I wish burgers were healthy, and good for you. I like eating them, a lot. As seen here, here, and here. So of course when I visit Ottowa, I had at least two kinds of burgers.

The Works is a chain, they call themselves a gourmet burger bistro. I can see that. There are A LOT, and I mean a lot of things to choose from, to build your ultimate burger. First you choose your patty, Gourmet Ground Beef, Whole Chicken Breast, Ground Turkey, Gourmet Veggie, Portobello Mushroom Cap, or Lean Domestic Elk. Then you choose what KIND of burger and toppings you want. There are 71 combinations. After that you choose your sides.

We started off with 3 towers of onion rings. They came with 4 different dipping sauces, some spicy, some creamy, some tomatoey and some all of the above. I don’t like onion rings in general because they usually slide out of the crispy crust, and I don’t like onions enough to eat it straight up like that. But these didn’t do that. They were the best onion rings, I’ve had in my life. That’s not saying much though, I haven’t had that many. But it was good!

I’m pretty boring when it comes to burgers, so how fitting that my choice in burger was called “Ho Hum #5”. It was mushrooms, cheddar and bacon. I also got a classic poutine as my side. I was pretty full already full from the onion rings, and my pyrex measuring cup full of ginger ale (yes they use measuring cups as their mugs). The burger was just a plain patty with no seasoning. It was dependent on the sauce and toppings you chose. Verdict? I’ve had better.