At the time that BKKNites published my review of burgers near the red-light Part 1—Patpong—two of the best ones didn’t exist, because the restaurants where they’re served didn’t exist. One is the cheeseburger at Shenanigans on Soi 1. The other is the wagyu burger at The Steakhouse Co. on Soi 2. So this is an addendum to the previous article. Why take the time? Because these two burgers are quite simply awesome. So here we go:
Shenanigans. Distance from the red-light: 0 meters. Located on the corner of Surawong and Soi 1, Shenanigans (or Shagginz, as my friends and I call it), is the new darling of Patpong. It’s positively jammed with customers from open to close, and deservedly so. The food is fantastic, the beers on tap are great, the atmosphere is like home, the staff are wonderful. You’d have to work hard to find anything negative to say about the joint. I guess if you had to find something, you could say it’s not big enough (shockingly), but they’re already working on fixing that by adding some upstairs real estate. I can’t say more about it at the moment, but stay tuned. Anyway, about the burger (325b for the basic): High marks all round. The bun is soft, and soaks up the juices of the meat. The cheese is perfect, plus bacon and both bbq sauce and dressing, a flavor combo that savory, sweet, and perfect with the meat. It’s a better burger than the one at Paddy Field, which defies explanation because they’re owned by the same person, and cooked and served the same way. I even had, by coincidence, the same chef make both my Paddy burger AND the one I had at Shagginz. Don’t get me wrong, the Paddy burger is also good, and I don’t know how it’s possible, but the Shagginz burger is better. It was excellent from first bite to last. Seven gives it an 8.
The Steakhouse Co. Distance from the red-light: 0 meters. Located in the spot where the illustrious Electric Blue-a-gogo used to be, The Steakhouse is already an expat favorite. It’ll go down in history as the place that started the Pong renaissance, or as it will heretofore be known, The Pongaissance. In addition to ridiculously good steaks, lamb, wine, beer, and exotica like crocodile, they’re now serving up a wagyu bacon cheeseburger that destroys all other burgers. It’s so good that I’ve had 3 in the last 3 weeks and still dream about it several times a day. The meat positively melts in your mouth. It is a gorgeous burger, the food equivalent of dating a Playboy Bunny. It is positively sinful how good it is. If it didn’t cost 595 baht I’d eat one every day and die a happy man by Christmas. For my budget, it’s a great treat-myself meal. The only mistake I made was ordering my drink first. It didn’t occur to me that the beef would be such high quality, and one’s first thought when ordering a bev with a burger is typically beer, so I got a big beautiful glass of Hoegaarden, which was delicious, but a nice Bordeaux would’ve gone better with this particular high-end burger. Wrong beverage. It’s a Thailand problem. I’ll do better next time. Seven gives it an 11. Yes, that’s right. It’s off the scale.
Thus ends the burger update for Patpong. I know, I still have the Cowboy-proximate review to get to, but give me a little time. I need to sleep off my current red meat coma first.
While you’re waiting, follow me on Twitter @BangkokSeven for nightly updates from the red-light, and browse the photo archive on my Facebook page. Also consider donating (it’s just $1 a month!) to fund the operation and get access to exclusive content: www.patreon.com/bangkok7 and/or get onboard with everything BKKNites is doing by donating to https://www.patreon.com/BangkokNites which is ALSO just $1 a month.