What Is Just Too Weird To Put On A Burger?

By Anthony Todd in Food on Aug 20, 2012 9:05PM

Sometimes, it seems like chefs are just playing blind man's bluff with burger ingredients—whatever their finger happens to land on gets tossed on the patty and topped with a bun. We're not talking Kuma's Corner-style, well-thought compilations; these are the really strange ones. Luckily, the foodies at RedEye tried some of Chicago's strangest to find out what worked and what didn't.

They took on eight different "weird" Chicago burgers, and rated their weirdness levels. They also rated the burgers for messiness, an important consideration as burgers get bigger and harder to control. We don't like eating our burgers with forks, and it's irritating when someone's "amazing" burger concoction is impossible to actually get into our mouths.

Okay, one of them was actually at Kuma's; Emily Van Zandt tried the King Bong with deep fried prosciutto and decided it wasn't actually all that weird. What topped the weirdness scale? The "Fat Magnum" from Fat Sandwich Company, which includes chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, a fried egg and french fries. RedEye wasn't super fond of this "atomic bomb" of ingredients, and we doubt we'd like it much. It seems like they took the entire appetizer list at TGIFridays and threw it on a roll.

Also on the list of weird toppings: mashed potatoes on the burger at Hash House A-Go-Go, Mac and Cheese at Rockit, a crab cake on the burger at The Fifty/50, goat chili at The Bad Apple and an entire 8 oz ribeye (and a patty) at Burger Bar. Go check out the whole list .