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Smashburger Arrives!(Plus A Giveaway So YOU Can Go!)

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close up of Smashburger details

When the email hit my inbox inviting me to the preview opening night for the new Smashburger location opening in Sherwood Park I couldn’t type my “yes!” reply fast enough. I can’t always make it to all the opening invites that I get (the babysitting wages alone would cost me a fortune!) but I knew right away that we were heading to this one.

If there’s one thing my family and I love, it’s a good burger joint. We hunt them out in every city we travel to, scouring local reviews and getting tips from hotel concierge – your best bet for local food love, by the way. There’s nothing we won’t do, or any place we won’t go to try out a new burger.

Saskatoon berry shake signageAs soon as I saw the Saskatoon berry shake, I was dying to try them. Sadly, the shakes were only given out as small samples, which was disappointing because when it’s plus 33, all we could think about on the drive to the opening was a beautiful, ice-cold shake, baby cakes! I still need to get my shake fix soon!

Smashburger features local food ideas, as you can see with the Saskatoon berry shakes above. To add to that, there is also an Edmonton burger that is composed of Canadian seasoned grilled onions, cheddar cheese, Canadian BBQ sauce and a fried egg.

Yowza.

I know this is almost sacrilege, but I don’t really like BBQ sauce on burgers.

I make an exception for the Edmonton burger.

The only thing I would change is to put this on one of their egg buns, which you can do with all their burgers.

Edmonton burger with Canadian seasoned grilled onions, cheddar cheese, Canadian BBQ sauce and a fried egg.Egg bun? What’s an egg bun?

This beauty below is an egg bun. It’s a gorgeous, yellow soft bread that is my gold star standard for burger and hotdog buns. My family and I were literally just talking this past weekend while camping about how the yellow buns are simply the best.

Yes. My family and I sit around the campfire and talk about burger buns and ultimate burgers. It’s no wonder I grew up to do what I do here on the Kitchen Magpie.

My son ordered the burger below, a custom bacon, cheese, guacamole and mushroom burger.

Egg bun burger with bacon, cheese, guacamole and mushroom

Oh, this kid was in seventh heaven. You simply cannot imagine how excited he was to go try out a new burger place. He was so adorable, exulting at least 6 times “I am SO lucky that my mom is a food blogger!”

young boy having a bite of his burger

Mike had the Spicy Baja and we were glad to see that the toppings were fresh, abundant and spicy!

Spicy Baja with vegetables on side

I also had to try a salad – almost sacrilege at a burger joint- but knew that others would want to know about the lighter fare. The Cobb salad was delicious, all three of us shared it as a side instead of fries. I love that the dressing was very scant, allowing you to taste the salad ingredients and not just buttermilk ranch. The fried egg on top was awesome and the applewood smoked bacon added a great taste.

Ok. I had some of it as a side instead of fries. Mike and Mr K ate their burgers, shared fries and then helped me with the salad.

Cobb salad with fried egg on top and applewood smoked bacon, all in a red bowl

What a bad food blogger I am! Who takes a picture of their burger with a bite out of it?

Man, I was starving. I took a bite while taking pictures of the other food, then looked down to realize what I had done.

There’s nothing I love more in this world than a fabulous mushroom burger. Add in truffle mayo, portabella mushrooms and swiss? On a soft as sin egg bun?

Hot. Dang.

This  burger was goooood, people. I mean really, really good. I’m putting it in my top 3 favorite mushroom burgers. Next time I am asking them to load up on the truffle mayo and maybe double the cheese.

I’m drooling thinking of it.

burger with portabella mushrooms and melted swiss cheese

We were convinced later on to try their Veggie Frites, flash fried carrot sticks and green beans that are lightly seasoned.

These are like crack sticks. You simply cannot just eat one. We were full, oh so full by the time these arrived and we still couldn’t stop eating them.

These babies are the dish I would go back for. This and another mushroom burger.Veggie Frites - flash fried carrot sticks and green beans that are lightly seasoned

A random picture of Baconhound taking his food pictures. There were a lot of Edmonton bloggers out there that night, sadly I had to leave to go to a movie or I would have visited longer.

(BTW World War Z was a great movie, no matter what the reviews say. Brad Pitt and zombies = cheesy awesome goodness. What else did you expect?)

man in black shirt taking his food pictures

 

Smashburger has a spicy black bean burger for a veggie option as well as chicken burgers galore for those who don’t eat red meat. I would love to go back and try out the kids meals on a separate occasion to see what those are like – and if my daughter would eat them, always  a sure sign of a successful place.

I’m also thinking that I’ll be taking my dad soon, he’s the top burger lover in the family and he’s sure to love the egg buns combo’d with their large burger patty.

Now, on to the giveaway!

I am giving away $25 worth of gift certificates to Smashburger so YOU can go and try it out!

How do you win?

Your main entry: I always want to ask everyone to write a poem or an ode to my beauty, but you know what? You’re here, you’re reading my blog, that’s good enough for me. Really, see how non-high maintenance I am? True story. So this time I am asking you to leave your name and what your favorite type of burger is. Veggie? Chicken? Mushroom? There’s no wrong answer!

Would you like extra entries?

Who wouldn’t? Each item you do from the list below will get you ONE chance to win (for a total of 4 chances) and if you already do both, then all the easier for you to enter, they already count. So make sure to comment for each item!

You have to leave each entry as a separate comment or only one comment will count!

1. Follow @KitchenMagpie on Twitter and then tweet the following statement then come back to this post and tell me you tweeted. “I just entered to win dinner at Smashburger from @kitchenmagpie, enter here https://bit.ly/12HvLLR”

2. Like The Kitchen Magpie on Facebook

3.  Share the Kitchen Magpie Facebook Page with your Facebook friends and leave a comment on here saying you did!

The contest will close Monday, July 8th and I will notify the winner.

Important Details:
-This giveaway is open to Canadian Residents Only
-The winner will be generated via a random number generator software program and will be notified via the contact email provided on the comment contact form.

Disclosure:
The views and opinions expressed on The Kitchen Magpie are purely my own and based upon my personal experiences with the products. I was not monetarily compensated for a positive review or giveaway

 

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Karlynn Johnston

Iā€™m a busy mom of two, wife & cookbook author who loves creating fast, fresh meals for my little family on the Canadian prairies. Karlynn Facts: I'm allergic to broccoli. I've never met a cocktail that I didn't like. I would rather burn down my house than clean it. Most of all, I love helping YOU get dinner ready because there's nothing more important than connecting with our loved ones around the dinner table!

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  1. afcao says

    I’ve shared your page on Facebook – Andrew Cao

  2. afcao says

    I’ve tweeted – @thatlawyerguy šŸ™‚

  3. Joycelyn says

    After reading your post, I checked to see if Smashburger will be coming to BC in the near future as I’d love to try one of those delicious looking burgers, and sides. Great photos by the way!

    I couldn’t find anything definite on an opening in BC, but there is wording on Smashburger website saying they hope to be in BC soon, whatever soon might mean.  

    What I did find interesting, in my search, I came across a post by another food blogger (Miss Foodie’s Gourmet Adventures)  who attended a Smashburger opening in Calgary on May 6 2012, where Smashburger founder Tom Ryan was present. To make a long story short, it seems the angus beef Smashburger raves about is US Angus beef, not Canadian Angus beef.

    The reason being, in the US they use a method called bowl chopping to mince their beef which is not, (or was not) available in Canada at the time of the Calgary opening. The bowl chopping method according to the founder, is why their Angus beef is more tender & less grainy than beef that is traditionally ground for burgers and such.

     Miss Foodies blog post was a year old, so I did some more searching to see if Smashburger now uses Canadian Angus beef, especially with this latest opening in your area, but didn’t have any luck. All that is said about the beef is they use 100% Angus beef, but not where that 100% Angus beef hails from. Since Alberta is the home of some pretty darn good Angus beef,  It would be nice to know that little fact, don’t you think?

    Cheers

    Joycelyn

  4. ACanadianFoodie says

    It was a HOT day and we were on our way – then D got sick… very sick… so we were not able to make it… glad to read your review. Sounds YUMMY. Was really looking forward to it, too! And, will just have to get over there soon.

    šŸ™‚
    V

  5. vvboutiquestyle says

    I admire you for having salad for your readers.  That was big of you.  I won’t be ordering it when I go, but I will live vicariously through your excellent reporting.  Merci.

  6. vvboutiquestyle says

    I am Mushroom Burger Whore’s baby sister.  It’s all her fault. 

  7. Kelly Vass says

    Already like you on Facebook šŸ™‚

  8. Kelly Vass says

    Just shared your page šŸ™‚

  9. Lisa T. says

    I ‘like’ your page on FB already, thank you!

  10. Lisa T. says

    I follow you on Twitter already and tweeted the link, thanks!