Kraze Burger has expanded and contracted in Korea more than a beauty pageant contestant with an eating problem. When I came here six years ago the chain was growing with about 5 locations located in trendy areas. It served a good burger back then. Then in contracted. It is now revamped I guess and got into new locations. Despite the negative comments about this place since I announced the Hunt, I figured it would a good place to start based on my nostalgia, and to establish a baseline.
Decor is about the same as I remember, a upscale roadside diner type thing. Oddly reminiscent of the newer Krispy Kreme Stores. A semi-open kitchen allows sounds and scents to waft amongst diner. Service is about the same I remember, how Korean college girls can capture that same sense of sullen dead end truck stop waitress vibe is beyond me.
The menu is more expansive than I remember. Besides some burgers and sandwiches the place now offers things like fried rice and pasta dishes. Prices on the sandwiches are not bad, but the new rice and pasta offerings are outrageously expensive. I ordered what the menu considered to be signature burger of the place “The Matiz”. Described as “beef patty, cheese, home made pickle, lettuce, sun ripe tomato, onion, BBQ Sauce, 2 strips of bacon, Kraze bun”. Price paid was W8200.
The big problem with this burger was the lack of burger. The beef patty must have weighed no more than 100g of meat. The rest of the bulk was toppings, which overpowered any meat taste. I want to say the beef lacked a juicy flavor, however it was so small, its likely the amount of juice was about a eye-dropper full to begin with. I could make an allowance and say Kraze prescribes to the “thin burger” theory, but even then the overpowering toppings made any such implementation moot.
As you can see from the picture, accompaniment was somewhere between non-existent and the minimum necessary to keep a Korean client happy. Crunchy pickles, corn salad, and canned Jalapeno peppers complete a plate.
Bottom line, more salad than burger. Underwhelming to say the least at over W8000.
Final Rating: *** (out of 5)
12 Locations around Seoul
English menus and website
36 Comments
I went there once and will never go back. The taste was on par with McDs and the portion size was horrible. I would’ve rated it a half star.
You left out the pathetically small amount of cold french fries that are an extra 4,000 won or so. Kraze sucks donkey dicks.
“how Korean college girls can capture that same sense of sullen dead end truck stop waitress vibe is beyond me” Brilliant line.
And yet, despite the evident suckitude, he awards 3 stars out of five.
What’s with the three stars? I can find a better burger in a dumpster.
Just walk out. That burger deserves $1 at best. Actually 80 cents. Just stand up and walk out.
I did that in a Korean tea room. The guy next me was smoking heavily. I ordered a coffee but I could not stand the fume. I stood up and walked out.
Being an American means taking charge.
If the good delivered to you doesn’t meet your expectation, you can walk out. Even the hookers understand. That is the first rule of commerce: Customer satisfaction.
Where the happy ending to that story?
Wow, who knew there was so much feeling for a crappy Korean burger chain.
Just so you all know, it got bumped to three stars from two since the ingredents were decent and it was a decent meal…for a dieter perhaps.
Baduk> I can just imagine the line “Sorry honey, aint doing anything for me. You might as well just stand up.”
If that’s a Matiz, how small is the Tico-burger?
I’d consider a BK Whopper in Korea, if it had bleu cheese and mayonaise available on it, a 4.5 out of 5. Of course their fries suck, but their onion rings are a very substitute. Hmm, well, a BK Whopper with bleu cheese and mayo, and McDonald’s french fries would be a 4.9/5.
–Remort
Are you going to do a burger joint review everyday? Perhaps later you could do a “Supersize Me” post as well.
over 300 hundred deaths occur each year in U.S from eating contaminated patties of ground beef. Although they mostly occur from outdoor bbq’s and are the result of undercooked patties, I have stopped eating any sort of ground beef all together.. even if it’s well done.
and to think, I used to enjoy them medium rare with all the blood oozing out.. sigh.
How could you review Kraze and not mention the most important failing — the wimpy, lifeless buns. If they put that pile of mayonaise and veggies on a heavy kaiser roll, it might nearly be edible. But the Kraze Burger Wonder Bread patties and just sad.
Even the Chili Cheese Fries there are sad. The fries themselves are okay, but the chili has no flavor at all.
Dram_man,
Exactamundo.
Just in case you got “hooked” by a dream girl in the insufficient lighting and you get into her shack and upon careful examination you find her much older and full of blemishes (that leads you to think you might get something a visit to a doctor’s office won’t cure) you can walk out.
You don’t have to pay. You haven’t done anything, other than perusing your good.
Same thing in the restaurant. You order something and they bring out unsatisfactory goods, then you can walk out without paying.
You have to careful, though, in Italian restaurant. They may spit on your food if you visit next time. Or, maitre-dee may be a brother of Italian Sicillian sainthood. Always, be nice in Italian place.
For Korean restaurants that charges ridiculous price and do not deliver, just walk out. You are helping Koreans by not paying into “shell game”. Few Koreans have guts to do this. Americans must show them the way.
Wow, those banchan (side portions) look pathetic. It would have been better to not include them at all!
I’ve seen better banchan at the worst, diviest, never-cooked-before-in-our-lives, ajeossi-run Korean restaurants in Vancouver.
I remember 11 years ago, Korea’s first TGIF opened in Daegu and my co-workers were excited about it. After long, tedious discussions about what “TGIF” meant, my co-workers and I decided to check it out. I ordered a burger and discovered that they were using sang-chu instead of lettuce in the burgers. Yes, the same sang-chu that gets used as a wrap for rice and bulgogi and dipped in gochu-jang. That’s an atrocious burger blasphemy.
Explaining the concept of “TGIF” in a country where everyone works/studies on Saturday! Should have renamed it “TGIS” for the Korean market.
Same here. I quit right when the mad cow hit France and Germany because that meant it was everywhere and is apparently in America though the USDA does not want to test for it very much since that is not profitable and former meat industry executives hold senior positions in the USDA as well.
Maybe someone should do a “best den-jung” review instead of burgers.
I think we are all agreed, things can only get better. 3 stars is still way too many.
With salmonella, mad cow disease, avian flu, botulism, e coli and all the other microbial nasties, I just gave up eating. I sleep much better at night now.
i would have given 1.5 star. never going back.
I must have hallucinated that Yangjae TGIF I ate at in 1993.
Anyway “Kraze” burger sucks. Overpriced and the food is crap. Yet there’s a line there every day (at least at the one in the photo).
Is that a chain store? I thought you were going to a gourmet shop?
Is there really a good burger joint in Korea?
Maybe a real burger joint run by American might do pretty well over there.
8,000 won for a tiny burger, lettuce and tomato? Thank goodness I have access to the Navy Club on Yongsan.
BTW….3 out of 5 indicates better than average. You may want to re-think your scale as that looked no better than 1.5 stars. Corn and jalepenos as sides??? Yuck.
New Phillies in 해방촌 is owned and operated by a Kiwi.
I went to the newly opened Kraze Burger in my neighbourhood (Daehangno) Wednesday.
I had a pretty poor club sandwich, with the usual spoonful of corn and some pickle on the side.
With cola at 4,000won, I drank water.
As I ate, I wondered if the Idaho fries would really be Idaho fries. Regular fries (which I saw the woman accross from me have with a little chilli sauce) were the frozen crinkle-cut variety you can buy at any decent grocery store.
What irritated me most, as it does when I visit TGIF, Bennigans and Outback, is the surprise 10% VAT they add on an already very overpriced combination of cheap ingredients.
I don’t understand why these franchise restaurants charge additional VAT, when other restaurants and stores in the country don’t. Answer please!
cymro>All things in Korea sold should have the 10% VAT added on. It is just that most stores either include that as the price (eg W1000 item is really a W900 and change item).
Furthermore in reality most small enterprises do not end up paying the VAT since they pay VAT on supplies which cancels things out (theoreticaly). This makes it less of an issue for most businesses to calculate the VAT.
I remember being satisfied when I visisted their Apgujeong branch some 6 years ago… But when I went to their Shinchon branch when it first opened I was incredibly disappointed with the price, quality, and serving size. Your review, DM, sums things up nicely.
Have you tried Platters in Taehangno? It’s sort of a retro, 50-style diner with a shiny white interior and a good variety of burgers and sandwiches on the menu. I’ve eaten there twice and recommend it highly… try the chili bread bowl on the side!
Brian
What I can’t figure out is why anyone would opt for a burger joint when going out when it’s easy to make a really delicious burger at home, just the way you like it and for a lot less money. When I eat out, I usually pick ethnic/specialty restaurants and order dishes I wouldn’t even try to cook at home.
More salad than burger? C’mon guys, don’t you get it? It’s the ‘well-being’ thing they spread all around the country. Unabashedly plastered on every posted ad and creeps on anything and everything, including drinks, 5-day workweeks, and yes, hamburgers too.
That said, seeing as how that burger from Kraze looks paltry enough even from a photo, I’m sure I’ll be better off with them new specialty burgers from Lotteria (which, to say, ain’t half bad, you know).
I echo those who question the wisdom behind 3 stars.
Two stars I’d give it, tops. Probably 1.5 is enough.
That place’s burgers are a joke.
And the price of 8,000 only adds insult to injury.
It does well, what so many Korean eateries do well — lure unsuspecting customers in with its bright cheery decor. And position itself in high-traffic zones filled with young kids with wallets full of daddy’s cash.
The thing I don’t get is, why would anyone come back for seconds?
They have Lotteria in Manila?
Hey, your flag’s Korean. You back in the ‘gook?
The Linkd burger:
60% ground beef
30% ground pork
10% cooked 오곡쌀, or brown rice, or oatmeal
Salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, parsley, lots of dried red chilis.
Form into burgers about 1.5 cm thick and BBQ over medium-hot coals. DO NOT keep pressing them with the spatula to make the juices run out. (Could never figger out why so many people do that).
Linkd, check the date stamp - lba’s post is almost two years old.
I like your burger recipe, btw - I’ll give it a try (minus the salt, though).
…duh…