We’re always ecstatic when any restaurant introduces a number of new burgers on their menu. But when Hard Rock Cafe rocks their way with 4 new burgers in one go, our burger-senses go haywire! Since opening its first restaurant in Malta towards the end of 2000, Hard Rock have always kept a consistent quality when it comes to burger food. We had to check them out on day one, which happens to be one August summer day. It’s not your standard Maltese summer day though. It’s one hell of a summer day, or to be more precise, one with a temperature of 43°C, sporting an almost-combustible Lucifer heatwave! The perfect burger to enjoy on this one day must definitely be The Atomic, a concoction of spicy fried onions, hot pepper jack cheese, chillied sriracha sauce and flaming fried jalapenos! That’s a burger name that pays homage to the heat intensity of the Maltese summer of 2017! This burger promises to be hot & fiery and coupled with the outdoor temperature, and we are risking to be reduced to ashes after 3 bites. Or maybe not?
The Atomic burger was conceived in the Las Vegas Hard Rock Cafe kitchens and gets its name from the nuclear testing that goes on at the Nevada national security site, in the middle of the desert. Nevada has seen a good number of bomb & nuclear device testing since the 50s. Let’s see if #MALTAburgers can safely diffuse The Atomic, and get out unscathed.
The first layers on top of the toasted bun are arugula and sriracha mayo. There’s a reason why Hard Rock has put Arugula in this burger. While the paler variety of Arugula leaves have a mild flavour, the darker ones taste more pepperish. It’s a level of pepper any infant can handle, so everyone is safe at this stage. The sriracha sauce tastes of mayonnaise, chilli, vinegar, garlic, lime juice and some soy sauce. This is not the secret recipe that Hard Rock use, it’s our own personal guess work! It’s a good level of spice that welcomes you to what is to come next!
One level up, we find a sliced tomato and the signature beef patty. The tomato provides a tangy kick to brighten up the flavour of the grilled beef. The patty is made from 225gr of Hard Rock’s proprietary blend of certified Angus beef. It’s the same patty used in all Legendary burgers. The temperature is medium, but it’s not of the almost-raw & uncooked-pink variety. The kitchen people have managed to do a well cooked-through patty while keeping the right level of moist, just the way we like it.
The next levels of the burger are the most impetus ones on the hotness scale. There is one whole level of sliced jalapenos, lightly fried in a batter. These peppers have a slight tart flavour that contrasts with the sweetness of what tastes like a beer batter. These jalapenos are the spiciest element of the whole burger. You are either wo/man enough to eat them as they are, or just drop them… which would go against the whole concept of The Atomic! As if that is not enough, the jalapenos are smothered in 2 slices of Pepper Jack cheese, which is a Monterey Jack cheese flavoured with spicy peppers and herbs. You might want to cheat and remove the black pepper dots on the cheese using your cutlery, but the pepper jack only has a light spice to it. Lucidly it’s complimented with the smart sweetness of fried onions that go on top. There’s a whole bunch of them, so they provide a crispy element while making this burger look towery.
You get no onion rings on top of The Atomic. It wouldn’t live up to its name if it were so. Instead, you get 2 whole peppers! They are encrusted in a beer-batter of the same variety of the sliced japaneos, found some levels down. The peppers are more akin of poppers. When it comes to peppers, they can either be lacking in heat and similar to bell peppers or so hot that they create a raging inferno in your mouth. These are rated somewhere in between, and very tolerable to eat as they are! They can be sliced in half, and the seeds scraped away. Why? Green Jalapeno chillies get hotter by age until they turn bright red. The smoother the pepper, the younger and milder it is. We think this is the variety of peppers that Hard Rock are using, as they have a kind heart and a bit of mercy for sensitive tongues. The seeds inside also contain a good level of the hotness. Remove them, and you might even eat 3 in a row without a flinch. Either way, prepare to order 2 or 3 cocktails plus a hose of water because this burger will set the insides of your mouth to hot-mode!
The Atomic has a lot, and some more, going on. It’s made up of a lot of well-thought out components that provide, both sweet and salty elements, with a “tiny” bit of spice. All these ingredients work together and create an experience bursting with flavours that taste over the top but in a beautifully-done concept. The concept goes another extra mile further to what we are accustomed at Hard Rock Cafe. Indeed this time around we also have the option to choose between 3 different varieties of French fries, done in a very artisan way. Each French fry can be paired with a different dipping sauce. Fries option are Chilli Seasoned, Parmesan Romano or Herb & Garlic Fries and can be paired with Chipotle Garlic Ketchup, Garlic Aioli and Chimichurri Mayo sauces respectively. The seasoned chilli fries we tried with The Atomic are crispy and flavourful.
Hard Rock Cafe have come up with a bomb of a burger with The Atomic. It packs enough heat to please fans of spicy food, yet it does not blast your tongue if you have sensitive bud tastes. We’re very intrigued by the new Hard Rock burgers on the block, and we will definitely be back to test run some more.
