Everyone has that burger place that you find, that amazing burger shop that just know what they are doing, a place that you will go out of your way just to get a burger because they are so good! Monroe’s Burgers & Beers is one such place and many have made the journey out to Healesville to get one of their tasty burgers for this reason. Not mention if you’ve checked out their Instagram @monroesburgers you know they match up to what you get when you walk in. So, when a place like Monroe’s opens up a new place in St Kilda, you would hope they stack up against the original.
So, we had to find out for ourselves, we decided to try them both within a couple of weeks of each other. We decided to head over to Healesville first to check out the original before we checked out their new place in St Kilda.
To keep it fair we ordered the exact same thing at both places. What did we have you ask?
All American
Fresh ground prime beef, mustard mayonnaise, double American cheddar, pickles, lettuce, red onion, and tomato relish.
The Deep South
Monroe’s Southern Fried Chicken breast, lettuce, red onion, Alabama white barbecue sauce, traditional southern style barbecue sauce, with chipotle spiced pickles, on a toasted milk bun
Our Favourite
Dirty South
Fresh ground prime beef, Monroe’s Southern Fried Chicken breast, Double American cheddar cheese, Spicy pickles, Kentucky style barbecue sauce, Alabama white barbecue sauce, Double streaky bacon, on a milk bun
Notorious P.I.G.
Thick cut beer battered chips, topped with hickory smoked pulled pork, chipotle mayonnaise, and Sweet Baby Ray’s brown sugar and hickory barbecue sauce
Onion Rings
Beer battered and deep-fried crispy onion rings
Mac & Cheese Croquettes
Deep fried balls of cheesy goodness
The Food
Let’s talk about the food, visiting Healesville we found the burgers were big, juicy and something you really want to get into. Having had a lot of burgers over the years it’s hard to really pick a difference between what’s out there. For us it came down to flavours and execution and both of these were done extremely well.
Monroe’s were able to take the humble burger and give it some new flare by incorporating traditional flavours with some elevated elements that take these burgers, fries and all those little extras to a special burger place. Not to mention when eating all this food, it didn’t seem heavy, or saturated saturated in oil. Both big ticks! It’s a testament to why Monroe’s Healesville has such a cult following already.
The Place
Heading in for an early lunch at midday, Monroe’s Healesville was already in full swing with the place pumping and our guess is if we turned up half an hour later, we would have had to wait for a table. Either way, we wouldn’t have been disappointed!
Healesville isn’t a big place so don’t expect a huge venue, it keeps true to the local community feel of Healesville itself and is a well-established member of the rising food community that Healesville is cultivating.
The Service
All in all, Monroe’s in Healesville on a busy afternoon with the place packed the service was pretty damn good. We would venture a guess they are used dealing with the crowds and are able to give expectational service busy or not.
In the end Monroe’s is going to be a cult burger favourite no matter which one you end up at, our suggestion is try them both – you’re not going to be disappointed either way!
Check out our thoughts about Monroe’s St Kilda here.
Monroe’s Burgers & Beer
228 Maroondah Hwy,
Healesville VIC 3777
www.monroesburgers.com
@monroesburgers