Burger Cup 2013, Let The Games Begin: Blue Frog vs Great Leap

The Beijinger Burger Cup returns for July 2013, where you vote for your favorites before we arrange a face-to-face burger cook-off to determine the winner.

This year, we begin with Burger Battles: a series of face-offs pitting Beijing favorites with new upstarts. These will not necessarily reflect the ultimate match-ups in our Burger Cup bracket, but give burger fans and burger chefs an idea as to how the product may fare in the final competition.

Visit our website often for Burger Battles, updates on the Cup, and more on how you can participate in voting and other burger activities.

However, it’s time for war. Without further ado, it’s time for our first Burger Battle, pitting our 2011 winner, Blue Frog, against the new kid on the Chunxiu Lu block, Great Leap Brewpub.

Burger Battle: Blue Frog vs. Great Leap Brewpub

Blue Frog
2011 was Blue Frog’s year. The Shanghai-based restaurant was a favorite from the start. They offer what is perhaps the best-known regular burger event in Beijing: Monday night's buy-one-get-one-free at any of their restaurants. But there are rules. Two burgers must be ordered and paid for, and the one with lesser value is the freebie. And they must be consumed on the premises – no take-out is available.

The Burger: This choice was simple: the blue frog. A large patty served with lettuce, onions, pickles, and tomato, all on a hamburger bun, with a small salad and Blue Frog’s fries. It’s a big’un. Bacon, egg, and cheese can all be added together or separately and charged accordingly. Incidentally, for a burger place, Blue Frog may have the most lackluster beer selection in Sanlitun.

Price: RMB 75. At the original price, it’s reason for pause, but at half that on Monday night, much less so.

Reader comment: “I'm a bit of a food snob and am delighted to make the once a week trip to have a Blue Frog burger.”

Great Leap Brewpub
Having just won seven out of the eight Reader Bar and Club Awards for which it was nominated, Great Leap Brewing is the hot new sheriff in town. With their new brewpub off of Chunxiu Lu, they are moving not only from hutong obscurity to home market mainstream, but starting to make noise with their new food menu, which was designed in cooperation with Kin Hong of the (now-shuttered) Taco Bar and The Hardware Store, consisting of straight-up pub classics.

The Burger: The Cheeseburger is two beef patties with two slices of cheddar cheese on each, served on a hamburger bun, with housemade pickles, "fancy sauce," and some mayonnaise on the bottom.

Price: RMB 50. Not too bad for that much meat and flavor.

Reader comment (note: this comment refers to a different burger than the one described above): “Quality of the (lamb) burger was OK, but portion was very small.”

The Decision
Great Leap Brewpub’s Cheeseburger

No question that Blue Frog’s the blue frog is a large, satisfying burger. It suffers, however, from a large burger problem: dryness. Order one step rarer than normal burger preferences (i.e. medium instead of medium-well) to address this issue. The burger’s garnishes are all quite bland. Blue Frog’s fries are decidedly blah. The popularity of this burger is not questioned, but it doesn’t have “champion” written all over it the way it once did.

By contrast, Great Leap’s Cheeseburger not only begins with a capital letter, it’s juicy, has lots of cheese, and doesn’t include a lot of useless vegetable-based calories. That hint of mayonnaise is just right, and Great Leap’s fries are well-prepared, though shoestring fries just don’t go with larger burgers – not here, not anywhere. At this price, there’s even wallet room left for one of Great Leap’s least expensive beers before it exceeds Blue Frog’s pricier fare.

Great Leap Brewpub will face some stiff competition when the Beijinger’s Burger Cup bracket voting begins later this summer, but for the moment, it’s punching an old Beijing favorite right in the nose.

Photos: Steven Schwankert, Cat Nelson