Kraze Burger : Hong Kong

Kraze Burger
Shop 605, 6/F, iSquare
63 Nathan Road
Tsim Sha Tsui
Hong Kong

Situated in the still relatively new iSquare shopping centre, one of several new temples to commercialism in TST, I came across Kraze by accident.  I didn't realise it at the time, thinking that it was a single business, but it is an outpost of a well known Korean burger chain.  The name is  mashup of 'Korea + Craze + Burger', and this branch is their first overseas one.

Instead of pronouncing it like 'craze', as was intended, Koreans have decided to call it 'Krazy Burger'.

The design and decor is clearly trying to reflect an more 'upmarket' (if generic looking) American burger place. It is definitely a step above a fast food franchise 'look', with a U-shaped large open dining area, dark wooden tables and seats,  banquettes, and a semi-open kitchen. Situated on a floor with a few other eating outlets, it was the most popular amongst them on the day of my visit.

Chilli Cheese Fries (HKD48. AUD1 : HKD7.8)

Thick cut ridged chips with chilli sounded better than the reality. Although these weren't bad (crispy, hot), and I certainly ate about half of them, there was no discernible chilli taste, and I'd expected that the topping would be along the lines of chilli con carne. It lacked that degree of complexity and depth,  and the cheese was cursory and indefinable.

K3 Chilli Burger (HKD58. AUD1 : HKD7.8)

A nice touch was to ask, when I placed my order, whether I wanted the burger cut into halves. Not knowing how large the burger would be (I've had burgers which required cutting into quarters to make them manageable), I decided in the affirmative.

Ah there's that indefinable cheese again, luminous in its oh-so-American glory. The Chilli? Well I find that I repeat myself - the patty was not much different to the 'chilli' atop the fries. No jalapeño, no fire, no kick. Perhaps it was just a patty form of the chilli in the fries. Or perhaps it wasn't.

Try as I did, I couldn't taste that much of a difference between the two, and perhaps any  differences were the result of wishful thinking more than anything. Pleasant enough, the patty, I mean; moist and fairly flavoursome, a decent size, just not chilli. The cheese, however, really needed to be replaced with something more cheese-like.

As I write this, it is weeks after having eaten this burger. Weeks which included the consumption of three other burgers. How did this one rate? Well if they replaced that cheese for starters...it ranks probably second amongst those I had. Monster Burger's Cheeseburger was a better burger overall. Kraze's was not unenjoyable (pardon the double negative), but neither am I in a mad hurry to go back and try one of their other burgers.



[AP]