24/05/2024
I am an avid burger eater, reviewer, and I have worked in MANY restaurants in the United States that cook delicious burgers. Unfortunately, Gustavo's did not live up to the hype.
Problems:
1. We ordered take out, and the bag was packed in such a way that the bag became extremely greasy, got grease all over my vehicle, and ended up ripping as I tried to carry it out of the car. I ended up spilling some of the food as a result.
2. The garlic sauce tastes disgusting. It's overly sweet, doesn't taste like much of a garlic mayo that I would be familiar with, and doesn't go well with the fries.
3. The fries are FAR too thick. The fries are more like potato wedges than French fries. As a result, much like a potato wedge, instead of a crispy delicious center, the fries have a crispy outside, and a chewy, wet, undercooked inside.
4. The burgers are overcooked. I like my burgers more on the medium to medium rare. These are VERY well done, have no juice, but plenty of grease.
5. The sauces and cheeses all taste generic. So much of what could be done right is done wrong. You have very clearly homemade burger patties, with nice flavor, but then all the sauces taste bought in, and they do not taste good at all. They taste cheap, generic, overly sweet, and everything is drenched in it, including burgers - my burger, a Bacon Cheeseburger, was drenched in some awful generic barbecue sauce. Disgusting...
6. The bread of the burgers is not properly toasted. Because they do not toast (or perhaps properly toast) their bread, the buns are very soggy.
7. The service was okay, up until we get home to discover they forgot our sodas. Also, they charge 3 TIMES the regular store price for a canned drink. As if they aren't making enough from the overpriced burgers. They did offer to ship the sodas, which was nice, and I took them up on that since they were the most overpriced sodas anywhere in Baguio.
8. The dining room is too hot, and the chairs are cheap outdoor plastic chairs that feel very flimsy to sit on.
On the whole, I had very high hopes for this place. People in the reviews rave about their burgers, and say it's the best in town, and some say "in the Philippines", but this is not remotely the experience I had. I am sorely disappointed.
