Chilees Burger, Uetlibergstrasse, Zürich

The Korean Burger joint Chilees from Berlin has expanded into Zurich. Location is next to Manesseplatz, where quite a few interesting restaurants have popped up or been revamped. We head there for a lunch on a plain old Monday. Decor is functional, but we’re here to test the food and not the interior design. A photo-copied menu rests on the table and sports a wide variety of cleary Korean influenced burgers.

A few look pretty interesting, for example the ramen burger, where the bun is replaced with hard ramen noodles. We settle on a Black Wasabi burger. The bun is black, filled with sauce, red onions, salad and yellow daikon. The daikon adds a special burst of flavor and is a nice addition, meat is juicy and cooked to perfection and all the condiments nicely assorted. The wasabi mayo has just the right amount of tickle in your nose. But… something’s missing. You don’t get that feeling of super satisfaction of biting into a truly fantastic burger, it feels as if it’s simply trying to hard.

Slightly weird are the Kimchi fries. Not only are the fries on the oily side, they’re covered in Kimchi which lacks flavor and excitement, doused in ketchup and mayo and sprinkled with sesame and scallions. It’s a mess, not very satisfying and feels more like an idea gone too far. The Chilees has a few good ideas, is interesting to try out (Ramen burger), but it’s not worth an extra trip across the city.