BOSPHOROUS

BOSPHOROUS

Hiya guys!

Back with some burger news! This week we went to Bosphorous; a beautiful Turkish restaurant in Labone (opposite Cupcake Boutique). I love the decor here and it has an all round relaxing atmosphere. 

My dad actually suggested this place, and I thought back to the time my best friend Mina (yes, my best friend and I have the same name) and I secretly devoured the only burger in a large takeaway her dad had brought home...I was sold! Once David heard the story, he was sold too!

So we head to Bosphorous, and Mina comes too! WOOP! (Let's just call her Bels, shall we? That's what I call her...and you know...confusion.) I mean, some people say Mina 1 and Mina 2, but she gets really salty about that. (shhh)

Back to Bosphorous. 

The tree covered the "B" (Sound it out. you'll be fine)

So pretty!

We got there at 9.20, sat down and ordered drinks. Our waiter annoyed David a little though, because there was a squashed french fry on his seat (obviously from whoever was there before us) and he told the waiter, who proceeded to FLIP THE CUSHION OVER and COVER UP the fry! Right in our faces you know! Ugh David hit him with this "are you serious" look! It was GOLD! Needless to say, the fry was taken away.

 We looked at the menu...not much to choose from burger wise because they had TWO options! The Hamburger and The Cheeseburger.

Choosing would have taken us less than 5 mins if this waiter wasn't SUPER EAGER to tell us the difference between them. -__-

(Apparently, the difference is cheese.)

I ended up getting the hamburger and both Bels and David got cheeseburgers. They all came with fries. We were also quite pleased with the prices! 

We settled in with our drinks and made some videos!

SIDE BAR: Guys, you need to thank Bels for making these vids, because trust me, if it was just David and I, y'all would be looking at pictures for the rest of this blog's history. I'm telling you.

A quick YouTube search later, and there you have it! Videos! I love the Internet! They are short because they are off her Snap Chat. But still! Cool right? (Please don't judge my lack of knowledge with these things. LOOOL!)

Anyway, 15 minutes later, our food came out! That's pretty impressive for Ghana. Really. We were shocked!

PICTURES!

(and voice notes)

Looked good to me! And they have BURGER SAUCE guys! HEAVEN! I couldn't help stealing a fry, and let me tell you, I gave those fries a STRAIGHT UP 5. They were perfect! perfectly fried, salted, not soggy at ALL, perfect crunch, you could taste the potatoes.... *melts*

I can confidently say the rating on the fries was unanimous. JUST PERFECT!

Burger Time!

CHEESEBURGER

David : "So far, so good. Delicious! No complaints yet.

Bels : " I agree. I'm REALLY enjoying the beef in this! I love it! It tastes like they just killed the damn thing!

Mina : What about your bun?

Bels : Ummm, it's lightly toasted....I'm not mad at it. Could have been liiitle bit more toasted I think, but you know, it doesn't take away from the flavour of the meat, so I ain't mad.

Mina : Your BUNZZ, David?

David : Perfectly toasted!

Bels: "Wait, can I just say...I cant taste the cheese at all

Mina : Ok, let me taste what's left of David's burger! (he ate three quarters of the thing and forgot I had to taste too!) Ok, so you don't really taste much cheese, but that being said, there IS a difference between my hamburger and this cheeseburger. You just don't know the difference is cheese.

(Guess the waiter was wrong)

This burger was WAY juicer than my hamburger and the taste was pretty amazing. It was just the correct kind of messy...decent size...I WAS FEELING IT!"

HAMBURGER

Mina : " Ok, so I love my patty! I love how juicy it is. you can actually see the juice, but this meat is done. Love it! The only thing that I have to say is that there is no sauce in it.

Bels : Yeah, its very dry.

Mina : It's not that its dry, because the juice from the patty makes up for it a little bit, but, yo, a burger needs sauce.

David : But there's burger sauce.

Mina : Yeah, but I shouldn't have to put it in myself. There should be standard sauces in there, right?

David : Actually, I would prefer to keep he sauces out and let me put them in myself.

Bels : I think for the price, you need to do it yourself.

David : Remember the other place was too tangy for you?

Mina : But that's what I'm sayiiing! You should know as a chef what sauces are just right and what will elevate your burger! Anyway, like I said, it doesn't take away from it much as the patty makes up for it.

These two had about one and a half bites each of my hamburger. They were too hung up on their EPIC cheeseburgers. *eyeroll*

Not bad for 3 burgers, 4 ginger ales AND shisha huh?

VERDICT

Cheeseburger

DAVID

"My burger was really really good. No complaints except what Bels said; you couldn't really taste the cheese...there wasn't much cheese. besides that, it was good. Juicy, held together, taste wise wes REALLY good, bang for the buck, they got it!"

Mina : The rating please.

David : You want me to rate it now?

Bels : Yah, the burger is over.

David : Haha! Yeah, aight, I give it, one, two, three, FOUR! I give it FOUR BURGERS!"

BELS

" I really enjoyed my meal! The chips were great, the burger sauce was EPIC! I swallowed it ALL!

Mina : Yeah and swallowed some of mine too.

Bels : ANYWAY I would definitely give my burger a 4. Only because the cheese was Laughing Cow cheese. You know those slices of cheese? They used Laughing Cow. Let me tell you. The patty was moist and awesome."

MINA

" I'll give this a 4 as well. Because if it wasn't for this cheese issue, it would be a 5 from me. Everything was on point. Bun, fresh veggies, juicy patty, DETTYNESS, fries, presentation, preparation time; BOOM! DEFFO a 4! Highest we've had so far!

HAMBURGER

MINA

" You know, if I had just had MY burger on its own, I would have given it a 3. Towards the end, I added some burger sauce, and then the 3 became a 4. Then I tasted the cheeseburger, and my hamburger went down to a 3 again. the 4 wasn't justified any more. My final answer is a 3.'

BELS

"I think your'e right on the 3. The patty was excellent, buns were good, but it was a bit dry. The only moisture was from the patty. which is a NO BUENO!

DAVID

"YO, your burger didn't stand a chance because I had already tasted mine, so I gave yours right back after a bite or two. It just wasn't there like that for me; compared to my burger at least. So yeahhhh...lets go with a 3. I mean it wasn't a bad burger!

Guys, on the real, this cheeseburger is the best we have tasted so far. David says its one of the best he's had since he moved to Ghana! I mean...I was talking about the burger the next day! REALLY, REALLY GOOD!

What do you think? Is this a case of less is more? Less options means you can concentrate on perfecting what's on the menu?

Have you had a burger at Bosphorous? What did you think?

Let us know!

Till we eat again!

David & Mina (& Mina)

LABADI BEACH HOTEL

LABADI BEACH HOTEL

Hey guys! Ugh I know, this is soooo late! Sorry about that! The past week has been a LOT! Plus Dave was sick, so we couldn't eat out! SORRRRYYYYY!

Let's dive in, shall we? Last week, we went to Labadi Beach Hotel. We've been getting a lot of people saying to go there, and that was where we had our first date, so we were down.

Labadi Beach is my favourite hotel here in Accra. As a designer, I can appreciate the thought process behind the design of the space. There are so many different areas you can relax in. Our favourite is the new bar over the lake (also first date location.)

This is the main restaurant. We chose to sit outside at the new bar. Pictures below:

Love it!

We sat down at 10.06pm. Our waiter, Moses, was really fun! He recommended burgers, beers and also suggested a little photo shoot. *covers face* We didn't understand some of the angles though...but don't question a photographer right?

Then we took a picture of him!

MOSES!

We ordered drinks and checked the menu out.

We thought the prices were okay, being that it's a 4 or 5 star hotel.

David got the Cheese Burger and I got the Fish Burger with Tartar Sauce...just for something different you know...not everyone eats meat.

We had to wait a WHILE for these burgers thoughhh! Dave thought they were trying to build up our appetite but yo, I was just hungry. We waited a whole 45 minutes guys! No lie! David wondered if we would have got the burgers faster if we had opted to sit indoors in the actual restaurant. Oh well. They came eventually...

Chop Time! (and of course, voice notes)

Ratings are out of 5

DAVID

Cheese Burger

" I think the chips are delicious! Very nice. Overall presentation? Nice. I like it. Looks tempting. I just tasted the chips; very, very nice! Only negative is that they are a liiiitle too salty. Less salt, and they would have been perfect! About to dig in!The BUNZZ look a little burnt, but I'm cool with that..

Mina : Yeah but you like burnt stuff. Not everyone might like that.

David : True. Taste wise, I feel like its good, but there is something missing as far as a hamburger should taste like. Personally, I like it, but something in the meat is missing. I mean, its not bad. Not at all, but it did fall apart after 3 bites. Overall, ! give it a 2. (David went up and down on this rating)

Fish Burger

I can see fish lovers liking this a lot. Personally, I'm not big on fish, this was recommended by someone who is not a meat eater. I'm getting a really fishy taste. maybe its because I'm not a big fish fan, so I'm sensitive to it?

Mina : Really? but I make fish for you a lot.

David : Yeah, but I guess your fish is just banging. That's why I don't have a problem with it.

Mina. Good save, sir. Good save. Maybe its because its not breaded? But that could be the fast food part of us talking.

David : Yeah. I mean, like I said, its not a bad burger. I will give it a 3 because it held together, nothing fell apart. It was seasoned well. Had I been a real fish lover, I'm sure I would have rated it higher because there was nothing wrong with it. It was good."

MINA

Cheese Burger

"David's burger maaaaannn.... I give it a 1. Straight up 1. I'll tell you why. Maybe David is extremely hungry and rushed to burger judgement after 3 bites (hence the back and forth on his rating), but I'm not feeling this burger. 

First of all, its REALLY messy. It's actually two little patties as opposed to one or two big ones, so it is falling APART! Its either really messy or David messed it up and gave it to me. I'm going with messy. Taste wise, I don't see what all his fuss is about. All I get is TANG. I'm not sure why though. It just doesn't have that BEEF taste! Even the patty alone is not tasting burger-y enough for me you know? Maybe its just a fancily spiced cheeseburger? I don't know what's going on maaaan. I'm just getting all this tang! I feel like I just ate some almost sour pineapples! And now I'm getting butter. My last 2 bites taste like butter. Ugh this is SO WEIRD! Not enjoying this at all. And now I'm using a fork to finish this off. 

Look, burgers should be DIRTY. This was just messy. Its almost like it needs some Maggi cubes up in there you know? (Those who know, know.) Just to bring that tanginess downnn!

So yeah...a 1.

Fish Burger

Ok so I'm not really getting a fish taste. I'm getting tartar sauce though. The burger bun is decent. Not too hard, not too soft, not soggy either. I don't know. Maybe because its not beef, I'm a bit meh? It's not that I don't like fish, I actually do, but this doesn't do much for me. I'm not overwhelmed, but neither am I underwhelmed...this has been a weird tasting for me.

I give this a 2

Shout out to Moses though, who realised we were done the second we took the last bite and quickly cleared our table. We left him a nice tip.

I think 20 cedis for one small Guinness is RIDICULOUS! Hotel or not. Also, no judgement on the ORIJIN. I'm a local girl at heart! LOL!

VERDICT

DAVID

Cheese Burger

Fish Burger

MINA

Cheese Burger

Fish Burger

What do you guys think? Did we pick the wrong burgers? Have you had success at Labadi Beach? Let us know!

Side Bar : Their buffets are amazing though. See for yourself next time you are there!

Till we eat again,

David & Mina

HONEYSUCKLE - OSU

Hiya guys!

Back at it! Oh, we're fine, thanks! Not much to complain about; our other job is eating burgers so everything is NICE!

This week we tried Honeysuckle in Osu. It's just opposite that Fire Service road, same road as Papa's Pizza.

Now I cant speak for Dave, but I was excited! Honeysuckle used to be my JOINT! I mean there are many pictures of my friends and I with their signature striped walls featured etc....Let's not reminisce too much, yah?

Okay so we got there at 9 sharp and found some seats. For those that don't know, Honeysuckle is basically a British pub. Well, it has that pub feel, which is what they were going for, and it works.

There's a pool table too, but it was on the other side.

Yah, so we sat down and our waitress brought us menus, took our drinks order and brought us our drinks.....and then DISAPPEARED! 

Ummmm...

There was nothing left to do but eavesdrop...the table next to us was not happy. Something about not being able to pay by card yet again and the waitress's attitude but that's none of our business. *sips tea*

We looked at the menu and...

What you see is true shock (not posed at all) and that's David's "HUH?" face.

First of all, these are regular burgers. There was nothing on there that said gourmet, nothing with extra special beef...so we didn't get why average prices of a single patty was 55 and a double 65 cedis. Ugh. 

At this point we were getting frustrated and I was 2 seconds away from calling Gifty, my trusty Honeysuckle waitress from her section to serve us. (Shout out to Rockson; another EXCELLENT ride or die waiter there!)

Our waitress finally surfaces, but to clean up the table next to us! We call her over. She didn't think we wanted to eat, (but gave us menus - huh?)

I had the "Like to get to know you well done" burger with onion rings because it was the closest thing to a classic burger and Dave had the "Return of the (Big) mack" with fries. Single patties for each.

After a 25 minute wait (no bueno), our burgers arrived. David's burger....well there wasn't anything "big" about it really. Single patty or not, he felt it should have been big because that's what it's called. I agree. My burger looked nice though.

Ok no touching. PICTURES!

(The manager comes over to ask if all is well! He might be on to us.)

mmmm...cheeeese!

TIME TO EAT! (and record voice notes)

DAVID

RETURN OF THE (BIG)MACK

"Ok, so for the price of this burger, I want to take one bite and open my eyes wide like damn, this is banging! It's just a burger. Kind of bland for me. The BUNZZ are flat and only a little toasted. 

Mina : Yeah its basically yeast and sesame seeds and air.

David : It's just a regular burger. Should have been amazing for how much we're paying for it. Fries, I'm not impressed with. Not salty enough. They are soggy; not crispy enough. 

Bang for the buck; not worth it.

I give it a 1. I'm a little disappointed. If you're gonna charge me 70 cedis for a burger, it better be good.

LIKE TO GET TO KNOW YOU WELL DONE

It messy. Yup. Your burger's really wack. It's flavourless. It's like there's nothing to it. I'm hungry and I'm not really killing this thing the way I should be. I take a bite, put it down and a minute later take another one. That says a lot, right? You know if I'm hungry, I'd kill it.

Mina : Yah. Umm but why so hungry? Did you eat your lasagna?

David: I did. But that was lunch. I'm a man, Mina. I get hungry quickly!

Mina : Noted.

Yeah a 1 for me. Would give it a half if I could.

MINA

LIKE TO GET TO KNOW YOU WELL DONE

*takes 3 bites* Ugh. WHERE IS THE FLAVOUR? I taste nothing! But how is this possible? There's bacon on here! At least the bacon should come through! I'm dipping into some ketchup because I need flavour from SOMEWHERE! The meat is cooked well. Maybe just not seasoned enough? The bun is okay. Lightly toasted, soft.

Onion Rings are just blah for me, but then again, I'm not an onion ring girl. I mean they aren't soggy or anything, but again, ketchup was needed to give me something more.

A 1 from me.

RETURN OF THE (BIG) MACK

I like this way better than mine. The cheese flavour really comes through for me and so do the pickles! There is such a difference between mine and David's. The bun though (I REFUSE to say BUNZZ) is really flat, which is weird, because it looked decently plump when it arrived...and its not like we have to squeeze the burger in our mouthes...it's lacking in size too. I like the flavour on the patty, however. I think I'm going to give this a 2!

VERDICT
(all burgers are rated out of 5)

LIKE TO GET TO KNOW YOU WELL DONE

RETURN OF THE (BIG) MAC

DAVID

MINA

Have you tried any burgers from Honeysuckle? What did you think? We want to know!

Till we eat again!

David & Mina

THE HUNT BEGINS!

THE  HUNT BEGINS!

ROCKEFELLAS

Hi there, Burger Hunters!

Thanks for showing so much interest in what we are doing! Honestly, one day after stuffing ourselves with burgers, we thought "Hey let's look for the best burgers in Accra. Oh, let's document it too!" 
And that was that. No fancy story.

I'm Mina. That's David. *waves*
Our mission is to taste the best burgers and not get FAT.

OK, down to business.

First stop was Rockefellas in Osu. Its down the Penta Hotel Road, in the same space as the old Tantra Nightclub (ahhh memories...)

Anyway. We got there sometime close to 9pm. We've both been there before, but not for a while so we were happy to see some additions (like the TV in the outside seating area.)

We sat down and our waitress handed us our menus and took our drinks order.

 What we've decided to do wherever we go is to order one Classic Cheese Burger and then one variation. Unless we're back at a place to try out more burgers on the menu and have already had their classic.

It states pretty clearly that these are Gourmet Burgers, so we felt the pricing was fair. I ordered the Classic Cheeseburger and David got the Crunch Burger. Because he loves mozzarella.

Our waitress brought our drinks and some nuts for us to munch on. I didn't have too many because I didn't want to spoil my appetite (all I ate that day was a piece of fish), also, I mean, who wants acne?  

Our burgers came after 20 minutes of waiting, which David thinks is fair. I agree. Didn't feel like we were waiting forever.

They each came with a big portion of fries (which we both couldn't finish) and a little coleslaw.

THOUGHTS
(These are from voice notes we recorded while eating said burgers)
(All burgers are rated out of 5)

DAVID

CRUNCH BURGER

"Soooo, structure wise, I give it a 3 because it pretty much holds up together. The BUNZZ are pretty good. Nice and lightly toasted on top. Inside is nice. It's not soggy, no one wants soggy BUNZZ. We like dry, crispy, tasty BUNZZ! The patty consistency is pretty decent. Its crunchy. Lives up to its name. The cheese is nice. What was this? The chicken burger? I'm getting mozzarella chicken burger.

Mina : NOOO! Its deep fried beef and the mozzarella's deep fried as well. *rolls eyes*

David : Oh ok. Yeah, its good. The fries are good. They're not soggy. They're crispy. I would give them a 3 as well."

CLASSIC BURGER

" Doesn't really live up to my expectations of a burger. I don't have a problem with the bun. The bun is nice. Just the taste and flavour of the burger is not for me. I'm not sure if its the sauce or the meat itself, but I don't get the burger taste that I want to have where I bite into a burger and I want another bite. (David had 3 or 4 bites), so I will give this a 1."


MINA

CLASSIC BURGER

" It's a bit tangier than I, as a burger eater in Ghana is used to. Because it has mustard and pickles, which you don't really get a lot here. My patty is also a bit more rare than I like it to be. I feel like if it's being labelled a gourmet burger, they need to ask these things. I guess it's standard to make patties medium rare for gourmet burgers (?) but I like my meat well done! To sum up, its not DETTY enough for me.

If my burger was well done, I would give it a 2 but I have to go with a 1. 

Fries wise, I thought they were pretty standard, so will go with a 2. I almost feel like some of them are a bit too crispy. You know when something is too crispy, it tastes a little bit like oil sometimes? Not all of them are like this though.

CRUNCH BURGER

"I Love it! Its deep fried, way more done than mine and the fried mozzarella is yummm! The bun on this is perfectly toasted and all the ingredients feel fresh!

David : Yeah, my burger is better than yours.

Mina : This is true. The chilli mayo sauce in this is really good. I normally dip in my own burger sauce mix (ketchup & mayo) when a burger gets too dry but I don't feel like i need to with this one. The balance is good. Pretty decent burger!
Definitely a 3! "

Pretty good for all the stuff we ordered huh?

VERDICT

ROCKEFELLAS CRUNCH BURGER

ROCKEFELLAS CLASSIC BURGER

Let us know your thoughts!

Till we eat again,

Mina & David