Bodega Burger is very popular with local people, especially students going to Toronto Metropolitan University. It is a food stall on the outside edge of the World Food Market. They tend to open umtil 2:30am/3:30am but on Mon-Wed, they may close at 4:00am due to demand!
All chicken, beef, and ribs are made fresh every day. The smash burgers are mixed with light spices and marinated for 3 hours! Most places pre-cook their meat to 60% and finish the cooking when ordered; but flavours will disappear. This restaurant doesn't pre-cook.
Everything is halal and hand-slotted (instead of machine-slotted). Hand-slotted allows them to determine the quality.
The beef, chicken, and ribs use different marsala sauces.
The fried chicken is battered and deep-fried in a fryer to cook the chicken which keeping it juicy and then deep-fried in a different fryer to make the outside crispy. This is better than most fast-food restaurants, which use a single fryer, so parts of the chicken are not properly cooked.
For burgers, they use brioche buns, which taste much better than regular burger buns. The burgers have Chipotle sauce and/or Bodega sauce, depending on what you order.
We ordered the following:
1. Smash Burger (double $12.49).
2. The Bodega Burger ($13.99).
3. Loaded Bodega Fries ($9.99).
4. Short Ribs (large $19.99).
5. Milk Cake ($13.99 or $9.99 with orders over $19.99).
The Smash Burger was so juicy. It has Chipotle sauce, lettuce, onions, and pickles. I tried a piece of the patty by itself, and it was amazing! There is a very small amount of kick to it due to the marinade.
The Bodega Burger uses both Chipotle sauce and Bodega sauce. There are pickles and lettuce. This special burger has both fried chicken and a smash burger patty! Even the fried chicken is cooked to order.
For the Loaded Fries, you can choose a Bodega Beef patty or Beyond Beef patty, both of which are chopped up with sautéed onions and peppers. You can choose how spicy you want it. All this is placed on top of golden crispy fries! So good!
For the Short Ribs, it is slowly cooked so that it is more juicy and tender. There is a smokey and sweet taste to it. It is definitely worth waiting for it! It comes with fries.
The food stall opened on 2024-04-20. Customer service is really good, but when we went, there was only the owner doing all the orders and cooking. People still wait.
University/college students get 15% discount on any order over $12.99.
There are many picnic-style tables on the inside of the World Food Market.
A bodega burger is a no-frills burger sold at neighbourhood convenience stores or small grocery stores, often referred to as "bodegas" in New York City and other urban areas. They are quickly made.
There is no free WiFi. The food stall is wheelchair accessible. There are no customer washrooms. There is paid neighbourhood street parking and paid parking lots nearby.
Review 2024-192 read more