Taipei City – Caliburger – Eating in Taipei

Value for money: 7/10

Cleanliness: 8/10

Service: 10/10

Quality of food: 8/10

Overall: 8/10

Caliburger is situated around the backstreets of Eastern Areas busy 忠孝東路 ZhongXiao East Road. Just behind 捷運忠孝敦化站 ZhongXiao DunHua station, you can’t ask for a much more popular location in Taipei, really. Actually, 西門町 XiMenDing is possibly more popular so naturally Caliburger’s response? Next month they are opening a store in XiMenDing – win, win.

Caliburger is a relatively new fixture in Taipei, arriving from (surprise, surprise it’s in the name – California, USA). The owner, Taiwanese, opened Caliburger to provide Taipei with the relaxed burger joint feel that has become such the norm over in The States.

Caliburger also makes use of a Smart TV on one wall, providing a live stream from Instagram using: #caliburger

Upon walking into Caliburger, the lights are kept fairly well dimmed throughout the day, there is ample seating, there are a mixed selection of comfy sofa-style seats in booths, table seats with hard chairs and also window seats with raised up chairs.

However, the two things that impressed me the most were:

1. The cleanliness of the entire restaurant, including the dining area and the kitchen.

2. The menu only has 4 dishes on it. Caliburger is so clearly convinced by its own dishes that there is no need for over-elaborate pages upon pages of variations on the classic burger that is so popular, the world over.

Here’s what we ordered:

1. Cali Double $225 w/ Fresh Cut Fries + Cheese $80+$20

2. Chipotle BBQ Chicken Sandwich $165 w/ Fresh Cut Fries $80

3. Chocolate shake $80

4. Strawberry Shake $80

Looks good, right?

1. Cali Double $225 w/ Fresh Cut Fries + Cheese $80+$20

Two patties, lots of cheese, lots of onions, lettuce and some pickles in there, too. This burger is almost bursting out of the paper! The patties are hand-crafted from minced Australian beef and weigh in at 80g. Caliburger uses 80% lean beef and 20% fat in each of its patties. The burger was very tasty and the bun was pretty good, too. No complaints, at all!

Tomato sauce, Mustard and BBQ sauce: all essential when eating these fries!

The fries are quite special, though, I would say. Potatoes are brought in from ChiaYi 嘉義 especially into Caliburger. They are not fully peeled before they get put through this mean looking hand-pull:

//www.youtube.com/get_player

After the potato is put through the hand-pull, it is collected in a tray and dropped into 70degree warm water and kept like that until its further 10minute deep-fry.

Due to this process, it is unlike many frozen to deep-fry fry that you may be used to. These fries are a little hard and a little chewy on the outside, yet fluffy on the inside. They are cut very thinly, so maybe 4-5 of these constitute 1 of the fries that you normally eat. Also an impressive part is that there isn’t a lot of grease with these, so they feel quite ‘healthy’ (if that’s possible with fries).

The less-healthy option would be to add cheese to the fries. The nacho cheese comes with what tastes like a burger sauce, on top, with some fried onions. It was good, but I would just stick to the Fresh Cut Fries next time.

2. Chipotle BBQ Chicken Sandwich $165 w/ Fresh Cut Fries $80

This chicken burger had a little spice from the Chipotle sauce used on it, but it remained sweet due to the thick slices of raw onion. Ideally, you want a very tender, moist chicken breast which then contrasts with the crispy bacon and crunchy onion. However, here, the chicken was a little dry and didn’t go together with the bacon as well as it could, because of that.

If you’re talking about flavour, it definitely delivers on that and I would be happy to give it another shot and give the chicken breast the benefit of the doubt.

3. Chocolate shake $80

4. Strawberry Shake $80

I’m not usually a shake orderer with my burger, but it was the weekend, so why on Earth not?

The strawberry (left) shake uses a strawberry syrup/jam as the flavouring, and ice cream and fresh milk for the body. Only 3 ingredients go into the milkshake, which has to be a positive. The strawberry flavour is a little sour but with a sweet finish and the ice cream gives it that rich thickness you want in a milkshake.

The chocolate (right) shake was very similar to consistency to the strawberry shake and similarly uses only 3 ingredients: milk chocolate powder, ice cream and fresh milk.

The milk is brought in from a dairy farm in Southern Taiwan and has a good richness to it. I would strongly suggest ordering a shake with your burger!

But, it doesn’t stop there!

Condiments are what transforms a good burger, into a great burger. Jalapeno Chillies preserved in vinegar are absolutely the order of the day! Unfortunately, they’re imported, but I don’t really care as they taste great! They’re spicy, they’re a little sweet and they have a good vinegary taste, too. A triumph! (I just wish it was possible to be made in-house).

This is possibly the only thing Caliburger does throughout its restaurant to cater for Taiwanese people (in a good way, it stays true to American burgers), and that is to provide a phone charging service. Ask at the counter for a plug-in compatible with your device, and place your device on/near the little circular pad you see on the table, allowing your phone to be charged. Ideal!

Overall, I was very impressed with Caliburger, and shall certainly return in the future. The fries are enough to make me return, alone, but the Double Cali was a wondrous thing, too.

Best dish: 1. Cali Double w/ Fresh Cut Fries + Cheese

Dish I wouldn’t order again: I’d order all of them again, even giving the Chicken a 2nd chance.

Caliburger on Facebook

台北市大安區忠孝東路4段205巷7弄7號

Eating in Taipei

No. 7, Alley 7, Lane 205, ZhongXiao East Road, Section 4, DaAn District, Taipei City.

Eating in Taipei

Happy Eating!

Taipei City – Caliburger

Published by eatingintaipei

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Share this:

Like this:

Related

Published by eatingintaipei

Leave a Reply Cancel reply