hans im gluck

Life has become such these days that if I'm going to have a burger, that burger had better be a good one.

More so because there've been a surge of burger joints popping up here, there, everywhere, all over these days- and because everyone goes onto social media and says they're absolutely the best- it gets very hard for a semi-sensitive palate like mine to choose. 

One thing about me: I like to go for the familiar. 

Or rather, I like to go for what feels familiar (and solid) to me. 

Hans Im Gluck, having been on our shores for some time now, is one of those places that grant me the feels to want go give them a try, so, yes, I was really delighted when the opportunity (finally) came. 

There're two outlets on the island that I know of- one's at Orchard on the Lido Shaw side, the other's at Vivocity somewhere along the stretch that looks out to the water. 

We went to the one at Vivo. 

Service was swift- we managed to get a table by the glass looking out towards the water and Sentosa- and it wasn't long before we had our meal on the table. 

Either it was because we already knew what we wanted, or because we'd pre-bought some sort of voucher that included two burgers, a platter of fried chicken wings, a platter of finger food- you know, the usual snacky stuff- and two drinks. 

We got down to choosing our mains. 

With all the offerings on the menu, it wasn't an easy decision to make. 

Everything sounded so good. 

And not only did they have beef, chicken, vegetarian or vegan, they had a drop-down list of variations of the beef, the chicken, the vegetarian and the vegan, meaning that you could have your beef patty Elsasser with brie and lingonberries, you could have your beef patty Lenz which had German-pickled gherkins, sour cream scallion sauce and fried onions, or you could also have your beef burger Geissbock where there'd be feta cheese, bacon, and fig jam. 

I'm only talking about the beef. 

The chicken offered you the choice of Henne, where you could have your chicken breast patty served with avocado cream, orange and mustard sauce and sprouts, or you could have it Landgockel where there'd be mushrooms and a sunny-side up egg on top of your chicken. 

I had to make a choice between the vegetarian or the vegan. The vegan offered a wheat patty with a variation of other ingredients. The vegetarian offered a variety of patties that I could choose. 

Am the sort who likes my variety so with the vegetarian I went. They had the olive patty, the walnut patty and the spinach and cheese patty. Walnut seemed very interesting, but after some deliberation I decided on the spinach cheese patty, taking it Kasebor where there was parmesan cheese, and pesto. (I like pesto)

My companion chose the beef. 

Which one he took, I don't particularly recall (it's been a while since we had this meal) but if my memory serves me well, it might have been the Hans Im Gluck- because there was parmesan cheese, there was parma ham, and I know the dude likes his parma ham.

The burgers were wonderful. 

Seriously wonderful. 

You know how it is when you take the first bite of your food and it is either "awww" or "hmmm" or "mehhhh"? 

My spinach and cheese burger made me go "awww"... 

See, any place that puts heart in making a good vegetarian burger will do a good beef burger. 

It is not difficult to do a beef burger. 

It is also not difficult to do a portobello mushroom burger. 

But when you have spinach- very finely minced- mixed with very good cheese- in a thick, almost chewy patty, the quality of the burger goes up a notch higher. 

Add that with tomatoes, lettuce plus creamy pesto sauce, and it becomes a burger filled with textures, layers and flavors. 

What's more, I had mine in a sourdough bun! 

If the burgers weren't hearty and solid and filling enough, the fun foods- the chicken wings, the sweet potato fries, the fries (yes we had two kinds of fries) and the onion rings- actually made the whole meal feel even better. 

Tasty, thoroughly battered, and well fried to a crunchy, delicious crisp, especially the onion rings, they didn't feel like mere sides to the mains. 

Instead they felt like conversation starters- great first date material- if you ask me- because it felt like one could just reach out to the platter, pick up an onion ring, a sweet potato fry, or the chicken wing- and start munching whilst continuing the casual chat and conversation. 

And even if the conversation got stilted and one ran out of things to say, there'd be the food. 

With the menu this extensive, and the food this good, fried chicken wings, wheat patties, multigrain buns, onion rings, lingonberries, grilled pear and cinnamon sugar pancakes would supply more than enough topics one could comfortably chat about.