Unfortunately, growing up as a kid, I only remember going to Wally’s on Kingsway once or twice. My family was never really into burgers, even though Wally’s was only a few minutes away from my house.
From SqueakyMarmot on Flickr
I’ve been told by people that Wally’s in its heyday had a pretty damn good burger. With it’s big neon sign, it was a landmark in the neighbourhood. After closing down about 2 years ago, a longtime fan of Wally’s, Gord Bemister, had recently purchased the rights to the name and recipes. He opened up a Wally’s concession stand at Cates Park in North Vancouver, which Kevin had blogged about here.
Last Tuesday, Gord and his family opened up a small restaurant at Killarney Market (located at 49th and Elliot and 2 units away from Columbus Restaurant). The actual place isn’t too big and only has counter seating along the walls and windows. Service was good and friendly as it was Gord and a woman (wife?) taking orders at the front counter. I also peered into the back and saw some teenagers at the back making the food. Maybe this is a family run business. Anyways after I made my order, I had to about 5 minutes for my food. Killed some time by checking out the signed sports memorabilia on the walls (Bobby Orr!).
For this visit, I had to settle for takeout since I needed to rush home to watch Kevin Martin’s rink win Canada yet another gold medal. Woo! (Sorry that I squashed the burger in the bag)
I got the Deluxe Chuck Wagon Combo ($9.50) with cheese and a fried egg. The Chuck Wagon burger ($5.25) has 2 patties while the Deluxe Chuck Wagon burger ($5.50) also comes with lettuce, tomato and onions. With my modifiers, total came up to ~$11 for the burger, fries and a fountain drink. The burger itself wasn’t all that expensive, but it’s the modifiers that get you.
While I didn’t get to try the burger right away, I munched on a few fries on the way home. While the bag had a LOT of fries, too bad they weren’t that great. Perhaps they needed to be fried a little bit more but they tasted a bit cold and mushy, definitely lacking that nice crispy texture. I had to put them in the oven when I got home. Next time I’ll upgrade to yam fries or onion rings.
The burger itself was huge! While $11 is a lot compared to one my favourites, Burger Burger (here and here), the portions here make up for the cost. The patties were okay but I’m guessing they were frozen. However the fried egg (+$1.25) was the best part of the meal. It’s the best modifier you can get on a burger, hands down, with mushrooms (+$0.75) coming in second. The yolk with all the sauces made this burger extremely messy but oh so much better. Didn’t help that the burger was slightly squished. I regret getting cheese (+$0.75) instead of the mushrooms.
Overall the meal was okay. There are a better places further away but miles ahead of places like McDonalds. Quality has room for improvement as they have more time to iron out the kinks but you get a lot of food. I would probably come back just because it’s one of the few semi-decent burger joints in the area. However no harm in trying it out if you’re feeling nostalgic.
