Magoo's Gourmet Hamburgers and Ice Cream

I used to frequent Magoo's many years ago when I worked nearby.

Old school place with nothing overly exciting ..it has good stuff don't be afraid of this place, I just wish it was home made onion rings :)

This is a great burger place in Etobicoke, probably my favourite in the area to be honest.

We had a most terrible meal here a few weeks ago. A couple of their burger specials with fries and some onion rings. Burgers we ordered medium - nice to have that choice, but gosh they were dry and for burgers on a charbroiler, there was no char. Something weird about those burgers. Any burger joint that cant make a fresh ground burger without fillers/binders, is lazy and out of date. We watched our burgers go on the grill and they were grey in colour. They encourage you to go sit down while they make your meal. Don't. Stand and watch. Soggy fries are the worst in Etobicoke. Onion rings nothing special. Its sad. This place has a great location - the envy of any really good old school burger place or one of the new chains like Priest or Five guys, or just a chef who wants to put out a great burger and fries. You won't find that here. We'll take Jumbo Burger or Apache, even Magic Spot, over this place. Most importantly, we'd like Magoo's to take a good hard look at their products and processes, and get their burger and fries great again.

I left the decision to my guest as to where we were going to eat Saturday evening. So he selected Magoo's Gourmet Burgers on Dundas St. W. as his choice. The place he selected I guess was to be a surprise. He wouldn't tell me what he selected. He just gave me the address for the GPS. I guess he read a few great reviews and thought it to be a great choice. When we arrived, I recognized the plaza and knew this place. I had ate here on several occasions many years ago. I had a friend that once lived nearby and he frequented the place often. If my memory held true, I wasn't overly impressed with their burgers. But it had been years since I had been, so I kept my thoughts to myself and went in to eat and write a review. The dining and cooking area hasn't changed a bit since I had been there. Its been well over ten years since Magoo's was graced with my presence. With the primary colours of white, yellow and blue with a splash of red,, it gives off a cartoon feel to me. But it has gotten old and tired looking. The Magoo's insignia that once proudly graced the backs of some of the seats has since worn off the wood leaving only a shadow of its existence remaining. A Mickey Mouse stuffed animal perched high in the corner overlooking the grill was filthy with accumulations of silt and grime from years of being up there. Time to take it down. However to be fair, the place was clean and we had no complaints with our table and surrounding area. The decor just looks tired and in need of a new look or fresh coat of paint. The staff here is friendly, positive and attentive. I assume it's the owner that's on hand cooking at the grill. He was the one that wanted to know what we wanted from the grill before we were able to place or orders to minimize the wait. So this night, my guest and I ordered a pair of "Magourmet" Burgers, 2 sides of fries and a single order of rings. The burger is said to be 6 ounces of fresh lean ground beef prepared daily and cooked until well done. We both topped our burgers with peameal bacon and cheese. Being simple guy with simple tastes and not wanted to mask the flavour of my burger with a ton of condiments, I topped mine with just relish and onions. My guest however loaded his up. In my opinion, my memory held true. I'm still not overly impressed with their burgers. The meat while lean and cooked the way it was supposed to be, was relatively boring and bland. It didn't pop with flavour. I've had worse but it certainly doesn't reflect all of the five star reviews they've received. Even the bun was boring. I must add though, the selection of fresh toppings was really good. Our burgers were topped with grated cheddar. So perhaps piling up the toppings could add some spice or zest to a relatively boring burger here. My guest pretty much echoed the same sentiments. He wasn't overly impressed. These aren't gourmet burgers like you'd expect from the Works or the Burgers Priest. We've been spoiled. So all in all, our experience was just so so. The burgers in my opinion were just average at best. and some of the reviews here are over rated. The portion sizes for the fries and rings were on the small side and they weren't cheap. and they were nothing to write home about. We also had to pay an additional 2 dollars for the cheese and bacon for our burgers which brought each one of them close to 10 dollars each. Our total with two soft drinks was around 35 dollars. We had even ordered the burgers as combos to make it a better value. So it was a little bit heavy on the wallet for what we got. So given the various choices of other establishments near by for better burgers, It's probably safe to say we won't be back. Nothing super special here.