‘Peruvian’ burger at Agadón – comes with condiments like sweet potato chips, red onion, garlic mayonnaise and coriander.

As mentioned before, I have been going by a Best Burger rank to hunt down the best burger in the city. Admittedly the task hasn’t been easy because it involves a slightly grudging diet; plus, it’s a delicately subjective matter and can vary from day to day depending on the chef’s mood. Taking my restaurant outings seriously and never giving my money away lightheartedly, I decided to give the ‘6^th Bogotá’s Best Burger’ a try.

Agadón is one of those restaurants that look intimidatingly over-priced and misleadingly pretentious with its spiffy incandescent lightbulbs and trendy location in the outpost of Zona T as the neighbour of Central Cevicheria and Di Lucca. However, its wide range of dishes, medium price brackets (COP 22.000 – 26.000 for a burger with chips) and the one-and-only flat screen that shows the sports channel seem to suggest that Agadón is going for a crossover of an upscale bistro and sports bar.

Unlike some of its competitors who have conjured inexhaustible lists of burgers varying from cuts, origins to numerous flavours (like a 3-cheese, 4-cheese, Manhattan, Teriyaki, Indian etc), Agadón strives on a neat set of 10. Apart the regular assemblage of the classic, blue cheese or onion ring, alternatives-seekers will be glad to find a grilled veggie, fish, chicken, mushroom and even lamb burger. What got me was a particularly unusual ‘Peruvian’ burger that comes with red onion, sweet potato crisps and garlic mayo.

Coming in 2 sizes, 150g & 250g, they satisfy various appetites. Being neither too oily nor salty, the juicy burgers have a clean finish. But the most impressive of all is that you get what you ask for! Rest assure that you won’t experience the phenomenon in the city: getting ‘well’ when you ask for ‘medium’, or ‘medium’ when you ask for ‘rare’.

When there are burgers, there are chips. And Agadón’s were gooood. They are in French elegant thinness with skin on the ends that gives a good crisp to the soft body. And the most miraculous and surprising part is that they are moist without the usual accompanying element of drenching oil!

One could say there are other determining factors of a good burger, like the garnish and dressing. But a burger is really just an ersatz of a sandwich. So I’d say the third factor, but by no means the least important, of a good burger, is the bun. Agadón’s bun was certainly a winner, as it didn’t get soggy from the meat juice, nor did it come with a sweet aftertaste that is usually associated with the pre-manufactured and preservative-filled buns that come out of a bag, a rather common sight even at some of the most renowned places here.

Although food was excellent, Agadón could do a lot more about its service. Arriving at the packed restaurant on a Sunday at 2pm, I was asked to wait just a ‘couple of minutes’ for them to clean up a table. Translated into normal time scale, it turned out to be a 30-minute wait. Then by the time we were seated it was another 15 minutes before anyone came to take our food order. And it wasn’t another 10 minutes later until someone from the bar came for our drinks order. (Surely that was in a wrong order?).

If we disregard the tardy service, Agadón’s burger came top because of its striking good-looks, wow factor and all-roundedness. Apart from burgers, the American joint also dishes out a multitude of funky international dishes like fish & chips, banger & mash, pork belly sandwiches with ‘Korean bread’ and kimchi or Hoisin (a Chinese sweet sauce), miso salmon, Feta with Quinoa etc. Those with a sweet tooth will be mesmerised by a lineup of sticky toffee pudding (amazing btw), waffles (slightly dry), New York cheesecake and oreo brownie bar.

Go to Agadón for the AMAZING burger factor.

The OneChinese Best Burger quip tbc