Gourmet Garage

At this Jozi hotspot they even have one priced five cents short of R700 - although before you choke on your buns in horror take into account that it is accompanied by a glass of Dom Pérignon and is strictly for high rollers.

At Gourmet Garage, the hamburger reigns supreme although it's hardly humble and thankfully not the kind of fare served up at the ubiquitous greasy spoon or dodgy fast food outlet.

This funky eatery with its '50s nostalgic service station retro feel comes to the marketplace courtesy of Saul Mervis of Rosebank's Grillhouse and Katzy's fame. The man has wanted to do burgers for a long time. It may just be a meal on a roll but it's quality ground steak between those home-made buns. Down-to-earth can be damn delicious.

And it's not only Gauteng that will be home to the designer burger. Pretoria and Cape Town may also get Gourmet Garages while Mervis is looking at international options too.

The Gourmet Garage folk have done some impressive research into the origin of the hamburger and claim that it is shrouded in controversy. The Tartars placed pieces of beef under their saddles while they rode. Whether it added flavour to the flesh is anyone's guess but it did pound the meat and tenderise it, sweaty flanks and all. No prizes for guessing that it's where the modern dish of Steak Tartare came from but it is also believed to be the primitive ancestor of the modern hamburger.

Apparently, 19th century German immigrants to the US brought a dish called Hamburg Style Beef, which had travelled to the seaport city of Hamburg, Germany from Russia. This dish, too, was a raw, chopped piece of beef. After that there have been a number of claimants, from the sandwich served up at the 1904 St Louis World's Fair to a restaurant in Connecticut in 1895 and dozens of other contenders, all from the land of Stars and Stripes.

Mass distribution of the fast food hamburger started in 1921 with White Castle who sold their creation for five cents. The Wimpy burger appeared in 1934 and McDonald's, who revolutionised fast food, in 1948 although they sold hot dogs first before switching to what made 'em rich and famous.

Although there are other food items on the Gourmet Garage menu one really should try one of their burgers. The choice is huge - there are loads of beef burgers including one served with lashings of peanut butter as well as patties made from chicken, lamb, ostrich and salmon as well as three types of vegetarian burgers.

For starters our party shared pepperdew poppers - pepperdews stuffed with cheese, battered and deep fried - and a rather average Roquefort salad.

It was the burgers that really did it for us. A basic 250g burger is just shy of R50 - and for those with a gargantuan appetite, the double is R67. You'll be stumped for choice of sauces - the peri-peri and Parmesan was a real treat with a perfectly flame grilled patty cooked medium rare, which complemented the bite of the peri-peri and richness of the cheese. The salmon burger made with Norwegian salmon was also excellent.

There's a good winelist as well as a range of imported beers and cocktails. The Zandvliet Shiraz is R120 and the Mulderbosch Chardonnay R155. Or you could just go for the Dom Pérignon and have a burger thrown in for free...

Average price of a three-course meal: R110.

By Janine Walker