• Why: Gourmet burger enthusiasts take note: Killer Burger has come to town.
July 9 marked the opening of its fourth fast-casual burger bar. Located on Southeast 164th Avenue next to On The Boarder in Fisher’s Landing area, Killer Burger offers a menu of 10 burger options, as well as 10 local microbrews. Every burger is made with one-third pound of beef (no “pink slime” included) and bacon, and comes with fries. The beef is never frozen, and all of the sauces are housemade.
• Atmosphere: The restaurant, formerly occupied by the short-lived Vancouver location of El Pollo Loco, has been re-created with battleship gray-colored walls, corrugated metal, and amber Italian-glass pendant lights, all tastefully trimmed in black. The menu is written on a wall-to-wall chalkboard above the order counter. Two large-screen televisions offer visual entertainment, and nostalgic rock music adds a beat to the vibe — though my dining companion and I found the music a bit loud for a conversation of standard volume.
• What I tried: I settled on the popular Peanut-Butter-Pickle-Bacon burger, and my dining companion tried the Teemah, which has bleu cheese, Smokey House Sauce, bacon, grilled onions and pickles.
I admit I was skeptical about peanut butter on a burger and even more so when it arrived at the table, and I discovered the sauce oozing down the sides. The burger also contained mayonnaise and grilled onions, in addition to the title elements. With my mission at the forefront, I dove in … and was pleasantly surprised. The peanut butter sauce was not sticky or dry. It gave the burger a flavor that crossed into Thai territory, but the pickles imparted an undeniably classic American taste. I couldn’t detect the flavor of the mayonnaise, which is quite docile in flavor compared to peanut butter and pickles. And the grilled onions were sparse; they, too, did not add much to the overall flavor of the burger. The bacon and the beef were lean and juicy, and created a flavorful foundation for the burger.
