In early December 2017, the owner of the popular Mister Gee Burger Truck in Haberfield opened a restaurant called Happy Ending Burgers in Concord. Just like the truck, the restaurant is opened only from Thursday through to Sunday.
The restaurant takes light purple as its main colour with a touch of Japanese decor.
There’s limited seating indoors with around 7 stools, but there are four tables outside on the sidewalk.
This is the Orange-Brown Sugar Lemonade ($5.00). This tastes like a sweet artificial orange cordial. It didn’t come with ice, which would’ve made it much more refreshing on a hot summer’s evening.
This is the Anxiety in NYC ($14.00) with a dry-aged beef patty, American cheese, tarragon-bacon mayo, mushroom duxelles and confit shallots.
We enjoyed this burger the most of the most we tried that day. The beef patty was tender and juicy – a perfect medium rare – and the cheese and mushroom-packed the burger to bursting with umami, while the tarragon was fragrant in the mayo.
This is the Deep Fried Friends ($15.00) with a deep-fried chicken thigh fillet, American cheese, pickles, mayo and kaya butter.
I was excited about this burger as kaya butter isn’t something you’d find on a burger usually. That said, while the twice fried chicken was super crispy and juicy, the batter was too salty and the addition of kaya created a flavour that was both too sweet and too salty and could not be saved by the acidity from the pickles.
These are the Korean Chicken Tenders ($9.00). While these twice-fried chicken tenders were super crispy and juicy, the batter was too salty -a similar problem to the Deep Fried Friends above – and the sauce wasn’t noteworthy, and without a hint of spice as you’d usually expect from Korean fried chicken. We’d have enjoyed a sticky sweet sauce, like a cola barbeque sauce.
Overall, our experience with the burger truck was much more positive and enjoyable. Teething issues?
2019
D goes for the Your Burger Dream Pt 2 ($15.00) with ‘dry-aged beef patty, American cheese, tomato, onion, avocado, dill pickles, shiitake-bacon sauce, and tangy mayo’.
The medium rare, juicy and tender beef patty is the standout, while the tomato and pickles add a pop of acidity and freshness to the richness of the sauce and mayo. We’re not fans of the huge amount of onion piled into the burger, and would’ve enjoyed the avocado more if it were riper and hence, softer.
I have the Psychedelics ($13.00), with ‘dry-aged beef patty, provolone, jalapeno-pineapple relish, maple bacon, and Gee’s truffle mayo’.
Again, the beef patty is the stand out, cooked perfectly to medium rare so it’s juicy and tender, while the relish adds a hint of heat and sweetness. While the provolone and mayo add a savoury note, the pineapple and maple in the bacon make this a decidedly sweet burger that may not be to everyone’s taste.
We’re happy Happy Ending Burgers have overcome their initial teething issues with more restrained use of salt in their burgers.
Happy Ending Burgers is located at 55 Majors Bay Road, Concord, Sydney, NSW.