobot]

The crisscut fries didn't really do it for me (when used in chilli cheese fries). They are like super-thick potato chips in size, so you end up having to spoon massive chunks of potato instead of the smaller, shoe-string style of fry.

[Lias]

Location: Carl's Jnr (Palmerston North)


Order:


Jalapeno Thickburger (Lias)
Famous Star with Cheese (Mrs Lias)
Vanilla Hand-Scooped Ice Cream Milk Shake (Mrs Lias)
Hokey Pokey Hand-Scooped Ice Cream Milk Shake (Lias)
Onion Rings (Shared)
Fried Zuccini (Shared)


Cant write a fullblown review like Judge because I wasnt planning to and didnt take notes when I was eating it.


First thought was "Wow the service here is slower than an arthritic tortoise. Longest wait I've ever had in any drive thru, ever. ~10 minutes from ordering to receiveing order (not to mention 10 minutes queing to get to the damn menu/orderbox).


Burgers were okay.. Superior to McDonalds/BK, on par with Wendys, but still far inferior to Burger Fuel.


Onion rings were a real let down, inferior even to BK, let alone Burger Fuel.


Zuccini was.. interesting.. tried it because it was unusual, tasted okay but probably wouldnt buy again.


Hand-Scooped Shakes were pretty damn good. Seriously if anything would pursuade us to go back again it would be these.


Pricewise wasn't exactly cheap, being $30.40 for 2 burgers, 2 shakes and 2 sides. Midway between Wendys/Burger Fuel on pricing I'd say.


Bit underwhelmed to be honest, heard lots of hype but felt that at best they were between BK-Wendys, and well below Burger Fuel.

[Retardobot]

Yeah, the Palmy Carl's is diabolical for wait times. I've waited 30 mins before until someone approached me and asked what I was waiting for, somehow my order had dropped of their system so had to re-order.

The place is always insanely busy right up until 11pm at night so I'm not sure if the staff can be blamed entirely. KFC still takes the award for shittiest service on the planet.

[Hmmmgood]

How the fuck does shit hole tornado bait palmy get a carls before the glorious north shore gets one,huh?

[Retardobot]

How the fuck does shit hole tornado bait palmy get a carls before the glorious north shore gets one,huh?

Its studentville. We already have the country's largest amount of eateries per capita. We've got 3 BK's, 5 McDonalds, Wendy's, Carl's, 2 KFC's, 2 Dominoes, Pizza Hutt and Nando's just to mention the big players.

[JuDgE MenTaL]

St Johns (G.I) and Takanini are not owned by Restaurant Brands, they are still owned by Michael Jones, not sure if that makes a difference but it might. Service is as good as it need be, never waiting long and the food spot on.

and this

How the fuck does shit hole tornado bait palmy get a carls before the glorious north shore gets one,huh?

[deadmeatwalking]

had one tonight ... epic as haha and some chilli cheese fries too damn fucking good !!

[BerG]

I'll give your review a 9/10. It's informative, entertaining, and has sparked my interested in this burger.

Personally I did not think the review went into enough detail.

[Spigalau]

St Johns (G.I) and Takanini are not owned by Restaurant Brands, they are still owned by Michael Jones, not sure if that makes a difference...

Correct - both entities (M.Jones & R.Brands) have expansion plans - MJ has secured some sites in Auckland that RB are not allowed to compete against.

[.osiRiS]

Are people on the shore going to town or further for their CJs?

[Hmmmgood]

I have yet to try and every time im on the dark side of the bridge i forget.