The Burger Joint, Darlinghurst

Rituals are a funny thing, especially when they involved someone’s favourite sports team.

When The Boy and I first met I was living in Darlinghurst, just a hop, skip and a jump away from the Sydney Football Stadium (SFS) where The Boy’s beloved West Tigers have one (of their three) home grounds. He’d park is car at my place (after circling the block for 20 minutes looking for a spot), we’d grab dinner at The Burger Joint and then walk to the stadium. We’d kid ourselves that the short walk to the stadium counted as enough exercise to totally burn off the calories from our burger-fest.

Even though we’ve moved 50 minutes away from the SFS our ritual remains the same. I was kind of hoping we’d start trying different restaurants in the area, but when I suggested this I was promptly shot down in flames. You don’t mess with the Tigers, NRL and rituals (yes insert NRL induced yawn...here).

Not wanting to ruin the Tigers chances of winning their game I order exactly the same thing I order every time we eat here - Chicken Caesar Wrap ($9.50).

If I ordered something else and the Tigers lost I'd probably be made to sleep in the garage.  Truth be told though, I really love this wrap so it is certainly no skin off my nose to order it every time. Big rashers of bacon are wrapped snugly against slices of boiled egg, lettuce and grilled chicken breast.  The whole lot is doused with a generous sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and creamy Caesar dressing. If there's one thing better than a Caesar Salad it's this wrap.

The Boy sticks with tradition and orders an Aussie Burger ($10.00).  This is one large burger, piled high with a juicy beef patty, saute onion, bacon, fried egg, beetroot, cheese, lettuce AND tomato...phew!  Every time I see this burger I wonder how he's going to fit it in his mouth, but it proves to be no challenge really.  I'm assured that this is one tasty burger.

And of course it would be sacrilegious to eat a burger, or a wrap, with out a side of chips. We order a small bowl of pipping hot, chunky chips ($2.80) with a side of complimentary Garlic Aioli (same thing we order every time folks - though those not going to the footy can have their choice of any number of sauces). A sprinkle of chicken salt on the chippies sees the eating part of our ritual complete. Thank god, as I'm STUFFED!

A short waddle across Darlinghurst has us in our seats at the SFS well before the game starts. Truth be told I enjoy the crowd watching at the footy more than the football.  Some of the people in the crowd are, well...."characters".

Neither of us were actually expecting the Tigers to win their game against South seeing as nearly half the team were out with injury...but suprisingly they romped it home.  It must have been that ritualistic sprinkle of chicken salt on the chips that assured the win!



The Burger Joint is at 393 Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst.  Phone 9380-2575.  They even offer free delivery local on these groovy electric bikes.