Weekend binging at its best should include everyone’s (be it meat or veggie eaters) fave dish: burgers! We decided to head on down to The Counter in Dubai Mall. We ended up being full but half satisfied unfortunately.
Our verdict: Don’t dilly-dally trying to decide what to order from the listed burgers, you’re better off building your own.
The Food
Sriracha Fries [AED 25]: As a bowl of fries, these weren’t too bad but the sriracha was lacking and so it fell flat (it’s in the name, why not on the fries?). They seemed to be more along the lines of honey glazed fries with a smidgen of sesame seeds and green onions on the top.
Anaheim Jack [AED 39]: We expected a lot out of this one, gave up building another burger for it too. Big mistake. This is more of a chicken sandwich than a burger. Maybe it was the ciabatta bread ‘bun’, maybe it was because it promised to have some flavour with the spicy jalapeno jack and grilled anaheim peppers and all but it was rather bland and quite unappealing when placed on our table. The extra habanero salsa we ordered and added to this made it better but still a let down overall as it was not what we expected. Taste-wise it was alright but didn’t have much going for it.
Build your own burger [AED 44]: Now this was the fun part. So at the end of their menu, there’s this little clipboard with a tick box sheet mentioning different ingredients, sauces etc. It’s pretty self explanatory, you can chose your burger, cheese, toppings (up to 4 options, extra is AED 2 per item, premium toppings are AED 3), sauce and bun. Even though we were pretty hungry we took our time trying to figure out what flavours would work well together. In the end we decided on a 1/3 lb chicken breast burger with gruyere cheese, jalapenos, green onions, roasted red peppers, roasted corn & black bean salsa, fried egg along with habanero salsa and honey dijon on a wheat bun (LOL @ trying to have ‘better’ carbs). This burger was definitely a lot better even though we didn’t choose ingredients that we would normally have in a burger.
The Drinks
Make your own milkshake [AED 29]:
There’s a short list of ingredients to choose from (you can choose 3) so we went with peanut butter, chocolate chips and brownie. This combination sounds like a chocolate/peanut butter lovers dream come true. But the shake doesn’t live up to it sadly as there are barely any pieces of chocolate or brownie in it. You are basically getting a shake that is finely blended, if that’s your thing then they nailed it. It’s a decent drink overall but you’re left wanting more from it.
Service
The service at The Counter was pretty good but a tad confusing with the number of people serving us. We entered from The Village entrance and were greeted promptly and escorted to a table. Since we preferred another table they politely asked us to wait at a table close by and look through the counter of ingredients set up (the manager was kind enough to ask if we needed any help) while they got it cleaned. Once we sat down, we assumed we had a particular server. She took our order and was very helpful with answering our questions. But as each dish came out with a different person, we eventually realised that our initial server wasn’t around and had probably left. The last person to serve us was very nice, she was very quick with her service and courteous as well.
The Venue
The Counter is located on the ground floor of Dubai Mall. The name of the restaurant makes sense once you see the actual ‘Counter’. A display table of all the items on their ‘build your own burger’ list. A great way to showcase all the elements that will come together to make your meal. We were unaware of a few of the items on the list however (what on earth are pepperoncinis?!) and went over to the table to have a look, but since they weren’t labelled we weren’t sure what it was. The interiors gave the impression of a diner of sorts with the chalkboards on the walls, school style tables and chairs along with brick and wooden panelling on the walls.
To Book or not to Book
The Counter does not take reservations, so this is basically not an option. However it was not very busy when we visited, just enough to give the place a good vibe. The seating at The Village side was quite empty, only the booths inside were relatively full. There is usually no waiting time here, but if it is at full capacity, then that would be your only option.
How to Get there
By Car: The best way to get to The Counter is to park in cinema parking of Dubai Mall. If you use the upper flyover road, you can get into Level 7 cinema parking very easily. If level 7 is full, all you need to do is head to either end of the parking lot to get to a higher level. Going up to level 9 almost always guarantees you a decent parking spot.
By Cab: Getting a cab to Dubai Mall is fairly straight forward. Depending on how far you stay away from the mall, this is quite a viable option.
Public Transport: You can get there by metro, getting off at the Dubai Mall station on the red line. Although you’ll have to do the long walk from the metro to get into the mall (way to build up an appetite perhaps?). Once you get into the mall, walk towards the cinema and go to the ground floor.
The Entrance
There are two entrances to the restaurant, one from the back which is through The Village and from the front which is across from the ice rink. Both entrances are quite obvious and very hard to miss.
Total Bill
- Local water: AED 7
- Milkshake: AED 29
- Anaheim Jack Burger: AED 39
- Sriracha Fries: AED 25
- Build your own burger: AED 44
Total (for two): AED 144
Restaurant info:
04 3882661
www.thecounterburger.com
