As my first taste of Burger Wellington, I decided to check out The Greenman because I had errands in the area, and their offering sounded quite delicious:

Whiskey and Maple Lamb Burger
Local lamb patty with lettuce, tomato and pineapple salsa on a shawarma bun, served with fries
$20 | Available: Lunch and dinner

Sounds good, right? So I decided to go and eat it. And I mean eat it, none of this bullshit “oh I’ll only have half the bun and three fries maximum and I’d rather just have a bite of someone else’s” crap.

So there are some things you need to know about this burger:

  1. There is no taste of whiskey in it. There is the faintest hint of maple-flavoured syrup, which I suspect has just been brushed the patty, which brings us to point two:
  2. It is not a homemade patty. It was too thin, and the texture was suspect. There were fillers in that there lamb.
  3. There’s unadvertised bacon in the burger (which is good if you like it, not good if it offends you) and also unadvertised canned beetroot. Not cool.
  4. There is also unadvertised “cheese” in the burger. I’m using quotation marks, because it was a square of processed, unmelted ick.
  5. The shawarma bun has seen fresher days. I don’t think it has ever seen a shawarm though, but it has probably had recent residence in New World under the label “bap”.
  6. When it says “pineapple salsa”, read that as “some pieces of canned pineapple”. Don’t imagine there will be onions, chilis or coriander, all of which would have gone a long way to making this burger more exciting.

Other than that, the staff were friendly, the space was nice enough although the flags are pretty butt ugly, and although there are no magazines, you might be able to find a Dom Post to read if you’re dining alone. I was thinking this burger was a 3/5, but given that it was $20 and my list of complaints with it, I’d say it’s more a 2.5 / 5. It’d be fine if you were really hungry and drinking, but as a competition entry, it does not past muster.

The Greenman is also offering up a $25 lunch for Wellington on a Plate, but it’s just items pulled off its regular menu that sound uninspiring and badly balanced – bread & dips with a bready sandwich or pizza, anyone?