Turin – Rock Burger

The Rock Cafe is likely inspired by the Hard Rock Cafe, but this is an independent outlet in Turin and it has a unique sort of vibe to it. I visited here as it was the city’s best rated burger restaurant, although it wasn’t open when it was meant to be and so I had to come back an hour later.

The interior is quirky and has a music theme to it, with rock music also playing, although fortunately at a quiet level. The restaurant has table service and the staff members were friendly and engaging, making an effort to check if I had visited before. This simple question is vastly under-asked by restaurants, it gives them the chance to either thank returning customers or an opportunity to explain the menu.

The restaurant doesn’t have any English menus at the moment, although they’re on order, but I found an English menu on their web-site which made choosing easier. The staff member had though offered to translate or assist me with any questions that I had, so the process was efficient and helpful.

An American beer, at the appropriate temperature and it tasted suitably refreshing.

The onion rings tasted fine and there were a decent number of them, although weren’t exceptional in terms of the coating.

The burger was though far better, the sesame seed laden bun contained bacon, boar burger, some salad stuff and the devil sauce. The meat was tender with a wonderfully rich taste, the bacon had a depth of flavour, the bun was fresh and it was served as a large portion with 200g of meat. No cutlery is supplied with the burgers, but fortunately it held its shape and didn’t collapse midway through my eating it….

Customers can choose between rare, medium and well done burgers, and with this menu option, they can also choose between the more mild angel sauce, the hot devil sauce or the very hot satan sauce. The devil sauce sufficed me and I requested a medium burger, which is how it arrived.

The central bar area and seating, the premises are relatively large and there’s a outside dining area as well. There was one stand out view from TripAdvisor though in my opinion:

“Wow, it was AWFUL!! Italians come to the USA and tell us our Italian food is not Italian, well let me return the favor. Your burger and fries (An American staple) is NOT even remotely close to how it should taste. The burger was under cooked. A burger should NOT be rare like that! The fries live up to the name. As hard as rocks. The coleslaw was also semi-crunchy! Wow….semi crunchy coleslaw.”

The restaurant responded appropriately, but I’ve seen no end of American restaurants offering rare and medium-rare burgers, fries should in my view be crispy and coleslaw is often semi-crunchy in the US. I can imagine how irate the restaurant must have been to receive such a bizarre review.

The prices here aren’t the cheapest, but given the friendliness of the service and the quality of the burger, I’m glad that I came here. There’s a welcoming vibe to the restaurant, although my biggest complaint would be that their opening hours on Facebook and their web-site don’t seem to entirely coincide with when they actually open.