Holiday blog post!

NB: The following post is about a location outside of Rourkela.

The first I’d heard about Burger Hut was a few months ago, when I was on the phone with my Mom. We were catching up on the day to day details of life when she casually dropped “Oh by the way, a new burger shop has opened up near our house”. Cue stunned silence.

One of the benefits of living in Cochin, the commercial center of Kerala is that there’s no shortage of eateries. Whether you want artisan pastries and tarts or dozens of different kinds of dosas, we have it all! But they all have the same problem : distance. It doesn’t matter if you have the finest steak in the world, if I have to endure a torturous journey to get to your restaurant, odds are that I’m not going to bother. That’s why, when I heard about a burger joint near my house, I almost cried of happiness. In retrospect, it’s a good thing I no longer live in Kerala. The presence of a fast food restaurant near my house would not bode well for my already shit health.

The first thing that struck me when I walked into the Burger Hut was how small it was. There were 4 small tables in a 2x2 grid, for a total seating capacity of 8 people. They had seats outside, but when your restaurant is located right beside a bus route, you tend to avoid eating outside. As a result, if you’re going with a large group of people, you may want to get a take-out

Something else that appealed to me was the prices. The burgers start at ₹39 for the cheapest burger and go all the way to ₹135 for their most expensive burgers. They even have free home delivery. At this price, you can’t really complain too much about quantity but when I got home to check the burgers I had bought for my brother and sister, I found that they weren’t small or miniature in the least! They were proper full sized burgers!

I didn’t have a full burger for myself – I took the healthy route for the first time in ages and ordered a chicken salad. It was lush and succulent with plenty of lettuce, onion and pieces of shredded chicken. One thing I would change, though, is the dressing. The salad was drenched in a strong dressing that overpowered my palate to the point where I would hold a forkful of food over the plate to get rid of as much dressing as I could before eating.

As for the burgers themselves : I took a bite out of my brothers and a bite out of my sisters to see what was what. They weren’t the best burgers I’ve had (nor did I expect them to be) but again, at this price point, there’s not much to complain about. The only complaint I had was the patty. They grilled the hell out of the patty to the point where it was tough and chewy. The burgers would have been so much better if they hadn’t overcooked them so much.

As for desert, on the menu they have an Oreo shake and what I assume to be a brownie with ice cream (the menu calls this ebony lava) however I didn’t have time to order desert so I shall update this paragraph if and when I go back for a desert. One final thing to mention is the staff : they were all very friendly and engaged in conversation with all the customers present when I was there. It did take them a little bit of time to make my order, but seeing as I’d ordered a small feast for everyone back at home, I can’t really blame them.

To slowly wrap things up, Burger Hut is where I’d expect a new restaurant to be right now. It’s got good food and friendly staff and it’s got potential but it’s not quite there just yet. A few changes here and there and maybe a bigger outlet at some point down the road and Burger Hut will be one of the eateries you have to visit if you come down to Cochin!