The smash burger is one of the newest trends in burgers, although strangely enough, it has quite a long history already. This trend finally descended upon Brussels, when in January this year, Rambo opened its doors. At the time you could only order them to go, but even then, long lines ensued… Fortunately, you can now also sit inside or on the terrace, to enjoy your burger as fresh and crispy as possible. And as they once stated themselves: “A fine cheeseburger deserves a great beer”, so you’ll have that smash burger with a beer of course!
Supposedly, Rambo was even the first place in Belgium to serve up smash burgers, but definitely no longer the only one. It is an easy dish to copy, of course: just flatten a ball of ground beef on a hot griddle, and get that Maillard reaction going. None of that Belgian raw-on-the-inside nonsense, just crispy crust all the way!
Selection of the meat and the rest of the ingredients is of course key to compose the perfect burger and stand out, and that they do well at Rambo. They use potato buns, for instance, which are like brioche bread, but with a naturally moist texture. For their hot sauce, they partnered with Brussels hot sauce producer SWET, mixing their Napalm—made with Carolina Reapers, the hottest chili pepper in the world—with mayonnaise, to spice up your fries.
Apart from three different burgers—Classic, Special, and NoMeat—the only other menu items are fries, and a vanilla sundae, but isn’t that all you need? Well, there’s of course beer on the menu as well!
Beer
As at Rambo they do really appreciate a beer with their burgers, they really made an effort to provide their customers with a couple of nice ones to choose from. L’Ermitage seems to be permanently on the beer menu, although which of their beers are available may vary. During our visit, they also had a couple of beers by Drogenbos, by Brussels Beer Project, an NA beer from To Øl, 13 Artisanale Pils, and Pony’s, a beer created by Ganzerik & Jigger’s bar in Ghent. They change up things regularly, and in the few short months, since they opened, they’ve already served beers from De Kromme Haring, Beerbliotek, Stigbergets, and Third Circle as well. Everything is served straight from the can, however, so try not to be too much of a beer snob when having a beer here…
When we arrived, on a day mid-week, they were only open for five minutes, so we were lucky enough to be able to grab a table indoors, but by the time we had finished our burgers, the venue and its large terrace had already almost completely filled up. So we advise you to come early if you want to enjoy your burger on site!
tl;dr
Beers
- Great selection of canned beers
- L’Ermitage
- No glasses!
Bites
- Smash burgers!
[venue id= 5fe8a52efaf3917d9a3faa3c]
What have people been drinking here recently?
- Arnaut De Wael is drinking a Do You Can From A Land Down Under? at Rambo
- Jens Renneboog is drinking a Rambo American Lager at Rambo
- Raphael Ackermann is drinking a Rambo American Lager at Rambo
- Tim De greef is drinking a Rambo American Lager at Rambo
- Le Xazz is drinking a Rambo Ermitage at Rambo
- Tim Pe is drinking a Rambo Ermitage at Rambo
- Maxim Vanden Berghe is drinking a Rambo Ermitage at Rambo
- Martin J is drinking a Rambo Ermitage at Rambo
- Cesar is drinking a Rambo Ermitage at Rambo
- Jan vdE is drinking a Rambo Ermitage at Rambo