Ellice Cafe (closed): 4.5/5

Cheese Burger
$6.99
Score: 4.4


Bacon Burger
$8.29
Score: 4.5

The Ellice Café makes an excellent burger served by very friendly and attentive staff in a nicely decorated sit-down restaurant. Like the Seine River and Oakwood Café, the Ellice Café uses top quality ingredients, but unlike the other two, the Ellice Café adds more seasoning to the burger patty making it very tasty. It’s Burger Club’s new #3 burger!

A little history on the restaurant: The Ellice Café is in a colourful part of town and is the result of Harry Lehotsky’s (RIP) vision. The café is a non-profit community development initiative of New Life Ministries. The Café has no liquor license at the request of community residents in recovery from addictions that wanted a “dry” place to relax and eat. It recently changed from counter service to table service and uses real plates and cutlery. They also take reservations.

We were quickly ushered to our table by our entertaining waiter, and manager, Tim. He took orders as we took our jackets off - several us had already looked at the menu online and knew what we wanted. Drinks came quickly and as the rest of our group of eleven arrived, orders were promptly taken. The initial wave of food came out fairly quickly and just as ordered. There was a mix-up with some of the latecomer’s sides when their food came out, but the mistakes were quickly fixed.

Several of us opted for the Bravo burger which came with double everything. The patties were hot, there was lots of bacon and I could actually taste the two slices of real cheddar cheese! I was very happy. It was also quite good value at $9.99. The patties were large - one would’ve done. It was so massive I cut the burger in half and it still slid all over the place. Romaine and tomato makes for a slippery burger! There was just a hint of chili seasoning in the patty giving it very nice flavour. The patties were juicy and thick, had a light crust from the grill and were leaning to overcooked. Brett commented “You could taste each layer individually yet they worked together marvelously.” The bacon was cooked soft and very tasty. The only room for improvement was the bun which was a little lacking - it was cold and doughy - a little gooey where it was against the plate.

Another popular choice was The Rancher which came with onion rings, ranch and BBQ sauce, as well as bacon and cheese. It made for a impressively tall burger! Geoff had to unhinge his jaw to accommodate the burger and had this to say: “With the onion rings the burger was almost too big to bite. Almost. A lesser man wouldn't be able to handle it. There BBQ sauce was tasty but made the bottom bun disintegrate a bit. Bacon & onion rings on a  burger … I can dig it.”

Cary commented the Furby Fries – with bacon, cheese and gravy - were amazing. I tried them as well and they beat the heck out of Poutine! The crispy yam fries with curry mayo were also super tasty.