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MotorBurger
Categories: Restaurants Canadian (New) Restaurants Burgers Canadian (New), Burgers [Edit]
888 Erie St EWindsor, ON N9A 3Y7
(519) 252-8004
- Hours:
Mon-Fri 10:30 am - 11 pm
Sat 3 pm - 11 pm
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Ambience:
- Trendy
- Caters:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
16 reviews for MotorBurger
16 reviews in English
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Review from Busia B.
Windsor, ON
3/21/2012
I will admit that the first time I came here, I probably would have gave this place three stars, but this is easily the best burger in Windsor and one of the best burgers in the Detroit/Windsor area. Quite frankly, I do not know of a place in Detroit that has a better burger. I can only compare it to Red Coat Tavern and Miller's and Motorburger is better in my opinion. I have been to many places in Detroit for a burger and Red Coat, Miller's and little Sonny's Hamburgers are the best going over there.
I am only ranking Motorburger on their "Classic Motorburger". It is incredible ! I think it is just so close to perfection.... the meat is perfectly hand crafted goodness. The toppings are incredible and the bun was toasted just the way I like it. Why would this not be 5 Stars for the burger alone. It is beyond words good. To not give this burger 5 Stars tells me that either, you have no idea what a perfect burger is or you have some other place for burgers that seems to play a favorite for you.
The regular fries here are okay and not bad. The poutine here is just not in the same league as Pita Grill's... Motorburger's poutine is just not what it should be and needs to be overhauled. However, that alone is not going to make me lose focus on how good this burger is. It is really a 6 star burger here or even higher.
The service has been great to sub par, depending who you get, but only on one visit was it not that great.
It is surprising to see Motorburger here.... this is Via Italia, but it seems to have fit in nicely now.
For the price and the quality, it is Windsor's best value. -
Review from Johnny L.
2/27/2012 1 photo
Easily the Best Burger in Windsor.
I've been pretty disappointed with Canadian Burgers (except Peameal Bacon....love that). Motor Burger is the closest to an American gourmet burger that you'll find. Motor Burger is located on Erie Street (Via Italia) on the street corner of Parent Ave. This joint looks small from the outside but it's an amazing place inside. It's got trendy decor with a nice bar and a great ambiance.
Motor Burger specializes in burgers so it wasn't hard to decide what to get. I didn't know what to expect so I made sure I got the Classic Motor Burger (8 oz. ground brisket and chuck, red onion, tomato, and motor sauce). Gotta do the original first before I dwell further in right? My friend got the Lamb-Orghini (ground lamb, sundried tomato tapenade, goat cheese). They have a a variety of burger choices including some that have ground shrimp, ground chorizo, ground ahi tuna, japanese kobe, and much more. You can also supercharge your burger, which basically adds another patty. We also got an order of fries as well.
That Classic Burger was easily the best burger I've had thus far in Windsor. My Canadian buddies told me about Harvey's but they're obviously delusional if they think Harvey's has anything on Motor Burger. Motor Burger offers a far better burger for around the same price. When the server comes out with that wooden plank holding your burger and fries, you can pretty much tell it's gonna be good. The burger was juicy and the toppings complemented it really well. The brioche bun (or at least very similar to brioche) held the burger together very well. I wasn't a big fan of the fries. I thought they were a little oversalted and the grated cheese (parmesan I think) didn't work for me.
Overall, a nice place for a group of your friends or even a date (if they don't mind seeing you with burger juice all over yourself). The burger was great, and I'll be sure to come back to try many of their other creations. The service was stellar and the place is a pretty cool joint. For the price too, it's definitely worth it. -
Review from Moe R.
Windsor, ON
2/26/2012
Delicious burger at a reasonable price....
Enough said. -
Review from Jer B.
Windsor, ON
Updated - 3/16/2012
Went back here recently twice. The meat was not like the times I went when they first opened. Burger seemed almost dry. Had a better burger at Wendy's actually.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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6/17/2010
I never thought I would ever find another burger place like Vera's burger shack in Vancouver.… Read more »
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Review from Liz W.
5/29/2011
Oh the controversy! Over-hyped and overpriced meh or the best damn burger evah?
The answer lies somewhere in between, for me at least. I liked my burger here but I will agree the poutine sucks hard, get your fries plain. I also would never order an eighteen dollar burger, just saying. We did spend in here but due to over-ordering, because we felt like it and I wanted to experiment.
The caprese salad here was very nice, fresh and chock full of happy ingredients. It was a nice foil to the fattier fare, we shared it very happily. I had a classic loaded up with cheese, it was juicy and delicious. I liked the bun. It is not THE best I have ever had but it is definitely a very respectable burger with good flavor. My husband went for a supercharged (double) with bacon and extra cheese, no other toppings. His was a bit drier but still good. He liked it a lot, he is less of a *grease* fan than I am and would be appalled by juices running down his arm. His was a hell of a lot of burger, I do not advise going that far. Ummm to go boxes -stat- please.
The poutine was a mess and the gravy was indeed bland. I was not a fan at all, which is sad. I have been eating poutine since I was a small shaver and this just was the bottom of the barrel in my opinion. The pieces of fries left plain were good, it's the toppings that kill this dish. needless to say the leftovers did not make it to the to go boxes.Listed in: Burgers, Windsor wanderings
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Review from john w.
Windsor, ON
3/20/2012
v good burger place, lots of flavor.. great atmosphere in little italy. the price is ok...ask for the shrimp burger it s great..
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Review from Judy S.
Windsor, ON
1/14/2012 2 Check-ins Here
Our first visit to MotorBurger..... it will not be our last. I had the Club Curcuit a great combination of chicken breast, peameal bacon, cheese and avocado. My husband had the Classic MotorBurger with cheese, I will have to admit I had a bite of his and it was great. Now I have to give a mention to the sweet potato fries delicious.
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Review from Janelle W.
12/24/2010 4 photos
Call me "Mario Kart", because I just got played.
After my Harvey's debacle (http://www.yelp.ca/biz...), I swore off Canadian hamburgers. But when some all-American boys wrote of MotorBurger more eloquently than Thoreau wrote of Walden Pond, I caved in. Like a reactionary marionette, I believed the hype and crossed the border for a damned hamburger.
Alas, the decision to trust Yelp over my own instincts was not my finest hour. And now, the Yelp puppet masters are rolling at their keyboards, laughing at how easily duped I am... because everything I'd read about MotorBurger was exactly the opposite of what I experienced.
The promise of a juicy burger, with succulent jus dripping down my wrists?? Not a droplet of liquid remained in this parched and unseasoned lump of so-called "Piedmontese". It showed up well-done, despite my request that it still be mooing. The patty had hard angular edges, which suggest assembly-line pre-fab rather than hand-formed -- even Boxy from "Futurama" couldn't shape something so angular.
The promise of a flavor symphony in the Deux Cheveaux burger ($8.95), topped with spinach, Gruyère, bacon, and caramelized onion?? Nearly inedible -- the brioche-like bun was slathered in more horseradish than a carvery goes through in a year. This stuff completely masked some of the most assertive flavors known to man -- Gruyère, bacon, and onion.
The promise of savoury poutine ($6.50 small), made from the "best" fries ever?? This was more of a disgrace to Canada than when Wayne Gretzky earned American citizenship. The fries were drowned in a pale, lifeless, bland gravy that was the culinary equivalent of a corpse. It appeared to be a dilute 1:4 ratio of beef gravy to flour-water roux. They snowed a Parmesan-garlic powder atop the poutine, which only added an unnecessarily bitter bite to what should have been a no-frills, simple, comfortable dish. Just a few forkfuls of this slop, and I felt worse than I did after taking a final exam while still drunk from the night before.
But whereas I can ace an exam even while drunk, hung over, running on no sleep, or all of the above, MotorBurger fails Burger Unviersity on all counts. Yes, they get mad style points. Yes, they use high-quality and fresh ingredients. But none of that matters when the food is more tasteless than taking topless pregnant photos.
Yet, the joke was on me, as I was the sucker who forked over $32, excluding tip and tolls, for a pair of burgers and a pair of appetizers.
So maybe "Dance Dance Revolution" is a better name for me -- because not only did I get played, but I got stomped all over. -
Review from Annette J.
12/26/2010 2 Check-ins Here
Confession: I ate two burgers in one day last week. One of those burgers was Motorburger, one was Miller's in Dearborn. Needless to say it was probably one of the best days of my life.
It's been a while since I'd made my way out to Windsor but once I saw the glowing reviews for Motorburger here on Yelp I knew I had to make a visit sooner rather than later. Luckily I had a couple of friends who were in Windsor for the holidays so I suggested we meet there to catch up and eat delicious beef. I did not leave disappointed.
The first thing that hits you is the smell. It smells AMAZING in there. Mouth watering burger smells hang in the air and get your tummy a rumbling. The menu has a nice selection of appetizers and salads but of course the burgers are what's up. I went with the F1: the Japanese kobe brisket with portobella mushroom and caramelized onion. It comes with blue cheese but I wasn't in a blue cheese mood so I swapped it out for goat cheese. What a burger! The beef was so flavorful and juicy, the mushroom added a wonderful extra meatiness to it, the caramelized onion lent a hint of sweetness to the deal and the goat cheese with a nice bit of tart. Served on a bun that was perhaps sort of brioche like? Awesome. A cornucopia of flavors!
Got the burger with a side of fries, which were crunchy and delicious. Sprinkled with some coarse salt and some sort of cheese (parmesan?Asiago? We couldn't figure it out--we just knew it was fabulous). My friend ordered a side of the mac and cheese which I took a bite of. It was good but not the best mac and cheese I've ever had. But warm and cheesy and very comfort food-esque. Also tried a couple of the dipping sauces: avocado chipotle and horseradish mayo. The horseradish mayo was not at all strong or horseradishy (for lack of a better word). This could be good or bad depending on your level of love for the hot root. The avocado wasn't very strong either. Just a hint of chipotle and avocado. Definitely mild sauces. The burger comes on a wood board with a pickle and some coleslaw which I admittedly did not try because I ended up too full from everything else.
The burger I ordered, being that it was kobe beef, was pricey but the other burgers were far more reasonably priced. They're huge portions but you can also get them "supercharged" and get a larger serving. Now, the regular one is plenty big so I can't even imagine what a supercharged one looks like. WHEW. Most of the burgers are beef but they also have lamb, chicken, turkey, tuna, shrimp, chorizo, and veggie burgers as well. All dressed up with complimentary toppings. Hot damn!
This place would get 5 stars if it weren't for the crummy service. It took FOREVER to get anyone to come over to take our drink orders, then it took a long time getting her back with our drinks and to take our food orders. Once our food came she was a little more attentive but still--MIA far to often considering it was a Wednesday afternoon and the place wasn't crowded. With a burger like that, I ain't mad, but if it wasn't so great I would have been really irked by the service.
Last week I got an enhanced driver's license so I could go back and forth to Canada more easily and frequently since I have friends out there. I'm pretty sure, however, that I'll be seeing the folks at Motorburger more so than my buddies.Listed in: Meaty Madness, Frenchy Fries, Get Thee A Burger!, Oh, Canada!
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Review from Brian A.
12/7/2010
I cannot even fathom how to begin this review. This is, without a doubt, the absolute best burger I have ever had in my life.
I am just stunned at nearly every aspect of the experience; I don't even know why or how this place ended up in a quaint, off-the-beaten-path neighborhood in downtown Windsor.
The menu is superb; besides all the amazing and unique burger offerings, the appetizers are sublime: Trust me on this, you have to get the sweet potato fries. The poutine was extra good because the quality of the ingredients is so high. The shake menu was incredible, although I didn't get to try one.
I got the Deux Chevaux burger: carmelized onions, gruyere, and thick crunchy bacon. The beef is divine; it's Piedmontese and it was just... better than any other Piedmontese I've ever tried. More flavorful. I can't describe it. It was the best-tasting beef I've ever had.
My girlfriend got the Lamb-orghini burger (all the burgers are car-themed), which was ground lamb that tasted heavily of olives. The sun-dried tomato tapenade that was on the burger was very intensely olive-flavored, but it was a good thing.
Also: Goat cheese. Yes.
The decor was fantastic. The place is very modern, very clean, and even the bathrooms are an amazing experience.
The only. Stress: only negative part of the experience was the less-than-perfect service. Upon entering, there was a young woman behind the bar messing with the sound equipment. We stopped in the doorway, looking to her to see if she was a hostess. She looked back and blurted out, "I don't work here."
Cool story. Who does?
Eventually a hostess found us. The place wasn't busy at all, and we got seated with no fuss.
I only wish that we had a better server. Our waitress was distant, and had a table that consisted of some of her personal friends, so she spent the bulk of our meal chatting with her buddies and laughing, even as we waited for almost ten minutes for a refill on our soft drinks. It was basically rude, and she was apparently the only waitstaff working that night.
Service is always hit-or-miss, so I'm not docking them because of our rude waitress.
Go here. It's worth crossing the border. It's worth paying the toll. It's worth the exchange rate. By all that is holy, you have to experience this place.Listed in: Keto-friendly Detroit
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Review from Brian S.
10/27/2010 2 photos
Thank You Rob D. !!! I decided to jump the border and give MotorBurger a try and holy crap ! I am completely blown away by the burger I had. It was the best burger I have ever had and I have tried every place in the states. Every nook, cranny, hole, restaurant, bar, street vendor and drive ins, and nothing compares to MotorBurger. They also have the best fries I have ever had and what really sucks now about having been to MotorBurger is that when I order a burger anywhere else, I am probably going to be disappointed and only remember my MotorBurger experience. I was partial to "Talley's Bar" in Lewiston, MI for their burger and also Clyde's in St Ignace and a couple Detroit spots, but now the bar has lifted and lifted quite higher.
As Rob D. rates MotorBurger as Windsor's best burger for 2010, I would have to say it is by far the best right now in the Windsor/Detroit area.
I had their cheeseburger and a order of sweet potato fries. I wasn't sure what to expect, but when the wooden plank arrived with my order, I had to try ! I went for the sweet potato fries first and my first thought was to put mustard on them, but they had a cheese like seasoning that blew me away. Each fry had the same amount of seasoning, perfect. The coleslaw was different too, extremely good, but not enough on the plank. My first bite into the burger was like having sex for the first time. I discovered something new that I really liked that touched on a sense I was previously unaware of. Damn, it was so good. The sauce is a little spicy, but I loved it. I just can't describe how different this burger was. It was perfection.
I will go back, I am hooked now....Next visit will be Poutine and a burger, I can't wait. -
Review from Natasha K.
Windsor, ON
1/22/2011 1 Check-in Here
I've been there twice, and both times really really enjoyed the gourmet burgers. The first time I got the shrimp one which is was a very unique and delicious experience. This time I tried the El Camino burger where the meat patty was made of Italian sausage, topped with avocado, smoked cheese, and I think tomato and garlic mayo? Highly recommend this one as well, it was probably one of the best burgers I have ever had.
The place looks awesome, I love the modern but dinery decor, and the whole classic car theme.
The place is a leetle pricey, but worth it. I keep getting the fries on the side, which pisses me off that they cost an additional $4, but then I never finish them. But perhaps that is my own problem. You can also get mac and cheese on the side, which is awesome!
Drinks are good, but expensive. Service is slow. Also, the second time we went during Winter Bites and waited for our food for 2 hours. So try not to go there when you're reaaaally hungry ;) -
Review from Rob G.
Belle River, ON
3/14/2010
This is a great little place on Erie St. E in Windsor, Ontario. The burger I had was very good and the atmosphere is great. The fries are excellent as well.
We started with the fried pickles for an appetizer. Rolled in crushed doritos with ranch dipping sauce. My only complaint was that there were only 5 spears =(
I love that they try to stick with the times and are current with the menu. They stay enough with the cars theme that it's interesting but not overdone. The bathrooms are clean and the theme continues on in there. A great sink that's a showpiece in a way and to dry your hands, individually rolled terry cloth towels like you'd use in a garage that you throw into the hamper when done. Great touch.
The menu is one page and I love that. There's something for everyone here and quite a few healthy alternatives but not such a huge menu that you don't know where to start. Stick to what you're good at and make it great and this place does that. -
Review from Jennie C.
Windsor, ON
5/2/2011
Not Millers, but if the border closes, or if my husband wants his motor burger, I will come here for a burger. I have to say that it's a pretty good burger in Windsor.
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Review from AtlasWinked U.
9/12/2011 1 Check-in Here
GREAT burger! If I recall, I had the Ferrari or something like that...excellent meat and cooking, with a truffle oil flavoring to compliment the other goodies on the burger. The red onions in the salad were infused somehow with lime juice...incredible. I'll definitely visit again on my next trip to Detroit, and make the quick hop over to Windsor for this.
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Review from Rob D.
8/19/2010 2 photos
Continuing with my Windsor hometown burger joint review to find the best best damned burger joint on the planet.....
For Windsor - I crown Motor Burger the 2010 champion.
Firstly, this place is actually stylish with a modern design and clean bright green booths and stools .. all following the "motor" theme of giant sketches high up on the walls . . . much more suited to a metropolitan city like Toronto or New York. In fact, I rival the style and juiciness factor with that of Montreal's crown burger joint Jewel "M Burger" (http://www.mbrgr.com/) ... and those french understand style.
In a depressed economic time, in Canada's "automotive capital", where people are most likely to go out to spend $2 for a CC and ginger at one of the many places offering this, and if you're (un)lucky enough to find it with a wet t-shirt contest ... you'd think that a restaurant that makes the bold 180 change from a fine dining Italian spot in the middle of dozens of restaurants along the one street (Erie) known as Windsor's "Little Italy" wouldn't stand a chance in hell to survive ... let alone prosper as a chic burger joint . . . . but that is just what happened. Previously "Noi" turned into "Motor Burger" ... this is hands-down the best damned burger in Windsor. Sorry pops, I'll include an honorable mention and even post a pic of the 2 juicy morsels I snagged off of your grill with your stupid, ridiculous, lap-dog Hershey staring at them ... but Motor Burger still wins.
So - Again, I go for burger and poutine. Now maybe it is the owner's french background, or just his love of everything french from poutine to Monet ... but these were REAL fries with REAL cheese curds and sensationally delicious gravy.
The burger ... gushing with juicy flavour ... served with a pickle and some pretty damned good coleslaw I must add . . . was even served up on a stylish wooden slab.
It is so good to see a restaurant that "gets it" from the service to decor to food to presentation to overall vibe. I will admit that I was radiating some pretty good vibes on that sunny afternoon. Hell, when I was street parking, this parking attendant stopped her little annoying horrible car in front of me as I was fumbling for (no) change in my pocket . . . . . I preface this with the fact that I typically despise these people and think that they and dentists have some sick twisted need to inflict pain and badness onto people . . . and that lock-stock-and-two-smokin-barrels is one of my favourite movies (and couldn't help but smile when they dummy the traffic warden: see: http://www.youtube.com...) . . . but this lady jumps out of her car and says "heeey ... don't worry about paying . . . i don't give a shit" which prompted me to extend my arm around her and the other outwards with my trusted blackberry camera . . .she kinda clued in and tried to hide. haahahahaa!!! This lady made my day! So I just had to share. I know you wouldn't believe it without the pic. That's why these candid random shots are so important :).
I'll put Motor Burger up against any burger joint I come across, as this is the new standard. Watch for future write ups ... a few in Toronto are next on the docket.
Cheers!
