George's Burgers & Subs

George’s Burgers & Subs

• 904 Portage Ave, 204-779-1136
• 2253 Ness Ave, 204-897-2095
• 1141 Saint Mary's Rd, 204-257-3856 

February, 2012

Sometimes, you just want to be sloppy and stay in your sweats all day, but you’re tired and too lazy to cook anything up.  You don’t want to interact with anyone so a fry-cook with a bad disposition and a foul mouth is the perfect person to take your order.  Then you want to slink down into a corner booth and have a sassy server to skip the frills, throw you a burger, and quietly sashay back to the counter.  You won’t find Mel in Winnipeg, but you can find George, as in George’s Burgers & Subs, and they can produce a burger as sloppy as you feel.

For the price, George offers great value for the burgers.  All burgers come with chilli, onions, mustard and pickles; the Fatboy also includes shredded lettuce, fresh tomato slices, mayo and cheese.  The subtle-tasting chilli acts as a nice complement to the burger without taking over the tastes.  A lot of chilli burgers have too much chilli, which ends up dominating the sandwich; George has the perfect ratio to accent the meat.  Even though the patty is overcooked and dry, the chilli and sauce compensate so that the overall sandwich tastes delicious.  The bun is huge and fresh, but I find it a little too large for the burger; many people want to eat what’s between the bun, not necessarily the bread.

If you’re not in the mood for a burger, George offers breakfast until 11:30 am, although you might be able to convince them to whip up something for you after the morning.  The Denver omelette comes stuffed full of ham and onions but lacks the essential green peppers (which I think adds a nice dimension to the egg dish).  Still, lots of onions means that the omelette isn’t lacking in vegetables.  However, the side of hash browns steals the show as these mini-cut cubes taste as good as hash browns come.  Perfectly fried and lightly accented with seasoning salt, I can’t get enough of this side. 

You can also opt for the chicken fingers, and you get to decide how many you want.  Don’t over order since they’re huge and meaty.  The thin breading tastes light and crisp, although the white meat is a tad overdone.  The accompanying honey dill sauce could use a little more punch.

The home-cut fries taste crisp and not greasy, or you can add the fixings for poutine.  There isn’t very much Swiss cheese, and what’s there is completely melted and lost in the gravy.  In the absence of curds, a few strategically placed chunks of barely melted cheese goes a long way to giving the impression of authentic poutine.  The gravy is thick but a little under-seasoned.  On the plus side, they don’t skimp on the gravy, leaving lots for sopping.

George’s Burgers & Subs won’t serve you a lot of frills but they serve some good food.  As a bonus, I could swear that the server told me to kiss her grits as we left.

***½ /5

This is a free product that I'm happy to bring to you.  If you enjoyed reading this, please consider clicking on the accompanying ads.  This is the only payment I receive for offering this public service.  Thank you as always for reading.