Wally’s Burgers – Second Chances
Last year when I tried to visit Wally’s Burger, I had a really bad experience. Despite passing by Wally’s Burger whenever I go to Columbus Restaurant, I’ve never had the desire to try Wally’s Burger until recently. Fast forward 10 months and I figured that maybe it’s a good time to give them a second chance.
With all of the burger shops popping up around town, where does Wally fit into the pecking order? I would probably say that they lie somewhere above the fast food joints like McDonald’s.
Their menu screams of diner-fare (kind of what you would expect if you walked into Big Al’s from Happy Days).
When I saw the sign advertising “Old Fashioned Hand Spun Milkshakes” I was sold. Root beer milkshake? Really?
I started out with ordering Beer Battered Onion Rings ($4) – how could you say no to onion rings? You do get a good portion of onion rings but I found them to be a little too crunchy (too fried I guess). I still think A&W makes some of the best fast food onion rings around.
The Crispy Halibut Burger ($6.50) was pretty good and was topped with melted cheese, lettuce and tartar sauce. It was nicely fried… but to be honest, they could have used a cheaper fish and I wouldn’t have noticed because of the frying process (I think Burger King uses pollock).
I was originally thinking of trying their classic deluxe chuckwagon burger but when I saw the description of the Wally’s Works ($8) – I knew I couldn’t resist. This heart-attack-on-a-bun takes a regular Wally Burger and tops it with mushrooms, bacon, a fried egg, weiner, and melted cheese into an artery-clogging delight.
Don’t be fooled by the small, compact shape of the burger… this burger was really filling.
It was also quite messy – never mind the greasy, dripping oil all over the place. But if you’re going to order a burger like this, make sure you’re not wearing a white shirt.
From a strict taste perspective, this wasn’t the best burger that I’ve tasted but it wasn’t too bad either.
If you’d rather, you can customize your own burger at Wally’s by adding cheese, bacon, mushrooms or egg for an extra $1 and either a weiner or extra patty for an extra $2.
I was rather disappointed by the Root Beer Milkshake – I couldn’t taste any root beer flavour in this at all… it may as well have been a regular vanilla milkshake. Don’t get me wrong, the milkshake was fine but it wasn’t what I was expecting.
So, was Wally’s Burgers worth a second chance? Yeah, probably. Would I come back? Maybe to try their signature chuckwagon burger but only if it wasn’t out of my way.
Food: 3 / 5
Service: 3 / 5
2661 E 49th Avenue
Vancouver, BC
Posted on May 2, 2012, in Casual - burgers and stuff, Diner, Restaurant Review and tagged Burgers, Food, Fried Egg, Onion Rings, restaurant review, Root Beer Milkshake, Vancouver. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
Penny and Rusty's Food Blog 
i used to really enjoy the original Wallys on Kingsway in vancouver, but oh well, that is in the past. I ate at Wallys in Cates park North Van years ago and i think the setting was better then the burgers. So eventually i tried Wallys in the Killarney Square …twice. Again it was just MEH!….and pricey. Third time i ate there i was pulling long blonde strands of hair outta my cheeseburger. The owner a nice guy and was offered a new burger and apologies…took it home and fed it to my dog the next day instead. I’m curious if your bad experience was hygene related? hair in food? a toenial clipping ? lol…third eatery ive been too in 10 years that ive found hairs in my food..i never go back. 🙂
I think I had a quick write up about it on my blog post (search for Wally’s Burgers). Basically, I tried to go there once, their door was wide open, there was at least one other customer inside. But as soon as I walked through the door (it was 2 minutes past 6pm), the guy working there said “Sorry, we’re closed”. I get that nobody wants to work past their regular work hours. But it just seemed really odd to me that a restaurant would open until 6pm… if you’re going to not offer dinner service, why not close at 3-4pm? And it’s not like their door was closed either… it was wide open. If I see the door’s open at 6pm, I’m not going to bother looking at the hours… I’m just going to walk in.
Happy to say I’ve never found a toenail clipping anywhere 🙂