Good Good

I took my first trip to Dunedin a few weekends ago and it was a long time coming. Whilst my main agenda there was less than appetising (it involved a visit to the anatomy department at the medical school, ‘nuff said), lunch on Sunday was a knock out, even by Auckland standards.

I dragged my hungry colleagues down the other end of town to Good Good on Vogel Street. Housed inside an industrial warehouse, this pink-fantastic burger bar is serving up excellent burgers in equally excellent surrounds. Powder pink picnic benches are juxtaposed with vibrant graffiti, a faux-garden wall, neon-lit basket ball hoop and a motorcycle. WTF.

The star feature, the burgers, are served out of a converted indoor-caravan. Auckland burger establishments have been resting on their laurels as of late so it was refreshing to wrest my chops around Good Good’s exceptional beef burger, which featured a perfectly seasoned grass-fed beef patty, American cheddar cheese, iceberg lettuce, red onion, pickles and Good Good sauce. It is rare to find a patty so tasty with just the right amount of char. The patty is the star, the good people of Good Good know this. The American cheese provided just the right amount of moreish ooze and the other components were both refreshing and tangy, the perfect foils to what might otherwise feel heavy with grease. And the bun. Don’t get me (or anyone else at lunch that day) started on the bun. But if we must, a light and fluffy black sesame brioche bun with just the right amount of structural integrity to carry the rest of the burger, neither dry nor falling apart. It had a distinctive buttery-rich aroma that is hard to forget. Top it off with a side of truffle tots crisp and greaseless, served with finely grated parmesan and truffle mayonnaise, and you have yourself a good good day.