604 Foodtography

10am – 8pm Daily (open till October 15th)

Yes, you read the title right. It’s the reincarnation of Wally’s Burgers at Cates Park (North Vancouver).

I saw Sherman’s tweet about this a couple days ago, and so decided to act on it and go today for lunch.  I’ve had Wally’s once when I was younger and we used to live around the area but I honestly don’t remember much bout it..nor if it was good.

So yea, all foodies will go the distance for food…and I’m about 99% sure I saw KimHo when we went today. Why? ‘Cause I recognized the camera & lens (Nikon + 35mm), and who else would take a picture, arrange it, take another picture, hold it up, take a picture, and etc? Only another foodblogger like myself. If he ends up posting about Wally’s, then yes…it’s you! HAHA.

Anyways, it’s not hard to find, there’s a sign right underneath the park entrance, and another small sandwich board later on. Even the District of North Vancouver touts it on their site, link here. There’s two PDF’s you can view, one for the menu and one for a map of the location.

Gord Bemister, an ex-producer at CFUN radio, has purchased the rights to the name and the trademark menu items, and has reopened Wally’s Burger’s in Cates Park, North Vancouver.  But unlike the original, this won’t be the “one and only” Wally’s in town. Bemister is looking into opening several more outlets around the city, with the next site possibly in Gastown.

Will customers who loved the old Wally’s for its famous “Chuck Wagons” and shakes, not to mention the gravity defying Deluxe Combo Burger complete with wiener, fried egg and secret sauce, be able to indulge once again?  One thing’s for sure, the place won’t really be a Wally’s without the prodigious use of neon signage – both inside and outside the restaurant.

- City Food

Well there are no neon signs sadly, but there is a big menu for you to peruse.

So after reading all that…does it measure up to its famed history? Let’s see….

After standing around and deciding what to get…here’s what we got. All of them come wrapped like this, and it probably looks small but they’re not.

Y had the Chuck Wagon+cheese.

V had The Beefy Boy + fried egg.

J had the Deluxe Chuck Wagon + cheese.

and I got the Combo Burger, which as you can see is just a hotdog + pattie. It’s a little hard to eat because the bun would slide around on the hot dog and there’s nothing else to it except for mayo relish and onions.

We also got some onion rings and a milkshake to try. The onion rings are awesome. They’re very crunchy yet the batter isn’t very heavy. It also comes with a roasted red pepper dip, which was a good pairing. Kind of tasted like the flavored philadelphia cream cheese spreads…

The milkshake wasn’t gravity defying, but definitely very thick and tasty. Made with real ice cream.

Oh and then Jeff and I got another burger. I blame it on the fact that there’s a menu taped to the table, just teasing me to get more food. That and I wanted something with vegetables. Only these come with lettuce and tomato (Deluxe Chuck Wagon, Deluxe Wally Burger & Beefy Boy).

What the top bun looks like, I said it looks like a sand dollar. Don’t you think so?

Jeff added mushrooms to his…

While I just got a regular deluxe. Yes, I ate half of it, but look at it! Mmmmmm……..

I can’t compare it to the original Wally’s, but hopefully someone else can try it and tell us if it matches up. I liked the burger, but not as much as other places. My hotdog in the combo burger was slightly burned, but made a crunchy texture alongside the patty. Also the patties are frozen, which to me is a very obvious taste.

I talked to them while waiting for my second burger, and they told me they’ve been open since May 15th, and will be open the whole summer while they look for a permanent location. In the meantime, it’s family owned and operated, and the menu is the same, with all the ingredients coming from the same place, down to the baker where the buns come from.  Now that’s respectable, doing their best to stick to the original deal.

Would I return.. I don’t know. The drive over the bridge just to try it the first time was fine, but I probably won’t be a repeat visitor. I liked Burger Burger’s burger (wow alliteration…) better and found the value much better as I can get a full combo for cheaper. That said, if you’re feeling nostalgic, go and try it though

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