It’s the second week of this year’s Burger Month and, sometimes, the best laid out plans don’t work out. I generally do quite a bit of planning for each Burger Month, laying out when and where I’m going to eat week and even months in advance. With all this advanced planning, sometimes things don’t always work out. Sometimes, the burger place closes before I get a chance to try out their menu. Other times the place is just too packed with people so I can’t eat there on the day I scheduled my Burger Month meal.

Whatever the reason, it’s during these times of adversity that I scramble and find another location close by. Hey, I have a busy schedule so I don’t really want to waste a lot of time! But, thankfully, during these moments of unplanned chaos, I sometimes find a hidden gem which I wouldn’t have found if everything went according to plan. This week was one of these instances as, because I wasn’t able to get the burger I originally scheduled for this week, I stumbled into Kandle Cafe and got their Kandle Burger.

Now, I’ve seen Kandle Cafe pretty often. More specifically, I’ve seen their branch over at the Capitol Commons/Estancia area since I visit there a lot. But I’ve never really bothered stepping in because it’s not in the mall area proper. It’s across the street. Feels like a silly reason to never step inside and I’ve always meant to try the place but just never got the chance to because, well, it’s outside!

Anyway, as I was looking for a place that did have a burger to fulfill this week’s entry for Burger Month, I did notice Kandle Cafe had a lone entry for the Kandle Burger. They had a lot of other stuff on the menu but this mean Kandle Cafe is more focused on a diverse menu instead of just focusing on one type of food, like burgers. This could be both a good thing or a bad thing. Throwing caution to the wind, I decided to order the Kandle Burger, which did come with a side of kamote fries, the local version of sweet potato fries.

After a few minutes, I did get my Kandle Burger. The first thing I noticed was there was a hole cut into top part of the bun. They did stick in the part the cut out on the top but I was curious what was inside. Of course, if I bothered to actually read the menu description, I wouldn’t known that Kandle Cafe’s Kandle Burger inserts a soft boiled egg in the bun. Then again, even if I knew that, I still think I would’ve been surprised to actually see a nicely cooked egg in there. I wonder how they actually got it in there, though.

When it came to presentations, I will say the Kandle Burger does look really good. Even without the fancy egg in the bun, the burger itself looked rather substantial. Sure, the one I got was leaning to the side a little but who really care if it can stand up straight? I’m not a huge fan of sweet potato fries but these looked alright in my book.

It was only when I tried to pick up the Kandle Burger when I realized there’s a design flaw with putting a soft boiled egg in the bread. Usually, when you try to eat a burger with your hands, you instinctively press down on the top part of the burger with your fingers while you pinch upwards with your thumbs. This ensures the burger remains intact and you can fit it in your mouth when you try to bite into it. You can’t really do that with the Kandle Burger as, the instant you try to squish the burger, the soft boiled egg will ooze out! I guess this is why the Kandle Burger comes with a fork and knife as you really need to use them to eat it properly or without making a huge mess on the table.

So, instead of taking the top part of the bun to look inside what makes a burger the burger that it is, I cut it down the middle to get a nice looking cross section. I originally thought there was too much bread but, even looking at the cross section, it didn’t look like a lot. The burger patty itself was thick and the egg in the bread did look cool. Of course, all of this would be for naught if the Kandle Burger didn’t taste good. Thankfully, it did.

The burger patty itself was well seasoned and, while not fatty, did have a good juicy taste. I did notice that there seemed to be something like tomato mixed in the burger patty, which I didn’t mind that much. But I still generalyl prefer the tomatoes to be not in the burger patty itself. The brioche bun itself held up pretty well and had a nice, slightly sweet taste to it. Surprisingly enough, the thing I wasn’t enamored with was the soft boiled egg. While it is a thing of beauty and does make the Kandle Burger different from other burgers out there, I just didn’t think it added a whole lot to the eating experience itself. Still, overall, Kandle Cafe’s Kandle Burger was pretty good and filling as well. I guess that should’ve been a given as the burger patty was thick.

The sweet potato fries that came with the Kandle Burger were just okay. Like I said, I’m not a huge fan of sweet potato fries and I would pick regular ol’ potato fries or even onion rings over them. They were a little hit or miss as the small ones were nice and crispy while the larger and thicker ones just didn’t have any crunch to them. Such is the fate of most sweet potato fries. Still, they did seem to have some kind of breading on them, which did make them taste good. It’s just the texture of the sweet potato fries which I just can’t get over.

Considering this week was supposed to be a bust and I just went to try it as a replacement, I say Kandle Cafe’s Kandle Burger turned things around. If you’re with friends and you’re in a mood for a burger but they aren’t, I say drop in. I mentioned their menu selection was fairly impressive so I’m betting you can enjoy a good burger and be amazed with how they put an egg in a brioche bun while your companions try the other stuff. It’s more than just a good compromise.

Have you tried eating at Kandle Cafe? What other items would you recommend? Let me know in the comments section below!