Not much is really happening in the Itaewon food scene right now, so I have been spending more time exploring other neighbourhoods. Last week I went to check out the area by Anguk station and stumbled across Almighty Cheeseburger. Their alluring drive-in style sign soon drew me in. I never had particularly high hopes for this place but they had outdoor seating and a big sign advertising lemon slushies which made it impossible to resist.
The place itself is a very bizarre mishmash of styles. It is trying to carry off retro burger joint minimalism but the large space and tiled floor kind of make it look like a swimming pool, while the wood panels and staircase have a kinda library feel going on. But as soon as we saw the menu I stopped caring about what the place looked like.
There are a variety of burgers on the menu, one I was absolutely dying to try was the bacon encrusted donut burger, but sadly they no longer off because the locals weren’t ordering it. It was a bacon crusted donut with a burger in it, I can’t believe I missed out, that’s like three of my favourite ingredients! After that particularly heart breaking moment, I decided to move on and ordered three of the other burgers, two fries and two drinks to help me get over my my loss.
The drinks came out first, we had ordered a Lemonade Slushy (2,500), and Strawberry Milkshake (3,800). Man oh man was this lemonade slushy amazing, it was sweet, with a super tangy sour pop. It was everything you want on a hot sunny day. It would be perfect with vodka. Sadly I wasn’t carrying my own personal supply of vodka that day, so I got another to go and threw in some Soju, which kinda made it the best day ever. The milkshake was also really good. It was super thick and had that faux strawberry flavour that tasted like childhood. We were off to a good start.
Of the trio of burgers we tried, the out and out favourite for me was the Caramelized Onion Burger (5,700). Two thin burger patties layered with white cheddar and topped with caramelized onions. This had the total Mmm factor, it was probably the amazing caramelized onions but I was all about it. I seriously considered getting two more to go!
Our second favourite was the Bacon Cheeseburger (6,200) which came with onion, two beef patties layered with american cheese, pickles and bacon. This was pretty simple but hit the spot, it was really well seasoned so you could taste the black pepper which me and my burger buddy enjoyed. I’d certainly get it again. Lastly we ordered the Almighty Works (6,900), a double cheese burger with bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles and special sauce. By the time we got to this bad boy we were pretty full, and while I liked the additional ingredients I had to give it to the simpler burgers. However if I had tried it first I might have felt differently. They also have a breakfast burger which looks pretty bad ass.
They have several kinds of topped fires on the menu. I couldn’t resist the BMT (5,800). Chunks of deep fried pork belly bacon on a bed of sweet potato fries, drizzled with maple syrup. You know I live for a sweet and salty combo so I was pretty excited about these. I liked them well enough to finished them, but they came with a lot of syrup making them pretty sticky and a little bit sickly. Secondly we got the Spicy Pork Fries (4,800). Skinny fries topped with spicy pork bulgogi, nacho cheese, sour cream, onions, and a chilli pepper. They were rather spicy, but not so much that you didn’t want to keep eating them. I would love to try the bacon mac and cheese topped version too. I thought for the price it was a very good sized portion, plenty of places charge this much just for plain fries.
Overall I really enjoyed the Almighty Cheeseburger, it is basically an elevated fast food burger joint. I thought the burgers and fries were rather tasty and amazingly priced. It reminded me a bit of the Supermarket White Burger Stand in HBC which I also really enjoy. If you are in the area and looking for a cheap and satisfying burger you would be hard pushed to do any better.
Almighty Cheeseburger is located at 137-5 Hwa-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. To get there take a train to Anguk Station (line 3) and come out of exit 1. Turn right and walk straight until you reach the end of the street and turn left. You will see Almighty Cheeseburger just up ahead on the right hand side. For more information you can call them on 02-733-7180 or visit their Instagram page. They are open from 11:30am-9:30pm.