Need to summon an angry mob in a hurry? Talk smack about Andrew’s. This Albert Park joint has been churning out two-hands-required burgers for about 80 years. The onions are cooked. The bread bun is lightly toasted. The lettuce is a crunchy iceberg-cabbage mix, and the fried egg is often cooked through. It’s packing grilled beef mixed with cooked onion for moisture and sweetness, double cheese, bacon, and plenty of tomato sauce (go stick your ketchup).
The nostalgic among us will remember these kinds of burgers. They're reminiscent of the humble corner shop grilling the good old Aussie burger with ubiquitous add-ons of egg, beetroot and pineapple, popular during a time where we gave much less of stuff what the rest of the world thinks of us.
This home-grown burger style has become a niche and is all the more reason to seek out the guilty pleasure of a crusty white roll encasing a super-caramelised patty topped with canned pineapple and beetroot, tomato, shredded iceberg lettuce, chopped white onion and bottled tomato sauce. Set aside your pretension and support the guys who've been doing it since 1939. Fun fact: even Ed Sheeran took the time to pay these legends a visit!
The classic Andrew's burger order is The Lot, of course, but we really love the Hawaiian Five-O. It comes with pineapple, double cheese, fresh tomato, onions, beetroot, lettuce and tomato sauce. Word of warning: this is the kind of burger that warrants plenty of napkins (and clothes you don't mind getting sauce-stained).