Burgies of Melby

I was shouted a feed by Chloe's sister, Madi, at Demazzi Stone Grill in Essendon for my 23rd birthday. This restaurant has been on our list of places to go for burgers for a while now, so our visit was a little overdue. I came in with big expectations, having followed Demazzi Stone Grill on Instagram for a while and being told that this place offers the best burgers in Melbourne. Some of these expectations were met, others were exceeded, and some were left a little lacking. I had the Mack Burger. It packs double beef, double cheese, lettuce, pickles and mack sauce. I've written a lot about soft buns and soft patties, but this burger takes out the title for the softest I've ever eaten. It's like the proverbial hot knife through butter. The incredible softness means there's a complete lack of crispiness and crunch. It's an interesting trade-off, especially when crispiness and crunch evoke feelings of eating something fresh. This could be due to a lack of i...

Ah, Epping. One can say many things about this sprawling industrial suburb, both good and bad. Today I'll focus on one of the good things, and that is Laurie Dee's, located at Pacific Epping (or Epping Plaza, depending on who you are) just outside the cinemas. Good old Laurie Dee's is a little different to what we usually hit up when we're hungry for a burgy. There's no murals, or vegan and gluten-free options. The burgies don't have hipster names and onion rings aren't on the menu. There's not even that many burgies on offer, with just four to choose from. On top of that, they call out your order through a speaker system, which you can even hear from the toilets. One gets the feeling that this restaurant was selling burgies before they became cool. I had the Laurie Dee Double, which packs two freshly minced beef patties, grilled onions, melted cheddar, Special D Sauce, tomato, lettuce, diced pickles and green relish. The patties here aren't ...