A good burger is a happy burger at Rick's Café Americain.

 3 September 2024

 

RICK’S CAFÉ AMERICAIN

103 Kloof Street, Cape Town

 

We’ve all been at a restaurant with that one group of exceedingly happy, enthusiastic diners clearly having the excessively boisterous time of their lives, utterly oblivious of their surroundings and other long-suffering patrons who desperately want nothing more than a quiet, peaceful dinner.

 

There was a moment tonight with the fam, minus the elder goddaughter’s guy and plus a late friend’s son, when I realised we were that raucous group in here tonight.

 

My heart sunk until the next realisation: we were the only people in the part of the restaurant and therefore weren’t bothering anyone around us. 

 

Either incoming patrons simply avoided this space when they saw us or the “two burgers for the price of one” special at Rick’s is unfathomably less popular than I would’ve thought.

 

Rick’s wasn’t exactly empty. There were patrons in the space next to ours, on the other side of a room divide, and apparently there were people on the rooftop terrace, despite the cool weather, but the joint was far from jumping.

 

As far as we know, the burger special is on Tuesdays. The elder goddaughter claimed that it also flies on Mondays. If you want to participate in the benefit, check out the dates.

 

The deal is: two burgers of the same type at the price of one. The options are: a cheeseburger, the BMB burger, a buttermilk chicken burger and an ostrich and gorgonzola burger.

 

Our drinks comprised a carafe of white wine, a carafe of red wine, two gins and tonic, a can (or two) of IPA and one Aperol Spritz, as well as water for the table.

 

Between the six of us, we had a chicken burger duo and four BMB burgers.  No starters and no dessert either. 

 

The burger is stacked, with a big bun topped with a couple of succulent onion rings in superbly crisp casings just to compete with the Burj Khalifa, and the patty is complemented by bacon, mushrooms, red onion jam and melted Brie, all of which enhance and elevate the humble hamburger.

 

Three of the four BMB takers wanted their patties medium rare. As usual, I asked for mine to be as rare as humanly possible and the chef gave me what I wanted.

 

I used to scoff at the phrase “gourmet burger” because so much of it was no better than a tarted up Wimpy burger but the BMB burger qualifies. I don’t often eat burgers at restaurants and I was incredibly impressed by this one, especially because the meat was so subtly pink and juicy. If the Big Kahuna burger is your idea of top of the range fast food, Rick’s version will make you holler and stomp with a new convert’s glee.

 

Yup. It was good.

 

I almost forgot.  The side options with the burgers are fries, mashed potato or a salad, which, I think, is supposed to be a Greek salad. There is also a spoonful of creamy coleslaw on the plate.

 

Some ordered the fries. The wife and I had the salad, which was quite good, though clearly not a Greek salad, with a zesty, delicious dressing.

 

I believe that everyone else approved of their respective burgers. There were no audible complaints.

 

We divided the total bill into thirds, meaning that our share of it came to R433,00 including the tip.

 

This was the second time this year that the wife and I ate at Rick’s and we’ve been impressed each time. The décor, with the movie posters and Moroccan infusion in a lovely, spruced up Victorian building provides a warm ambience, the service is efficient and friendly and the food is top notch.