Mike's Diner

[..]

Found this new place just open on Silom Road at soi 1, just across from O'Reillys.

 

It is trying to be an American hamburger diner. It looked interesting, so I decided to give it go. Their slogan is "converting vegetarians since 1979" which I thought was clever. The exterior decor have big hamburger and hot dog models jutting out from the wall.

 

The menu is OK, with several types of burgers (single, double, beef, pork chicken), hot dogs (regular and chili-topped ala Coney Island), and cheese-steaks. I opted for the double beef burger set meal at B205.

 

Well, don't go in there in a hurry. I was not, but I was also one of just a few customers and the only one waiting for food. Still, it took 11 minutes to make the burger. They were thin patties, so I thought that excessive. But it was freshly cooked just for me, so that's good.

 

Oddly, they have this American fastfood (specifically In-n-Out) system where you have to go up and get your meal yourself. Well, this is Thailand, AND there were service staff milling about who could have brought it to me, so I found this idea annoying.

 

The food? Well, I test a burger first without condiments to get an idea of the quality. The toppings (tomatoes, onion, lettuce) were nice and fresh. The cheese was NOT melted as I like. The bun was toasted . The meat was deffo on the cheap side, as the flavour was not great (but not inedible as is Gulliver's burger) and there were a couple patches of gristle. But the nice selection of condiments (including pickle relish!) made it fine. The fries were English pub style thicker cut and were good, as was the onion rings.

 

The verdict:

Facility -- 10/10, nice and bright, clean, & shiney

Presentation -- 9/10, looked as good as a diner meal can

Taste -- 7/10, the burger meat could be of better quality, but it's OK

Value -- 6/10, US$6 is high average for this kind of meal in the States (think an In-n-Out Double Double meal), let alone in BKK

 

 

Cheers,

SD

[waerth]

I ate there also last week on friday. I thought it was ok. Price/quality comparison was decent enough. the cleanliness though ..... no staff was in a hurry to sweep the floor or the tables. Which could be noticed!

 

Waerth

[Ongchaiyai]

Hey SD :thumbup:

 

Seems a bit rich (B205) for what you are getting & compaired to McD's about 2.5 times their meal-deal prices (yeah...I know there's a big difference...taste, freshness, etc), but you would really have to like hamburgers to eat here espically when there is plenty of good cheap thai food available elsewhere or good english grub for a little less!

 

Thanks for the report....and I bet it was a whole lot tastier than the Indian food you had a few days previous - 555555 .

 

Cheer's

 

ONYA

[Neo]

The report resonates with my experience there. Neat facilities & atmosphere (they have an upper deck too), excellent location (by BTS & patpong), good fries & onion rings, and they serve Singha. Yeah I waited prolly 10 minutes too and instead of bringing it to me they beckoned me, a weird experience in Thailand but hey that's ok. BUT I have to say biting into the burger was an extremely disappointing moment. The burger was rubbery and grisly. It was like hearing that sound the pac-man game makes when you die that ends with "bleep-bleep". I had the bacon burger which added to the disappointment as the bacon was not fried crisp so it was kinda gross too. Someone needs to tell them you don't put limp noodle like bacon on a burger, that's just wrong.

 

For a place that specializes in burgers with a giant burger as their mascot something is wrong. It was the worst burger I have had in recent memory...maybe the other stuff on their menu is better.

 

[Julian2]

Tch, be nice to find a burger with a fried egg, fried onions, tinned beetroot, no sperm look a like mayonnaise and Heinz tomato sauce.

[Stickman]

When you said that the meat was not of the highest quality, then I lost interest.

 

If they are going to charge 205 baht for a burger then they HAVE TO use decent beef. There is plenty of competition in the burger market in Bangkok and many joints do a good burger and fries for much, much less than this.

[shygye]

I guess the Sumo burger wins out. :grin:

[cavanami]

The best burger in Bangkok, IMO, is at The Tavern, just down the street from Nana Plaza.

120 baht?

Huge burger! Belgian Dog style.

Next, Big Mango, 80 baht and worth the cost.

[Stickman]

Exactly, you can get a good burger at a good price. And from Suadam's excellent report, the service sounded crap too! Based on his report alone I will not be venturing there!

[gene1944]

Bad service as the wait is too long.

 

Poor quality of beef too much bone and gristle.

 

The bun fell apart in my hands.

 

French fries under cooked and the thin wispy type.

 

This is supposed to be another branch modelled after the Mike's Burger in Chiang Mai. It is not even close to the Chiang Mai branch.

 

Back to Greyhound for a decent burger.

 

I tried it twice and both times were bad experiences. I wont be eating there again as I think it is poor quality food and poor value.

 

Why don't the owners train their people to cook the food quickly and properly.

 

That is why we go there.