Burgers are becoming all the rage lately, with numerous new gourmet burger eateries opening up in and around the city. Roll on the carpets for Gourmet Burger Co. in Ranelagh and Gourmet Burger Kitchen aka GBK (although this homepage still hasn’t update their information on their locations in Dublin – currently in Temple Bar, South Anne St, Liffey Valley and Swords Pavillion).

Of course, the concept of gourmet burger isn’t exactly new in Dublin. Bobo’s in Wexford St and Real Gourmet Burger in Dun Laoghaire have been the places to go for burger lovers who didn’t fancy chomping in the creations of McDonalds, Burger King or Eddie Rockets. So what ushers in this new age of burger admiration?

Maybe it is seen as a hallmark of returning to simpler times, now that we’re not flocking to the fancy restaurants that serve creative dish using truffles foam and the likes. Yet, at the same time, after years of adventurous eats, to just abandon all things creative with food seems to be counter-intuitive, so why not inject some new life into good old comfort food that are the burgers?

Thus, I just gave myself a treat yesterday to one very delicious GBK’s Kiwiburger – an assembly of burger buns, beef patty, beetroot slices, pineapple rings, fried egg, lettuce and tomato slices (as per picture above by Graeme Robertson for The Guardian). Stacked sky-high, it came with a pricetag of nearly €12 but the satisfaction factor was also high. For me personally anyway ;-)

Now, the Gourmet Burger Co. in Ranelagh is running a promotional offer. Buy one and get another gourmet burger absolutely free. Just print out this PDF voucher which is valid until the end of April, and do take note of when you can and cannot use the voucher. I’ll be heading there with my friends early next week and already I am wondering how much will it cost me if I order a Kobe beef burger… Probably an arm and a leg. Will it be worth it? I’ll decide when I sit down in the restaurant and I’ll report back in due course.