To say I was excited to be tasting Soul Cartel again is an understatement. It'd been a long time since our first visit to Soul Cartel Isaacs back in 2018, and boy oh boy have they been missed.
I'm not sure where they have been but I'm glad they are back. Peter and the team have recently opened a new shop on the south side of Canberra more specifically in Erindale (not Watson as our mate Jed discovered on the night). The new shop had it's 'soft' Wednesday night opening and we knew that was the perfect time to go in for a burger. Not too busy, which generally means good quality burgers.
The new shop is nothing spectacular, a typical burger joint on the Gartside strip in Erindale. The menu stands out straight away on a black background with bright orange writing. The choices are simple with what I believe was 4 variations of a beef burger and 4 variations of a fried chicken burger. There was even a vegetarian 'meat' option available. Unfortunately I can't comment on if there was any gluten free options available for those that can't stomach the goodness that is gluten.
What really stands out for me at Soul Cartel are the sides. My memory didn't disappoint and the cheeseburger spring rolls that have eluded me since 2018 we're the same as I remember. They also have 4 variations of chicken wings, we dabbled with the buffalo wings and found them the right amount of crunch as well as just hot enough to tickle to tongue. The wings were actually quite large, so for the sides with a burger I would recommend getting the 6 pack.
One thing that was missing was the loaded potato gems. Apparently there is a massive potato shortage gripping the country due to all the flooding occurring on the East Coast over the last 12 months. Hopefully these will be back on the menu soon as they were an absolute stand out for me. Watch the space as Peter said he will let me know straight away once they are back on the menu!
Now to the part you are all here for. The burger. We did the typical poll on our instagram to get people's preferences. The unanimous winner was the Cartel Cheeseburger. Of course we had to double this up to get all the goodness. The burger came out and from the get go looked outstanding. Double 150 gram patties (not overly smashed - which we quite like here at AAB), melted cheese, thick cut pickles, red onion, mustard, tomato sauce and the Soul Cartel house sauce.
The patties were cooked well and weren't dry nor undercooked which made them nice and juicy. Pickles were awesome, nice and thick giving good crunch and not just breaking apart in the burger. As discovered after the review the bun is a milk bun, however Peter said that they have been working on finding the right bun for quite a while, and they have done just that, it held together perfectly and soaked up all the juices without breaking apart but also being nice and soft and not dry. My only criticism would be the red onions, I'm a white onion guy for the crunch and acidity. I think if this was added on the cheeseburger at least than this would be right up there as one of Canberras best.
Cartel Double Cheeseburger: 9.2/10
Soul Cartel Southside - 3/38 Gartside Street, Erindale 2903
Open Wed-Sun 5:00pm - 8:30pm
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