walshieosHesburger - Fast Food Goodness!
August 7th 2008 01:13
Location: Finland, Baltic States, and a few in Hamburg Germany
Cost: Standard fast food pricing, so pretty reasonable for a value meal.
Wiki
I have to admit, I have a seriously love/hate relationship with fast food. I grew up in arguably the golden era of junk food (the 80s and 90s) where if you didn’t have a Macca’s birthday party at some point you just weren’t cool. Then came the new millennium and the age of Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me, and suddenly a lot of people started to think in a completely different way, and began looking at fast food with a more critical eye.
Well, whether you do or you don’t agree with fast food in general, when you’re traveling around Europe, especially as a backpacker with a very limited budget, you come to appreciate the occasional quick bite to eat in a ‘restaurant’ that is both familiar and cheap.
That’s the beauty of a place I came across in Helsinki called.
Best burger joint in Finland
I found my first Hesburger by the simple fact that it was everywhere I went in Helsinki. Each restaurant we walked past was constantly packed, and there was a significantly greater presence of this, to me, unknown restaurant chain compared to any of the other big name fast food franchises. After talking to a few locals, they proudly informed me that Hesburger was actually a more profitable and popular fast food chain across Finland compared to biggest rival McDonalds, and was quite simply better.
I had to try it.
When you walk inside, you can’t help but notice the similarities to the golden arches, especially with their Megahampurilainen as mentioned above that has a very familiar look about it. The difference though, other than the feeling you get when eating one of their burgers that it is somehow fresher than the rest, is the amazing Hesburger sauce. By far, one of the best burger sauces I have ever tasted, and I do love both a fast food and a gourmet burger these days.
Apart from this wonderful taste creation, they have a HUGE variety of alternate burger choices. However, if you are like me and can unfortunately only speak English, it can be a little difficult to figure out what is actually ON any of the other burgers. Luckily they do have pictures of everything and if you have your handy phrase book with you it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out what meat is in what. Alternatively, my mate and I always found that the friendly people behind the register could speak English as well as their native tongue and where more than happy to help.
I haven’t been back for a few years, but after a little research for this post, I now know that Hesburger can be found all over Finland, as well as a few other international locations in Estonia, Germany, Lithuania and Latvia (thanks Wiki!).
As I said, sometimes when you are traveling for a long period of time, something fast, simple and cheap is a great option, so what better choice to make than that of a local fast food chain over one of the others. Alternatively, if you are just a fast food junkie and love eating the stuff, you absolutely must try this place if you ever head over that way, you really will not be disappointed, that sauce is incredible!!!
Happy Eating!
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