May is going to be a busy month for me. Not only did we just get the amazing Avengers: Infinity War just a week ago, we will soon get other geeky movies of note coming this month. The first is the highly anticipated Deadpool 2 in a couple of weeks and then Solo: A Star Wars Story sometime at the end of the month. May also has geeky holidays like Free Comic Book Day today, Star Wars Day on May the Fourth and Geek Pride Day on May 25… but isn’t every day Geek Pride Day as of late? This just means that there may be a lot of geeky stuff for me to write about this month.

Besides all of that, May is also National Burger Month, which means it’s Burger Month for me! Since burgers are probably one of my most favoritest (yes, I said favoritest) foods, I usually dedicate an entire month just to going around the city and trying out the new burgers I can. But how can I cram all of the upcoming geeky stuff that’s going to happen in May while reviewing burgers? I came up with a solution: I’ll just have to write a little extra! This means that I’ll continue to doing my regular posts but I will also writing an extra article just so I can put up a new burger review each Saturday (Philippine time) for the entire month of May. You’re welcome, by the way.

I didn’t even know this was a thing until a few days ago!

Before we get to the burger of the week, let me tell you a story first as to how I picked it. I went out this week to watch Avengers: Infinity War again and, on a whim I decided to go watch it at one of the cinemas at Greenhills. My plan was to get to Greenhills, go find a good burger joint there and then watch Infinity War for the second time. Little did I know that I’ve done a review for all of the burger places in Greenhills in the past. I reviewed Stackers from the very start of doing these Burger Month themed reviews. I’ve also commented on the Slammin’ sliders and Brothers Burger as well. There was none left! So, I decided to try a place that doesn’t exactly pride themselves on making good burgers but good food. This is when I remembered someone telling me that Refinery makes some decent grub. Luckily, Greenhills does have a Refinery branch and, luckily again, they have burgers. Well, actually a burger as they only have one: the Refinery Burger.

I will be honest and say that Refinery made their only burger on the menu seem sadly plain. It’s a Premium Kitayama burger patty (which is really good) with cheddar cheese in a brioche bun. That’s it. It does come with something called “tiger slaw,” which, apparently is just regular coleslaw with purple cabbage, and the obligatory side of fries. Still, it was the only burger on the menu so I ordered the Refinery Burger but, instead of a soda, I decided to get myself a cold brew coffee instead. I was kind of sleepy that time and I really wanted to have my wits about me while watching the movie. Also, it’s the middle of summer in the Philippines! I wanted something cold!

Why drink hot coffee during the summer when you can have a cold brew?

I guess I do have to talk about the cold brew coffee first since that they served it early. I do have to mention that I’m not exactly a coffee connoisseur but I do know what I like. Initially, my first sip of the cold brew coffee tasted rather bitter and strong, which was kind of odd to me because I always thought the process of cold brewing leaves the coffee less bitter and a much smoother flavor. Further sips did seem like the cold brew coffee’s flavor was getting lighter and less bitter. This was probably because the ice was diluting the strong cold brew. After a while, the ice did just dilute the coffee too much, leaving me with a rather weak tasting cold brew. I wonder if they expect people to gulp it down quickly?

But I didn’t go to Refinery for coffee! I went there for the Refinery Burger! When I did get the Refinery Burger with the tiger slaw and fries, I wasn’t all that impressed. The actual Refinery Burger looked rather puny. Even the tiger slaw and fries’ serving sizes looked small as well. I normally wouldn’t complain about a serving size but the Refinery Burger meal (without the cold brew coffee) is priced at 370 Php. I get that the beef patty is supposedly a Kitayama beef patty; I still expected something much larger than something that’s just a little bit bigger than a slider.

Almost actual size.

Of course, flavor always trumps over size. So I would be a whole lot forgiving if the Refinery Burger was a tiny piece of juicy heaven. The Kitayama beef patty was good overall but didn’t exactly pack a punch. To be fair, I did order the burger with a medium doneness but it just missing a level of juiciness that I expected from a high quality grade beef. There was some meat juice that did dribble down with each bite but the buttered bun held beautifully. The brioche bun was actually great as it was soft but still crusty enough to handle easily. Oddly enough, the brioche bun seemed to have a bit more flavor to it as the butter seemed to leave a greater aftertaste than the fat from the meat patty.

I was actually impressed by the tiger slaw. Sure, it’s basically just purple coleslaw but I really liked it. The purple cabbage still retained its crunchiness and it was chopped into incredibly fine slivers, giving it a good texture overall. I was actually concerned because I know a lot of places like to overcompensate the amount of dressing in their coleslaw. Thankfully, Refinery isn’t one of those places. They put the right amount of dressing so the tiger slaw wasn’t just some soggy mess. The dressing had a good flavor to it, giving a sweet compliment to the burger. I would actually suggest getting a good amount of the tiger slaw after taking a bite out of the Refinery burger or even put it on top of the burger.

Sadly, I can’t really say all that much about the fries as, well, there isn’t anything special about them. I will say they tasted fresh and they were crispy while still retaining a softness in the middle. The problem is that these are those coated/breaded fries you can get anywhere nowadays. I get why Refinery uses this recipe as it’s still pretty good. There’s just nothing special since everyone seems to be using this exact formula.

Tiger Slaw: Good. Fries: Meh.

The biggest question is if I can actually recommend Refinery’s Refinery Burger. Sadly, not really. While I do think the burger is above average and the tiger slaw is excellent, they don’t exactly justify the high price the meal commands. It feels somewhat overpriced and I have had better burgers for less than the it’s hefty price tag. I wouldn’t call the Refinery Burger a bust exactly but I did expect more than what I got.

Have you tried Refinery’s Refinery Burger? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!