So, AGES ago, when I still was in university (it really feels like a long time ago), there was a Food Tour Party to Auckland's Velvet Burger on Fort Street.
Velvet Burger is one of those places I've always heard about at uni, but never bothered to go to. When food places involve walking more than five minutes from university, you usually never care to go.
But of course, when your friend Richard says that they have cheap 2 for 1 burger deals every Tuesday, you MAKE the effort.
Even though this Food Tour Party was over a month ago, I remember that day pretty well. I had a miserable morning, having failed my second journalism shorthand test and almost having a breakdown in the university bathrooms. I wanted to skip my last class that day so I didn't have to sit with all the other journalism people who had already passed their shorthand tests. But I stuck it out and bolted down to Velvet Burger as soon as class finished.
Feeling disheartened about my horrible morning, I waited and met up with my Auckland Uni friends and Boyfriend outside Velvet Burger. All of us seemed to have equally bad/disappointing/sad mornings and weeks. When the people are sad, the people turn to food.
When I got to VB, it would have been just after 12pm when the 2 for 1 deal started. The line was reasonable, maybe about 6 people or so. But 15 minutes later, the line began to explode out the door.
In retrospect, it was probably a bad idea to go meet up for lunch at the busiest time. But we had to wait for all six of us to show up. Which again, was probably not the best idea because it meant you needed to find seats for six people. More on that later.
The menu at Velvet Burger is amazing. Drool worthy. [check it out here]
There was a lot of time required to decide what to get between the six of us. It meant we needed to figure out who was ordering with who, who was getting what, how much people were gonna pay for each half etc etc.
We got quite a variation of orders. Mine was this one:
HOMEGROWN HERO $10.9
All that is good about this country can be found in the Homegrown Hero - Lamb, Salad, and Kumara Chutney with Aioli and Velvet Relish.
While Boyfriend, who I split my order with, got this:
HOTTIE $9.9
This is our hot one! It has a Beef Pattie, Salad, Grilled Mango with Chilli Mayonnaise, Velvet Relish and as much chilli Sauce as your tastebuds can handle.
Oh man, drooling just thinking about it again.
Anyway, when we handed in our orders, it would have been close to 12:45pm. By the time we got them, it would have just been over half an hour later. (Feel free to correct me Velvet Burger Food Tour Party members).
Like I said, this lunch rush was CRAZY. And Velvet Burger isn't that big. We stood around for a good 15 minutes waiting and trying to find a table to sit at. We were hawking around, looking out for the moment a group left their tables. Trying to accomidate seats for six people is really a mission. In the end we sat across this one bar, attempting to save as many seats for our group as possible.
When our orders finally came in, these great big packages all wrapped up nice for us.
We were kinda pre warned about the size by our expert Velvet Burger eater Richard (who himself got the largest burger on the menu, the Goneburger - THREE different meats). I think in my own mind I had underestimated the size though. It looked like a lot, and very filling.
The ingredients were fresh, the burgers was nice and hot, and some people opted for cutlery to cut their burgers in half.
My burger was delicious and great. Kumara chutney is really interesting. It's kinda sweet but man does it go well with the lamb. The aioli and relish was just dripping everywhere too, and the burger patty was a reasonable size. Any bigger and it would have been pretty difficult to fit your whole mouth around it.
(Boyfriend did get pictures of me trying to eat my burger. They're really unflattering. Like really unflattering...)
Boyfriend's burger was great too. That mango chutney was tasty, however for something labelled "The Hottie", it wasn't as spicy as I had though.
The general consensus of the Food Tour Party had as asking why the heck had we not gone earlier to this delicious and cheap place?
We also said the next time when we did go, we should plan to order after 1pm. Because this place is popular, and for good reason.
Food Party review:
Money friendliness - when you go with a friend on Tuesdays, pretty reasonable and filling.
Purchase fun - difficult if you go between 12-1pm on Tuesdays. Good luck finding seats. Also, you need to know the 2 for 1 code in order to get the deal. So make sure someone knows it.
Deliciousness factor - WORTH the wait.
[read about the first Food Tour Party to Moustache Milk and Cookie Bar here]
