The Handburger

Located at the far end of the Raffles City basement, The Handburger looks like any other cafe/restaurant. Clever wordplay makes the name of this place easy to remember and the food served here is definitely memorable. Ironically, their burgers can hardly be eaten by hand due to the huge steak/chicken thigh filling -everything seems to fall apart. Knives and forks are provided for you to carve your burger to bite sized bits.They currently have a new burger on their menu: the Masala Chicken burger ($13.90), which includes a salad/drink/fries. I choose the house salad. The burger comes with (obviously) masala chicken, lettuce, tomato and a citrus sauce. All these are placed right smack in between two pieces of buttered burger buns. I never could quite figure out what was the bun flavour, it was green and seemed to have a funky taste that i didn't quite like. It was an unusual cross of sweet and savoury. Not my kind of thing.

The chicken was well marinated and the taste of the spices came through very nicely. However, the meat wasn't cooked evenly. Some parts were tender and juicy, filled with wonderful spices that were exotic and savoury. However, some areas were dry and tough...awful. The citrus sauce wasn't really fantastic either but I guess. The novelty of eating a masala chicken burger was definitely there. While it wasn't outstandingly executed, it was passable.

The salad had lettuce, half a hard boiled egg, cherry tomatoes, croutons and bits of bacon tossed together in a thick, creamy dressing. It was slightly too heavy for my liking and didn't quite prove to be the salad I had in mind. It wasn't refreshing but instead made me full faster (and hence, sick of the taste faster). Still, it wasn't bad. I'm just critical when it comes to salads

My companion had fries instead for his side -that proved to be quite a lovely choice. The fries were chunky cut, golden brown and potatoey. Dipped in the sweet onion sauce, it was deliciously sinful.

We're not huge fans of their burgers, but service is generally good and the food is decent too. Do note that their long elongated tables stretch across nearly half the restaurant, so if you're not comfortable with the concept of "sharing" your space with other diners, you may want to give this place a miss ....or come at non-peak hours. Expect to pay around $16 after GST. They do have some discounts with cards sometimes so be sure to ask what promotions are going on!

2013-05-15

SGD 16(Supper)

The Handburger

They serve fantastic burger in their restaurant.
We simply cannot compare fast-food restaurant burger and Handburger Burger.
The presentation of the Handburger Burger is like an art, well design and appetizing.
The meat of the burger is thick and juicy.
And if i am not wrong marinated with sauce and spices with makes it tastier.

This picture shows the Happy Lamburger serve with thick and creamy Mushroom Soup.

2012-07-27

Went over this outlet a couple of weeks back... I think that this Burger joint is one of the better burger joints in Singapore....

Well thats because i do not know that much stalls.... Anyway, i ordered the Bleu Cheese Burger...
I normally type bleu like that because well i used to write it for beef in this particular way...

Okay, so i basically asked for medium well though i know that much of the juice will actually be absorbed, i tried it out anyways to give a more cooked flavor to it...

Served with fries... it came about 10 minsutes thats because beef patties take around 7-8 mins to cook the patties...

It has been a while since my last visit to The Handburger. I'm glad that the standard of the food didn't differ much from what I remembered.

I had pulled pork burger -$12- with fries. The pulled pork was tender and flavoursome although it is a little salty but I think the saltiness is still acceptable when eaten together with the bun.
Thick cut fries are my all time favourite and nothing could go wrong with thick cut fries. Crispy and crunchy on the outside and soft inside. Coupled with tomato sauce, best combination ever.

2013-04-02

SGD 22(Dinner)

One of the restaurants that left a huge impression on me is this casual fast-food chain. Not only because of the food, but The Handburger (Somerset 313) was where I brought my first date for a simple dinner.

Their mains include the burger, a garden salad (with or without bacon) or soup of the day. The salad was refreshing and crisp, but the bacon strips were too hard and chewy for my liking. The cream of chicken with crispy crumbs (soup for that day) definitely makes a better choice.

Anyway, I ordered one of their classics, Handburger Original (S$13.80) - 150g of 100% NZ grass-fed prime beef on a bed of crispy lettuce, cheddar cheese, topped up with homemade BBQ sauce and sweet onion jam. The beef patty was exploding with juices, and I want to rave about their toasted caramelised onion bun. It is that good. Crispier than the usual boring buns, it also brings along the frangrance of onions.One of my friends ordered the Blue Cheese Beef Burger (S$17.80) - the same juicy patty, topped with roasted pear, blue cheese, homemade BBQ sauce and sweet onion jam. I would recommend the Handburger Original over this though.We also had their signature creation, The Works (S$17.80) - same patty, topped with battered onion rings, crispy bacon strips, sunny side-up, sauteed basil pesto mushroom, sweet onion jam, melted cheddar cheese, homemade BBQ and aioli sauce. A little of everything, this ingenious burger is the perfect choice if you are still deciding what to eat after an hour.To complete your meal, add in their Nutella Milkshake with Marshmellow (S$4.50), a chocolatey, thick drink with soft marshmellows to go with. Just to add on, they have a loyalty program (THB Fanatics) designed to reward their diners with points, which can be redeemed to offset future bills, and other special promotions too.

Definitely one of the dining places I will frequent occasionally, for old times sake and the affordable, yet quality burgers as well.

SGD 20(Dinner)

I've nearly tried all the burger choices offered here, and this time round, I'm giving the snacks a go. The Buffalo wings ($9.80) comes in a very big portion, definitely need to share with someone. The chicken pieces are not too greasy. They are very well-marinated and of good flavour. However, they are super duper spicy for me, and I always consider myself as alright-chilli-person.Chunky Mushroom ($6.50) is my all time favourite. It's so rich and creamy, with lots of mushroom chunks! Such a pleasant comfort food. The soup also comes with a tiny toasted bun, nice to eat it plain (it has buttery taste), or dip it in the soup.

2013-01-04

I had handburger at somerset, but since it's closed down, I am writing the review here so that people can still read about my review about handburger!

I was quite surprised about their food quality, cause they are very delicately prepared. I came also because of the groupon voucher I bought, so the price was alright. Then again, the price is slightly pricey if you pay it's original price. For the fishnchips, the fish are quite fresh and the portion is big as well! I love their fries because they taste like freshly sliced potato. For my burger, it's even more interesting! Though I can't really remember the name, but as you can see from the photo, it's topped with mandarin orange! The meat is pretty juicy as well.

Overall, I like this place!
Good for gatherings!

It's a pity they no longer operates here, but there's another outlet at rafflescity, which is one mrt stop away!

Visit my blog for more reviews!
http://chiamhuiy.blogspot.sg

12/12/12 is a memorable date. I and my colleagues decided to have our advanced Christmas Party on this day. Upon reaching ‘The HandBurger’ at Raffles City, we were greeted by a polite waiter who guided us to a table seat. We sat at the central of the shop. Actually I prefer the corner’s seats; I don’t like the feeling that peoples watching at us in the open area. Yet, we still enjoyed the laughter ourselves without thinking about others around us. Well, let’s start with the Menu. The HandBurger provides a huge range of choices, both fried and grilled one for you to choose. There are eight main categories, including Poultry Burgers, Beef Burgers, Lamb/Pork Burgers, Seafood/Vegetarian Burgers, Sides & Buns, Soups & Salads, Everything else (Kid’s meal), and Drinks. Then we picked Chunky Fries ($6.80) and Onion rings ($6.80) as our side dishes. I wouldn’t say it was fantastic, but indeed it was crunchy and enough to satisfy us. Of course I ordered burger; Battered Dory ($15.80) which has crispy fried dory fish inside a toasted honey wholewheat multigrain bun crispy fried dory fish with the Spicy Tartar Sauce on the top and lettuce, tomato at the bottom. I used my hand to eat, since it called Handburger. The dory fish was not too salty and the flesh was soft. It was best eaten if you mix up with spicy tartar sauce. While the guy sat beside me, Paul ordered Happy Lamburger ($17.80) which is a toasted rustic bun with grilled lamb and sunny side-up egg. I bitted once, it was firm but tender and full of lamb aroma. For lamb lovers, I am sure you will like it very much. I have no chance to try out this! The HandBurger Original ($13.80) was ordered by Carren, but she sat too far from me. It is the signature main course which is toasted caramelized onion bun with grilled beef mixed up with sweet onion jam and handmade BBQ sauce. Too bad, I will come again for this beef burger and also other signature burgers.For drink, I ordered Strawberry MilkShake ($4.50). Look at the pinky juice with the strawberry on top, it was so attractive. A bit sour and sweet afterwards filled up my mouth when I was drinking it. Great dessert as it was flavourful surprisingly.Overall, we are satisfied with our foods and enjoy dining here although it was quite crowded as 7.00pm was a peak dinner hour. Besides, we enjoyed the CitiBank Credit Card promotion, 1-for-1 drinks. We spent almost $250.00 for 10 persons. Portion wise, don’t worry, it will be enough for a normal meal.

2012-12-12

SGD 25(Dinner)

At Handburger, their burgers are served with a choice of salad, soup or fries. In this visit, I had their Stuffed Portabello Mushroom burger together with fries ($14.80). The patty in this burger is essentially oven baked portabello mushroom stuffed with a mix of spinach, walnuts, cheese and beancurd, topped with handmade tomato herb sauce. I am personally a big fan of fresh portabello mushroom, but I was a little disappointed as I felt the mushroom taste was overwhelmed by the taste of the other additional condiments that did not make the burger taste as good as it could be. The stuffings were probably overdone and if you do not really like the flavour, the tomato sauce actually does a good job in masking the flavour. The bread was not bad though, I liked how fluffy it was on the inside and how it was slightly crisp on the outside. The fries were thick cut fries, freshly fried and pipping hot- a great complement to this dish. Service wise, the young staff were quick on their feet and really polite and quick to our requests for more sauce.

This outlet is very conveniently located if you take public transport. It's located on the same level as the MRT, so you don't even have to go up or down any escalators. Very ideal for those who are impatient and don't want to jostle with the Somerset crowds. I did a takeaway that day, was in and out within 30 minutes.

I went during tea-time, where they were having a promotion for their sliders. What are sliders? Well, sliders are their mini hamburgers. At $3.30 for one, I bought two to try, The Handburger Original Slider and Pulled Pork slider. The burgers are quite substantial (for mini hamburgers) and the ingredients were generously laid out. The sliders were moist and juicy. I also like the good mix of sauces used.

I like how they packed it very nicely in a box. They even had small containers for their sauces, chilli, tomato sauce, mayonnaise, which they all packed in a very nice transparent, plastic drawstring carrier. Probably not so good for all the hungry commuters who were in the same carriage as me!

I also thought I would write about the service of their staff. Although there were not many customers, I thought the staff were still attentive to the needs of the customers. While I was looking at the menu, a waiter immediately came up to me, and answered all of my questions patiently. I asked quite a lot of questions as I hadn’t made up my mind yet and he was very thorough with the answers he gave. Not once did he display any impatience or the ‘are-you-done’ look, and he managed to maintain a smile throughout the conversation. I was very impressed with this waiter who had a lot of product knowledge and displayed a very high standard of service. The rest were pleasant enough, but it was this guy who exceeded my expectations for a burger place.

Had dinner here with a girlfriend of mine. I was kinda iffy coming here for dinner because I'd heard mixed reviews about the burgers at this place but I told myself "If you don't try you'll never know".I had the Lamburger which came with a choice of side dish. I picked mushroom soup. Honestly, sorry to say but I've had better elsewhere *cough Macdonalds cough*. It was just SO average. Same goes for the mushroom soup. For dessert, we ordered the Warm Chocolate Pot. This. Was. A. Real. Disaster. It looked good but the taste of the chocolate was so so... flat. And, it tasted like cheap chocolate!

I wouldn't recommend The Handburger. There are better places to indulge in burgers out there, like &Made and even FatBoys.

2012-10-31

SGD 22(Dinner)

Who says one has to order burger when one is at Handburger? The caesar salad from Handburger tastes good as well. The ingredients are really fresh. I like that fact that the salad sauce is served separately from the salad and hence, the vegetable will not be soggy when served. However, I find that the serving is quite small for the price of $9.80. Hence, I feel that it is relatively expensive as compared to the salad from other salad outlets. It will be better if a few pieces of meat are added to the salad.

2012-10-27

Headed down with the boyfriend after school to have lunch at Raffles City! Handburger is located in the basement of Raffles City and when we got there, we got seats really quick.

I ordered the mini hand burger because the normal size one is just too big for me to finish. I find this a really good addition to the menu, since small eaters (like me) can order the smaller size burger and not worry about finishing it.

My boyfriend ordered the portobello hand burger which was really juicy and tasty. This was really surprising since it's a vegetarian burger and I've never tasted one this good! My favourite has to be the calamari rings because it was huge and the batter around it wasn't hard and thick, so it was really easy to eat quite a few without getting sick.Likes
Ice Lemon Tea.
Calamari rings! They were huge and juicy.
The handburger card which lets you accumulates points in exchange for money off the subsequent meals.

Dislikes
Nothing.

Spending: Approximately $45

2012-10-08

nice salad here. surprisingly generous in size and very fresh and tasty! the burgers here were also surprisingly good! we tried the food here when they first opened and it was pretty bad so this time it was a surprise that it's so good. the parmesan cheese on the salad was fresh too. disappointing that the green tea was really hot water with chinese tea bags in the cup. otherwise, the food was really really good. service was fast and accurate and efficient. about $18 for burgers, $15 for salads

The burgers are surprisingly good. Was expecting worse as previously we tried them when they first opened and it wasn't good. The buns seemed to be baked fresh in store as you can see the chef rolling the dough and putting them in an oven. The meat is done just right and not heavy on fillers. The overall make up is great. Service is efficient as well. The iced water tasted very chlorinated. The green tea was Chinese green tea bags in hot water.