The Two Minute Review: La La Burger

Ronan Doyle
32 minutes ago
2 min read

What’s the story with La La Burger?

There isn’t much worth queueing for around the IFSC, so we weren’t the only ones shocked to see a snaking line of salivating punters packing the footpaths outside the Harbourmaster in March. It wasn’t €7.70 pints of Guinness they were out the door for, but a peculiarly placed In-N-Out Burger popup. The California chain’s milkshakes might have brought all the boys to the yard, but this was less a market toe-dipping than planting a flag lest anyone be too tempted to flog burgers under yellow and red branding.

Erm…

In with a healthy dose of plausible deniability comes “Los Angeles style” La La Burger, whose successful summer stint in Kerry last year might have been one of the things that had In-N-Out feeling defensive. The single cheeseburger (€9.95) looks the part, with American cheese oozing over a crisp-edged smashed patty a little more done than we’d like – more juice needed. The in-house OG sauce plays like a Thousand Island with added kick, a needed twist in lieu of pickles.

The Applewood double (€13.95) dishes up that missing moisture and smartly switches up fresh onion for caramelised – offering that option across the board might be a wise move. With a commitment to 100% Irish grass-fed Hereford beef you can really taste, we’d wonder if a trick isn’t being missed by bringing in local cheese too. Applewood is a-okay, but just imagine how Knockanore or Hegarty’s here could take this to another level.

If they are echoing In-N-Out, the chicken fits the bill – skip it. The non-free-range birds haven’t half the premium prestige of the beef, leaving standard-issue sauces to carry the can. Over-drenched and over-priced wings (€13.95; no excuse for that with Cluck round the corner) sit in a puddle of hot sauce in the container, a delivery disaster just waiting to happen, while soggy BBQ tenders (€8.95) lose all crisp appeal from kitchen to counter – stick to standard with a dip instead if you must.

Skin-on chips from North Dub spuds bring more local character, though again less crisp than we’d like – up it from double to triple-cooked and then we’d be talking. Still, these made a solid vehicle for a properly tangy house garlic sauce in the damn fries (€6.50), whose generous shower of genuine article aged parmesan goes a long way.

As does the world-beating beauty of Irish dairy. They’ve teased a special source of ice-cream and we can’t blame them for keeping their lips sealed - in both the Éire mint shake (€5.95) and fudge sundae (€5) is the rich, full flavour of the scorching sun we’ve had the last while. Everywhere the menu leans local it starts to shine.

Will we be seeing queues in Kimmage?

Top-tier product at Dash and off-peak offers at Bolt are two local models for how to draw a crowd. A little more of both here would go a long way to standing out in a seriously stacked market. Solid €9 kids’ meal deals and a convenient location beside a pub and bus stop will see plenty of local crowds looking in on La La – it’ll take a bit more to get the wider public in and out happy.