This is going to be Burger Month 2024’s last official entry and I’m going to start this post with a question: How would you define what a burger is to you? For everyone who does celebrate #NationalHamburgerMonth, we all have an image of what a burger is supposed to be. In my mind, a burger would technically be a burger patty sandwiched between bread. Well, what if they don’t use bread then? Is it still called a burger?

Honestly, it shouldn’t matter all that much, especially since the last entry of Burger Month 2024 is something totally different as it’s technically not a burger. It’s a Pizza Burger. Specifically, a Pepperoni Pizza Burger from Beyond D’ Crust.

Now, I’ve actually known about Beyond D’ Crust for quite a while now and the idea of someone combining two of my favorite foods, pizza and burgers, both intrigued me and horrified me. This is the kind of mashup that I should want but I just cannot fathom working for some strange reason. Still, this is the last time I’ll be writing something for #NationalHamburgerMonth for the year. So, I decided to mosey along to the closest Beyond D’ Crust branch near me and check out what they had to offer.

Now, Beyond D’ Crust does have regular pizzas on their menu. But what’s the fun in that? They’re the only place that I know that offers this weird mishmash of burger and pizza! And this is supposed to be all about checking out different kinds of burgers, right? They did have a good number of pizza burgers to offer, like a plain crust, Mozzarella, Pepperoni, Hawaiian, Overload and Beef with Mushroom.

Almost immediately, I cut out the plain crust and Mozzarella because they don’t have that “pizza” feel. The Overload and Beef with Mushroom were also excised as having all those toppings while also having to contend with a burger patty seems like overkill. I also opted not to get the Hawaiian because, while I’m okay with pineapple on my pizza and my burgers (see my Amazing Aloha Champ review), I didn’t want it to color my review of my first time trying out something from this place. So, I decided to get something rather generic but the most “pizza” thing on the menu: The Pepperoni Pizza Burger.

I do have to mention that Beyond D’ Crust is purely a takeaway place. You can call to get your pizza burger delivered but you cannot eat there. The pizza burgers are made-to-order so, once you do order, you’ll have to wait for around 15 to 20 minutes before you get it. Still, the person I ordered from was very courteous and was okay when I said I’ll just be back in 20 minutes. I had a walk around the block and had myself a coffee from a nearby coffee shop while waiting and, true to their word, my pizza burger was there after wasting around 20 minutes of my time.

I will say the box did look rather small but tall. What I mean is that it definitely wasn’t a wide as most pizzas but, since it’s not your typical pizza, it makes sense in retrospect. When I opened the box I was expecting to see my Pepperoni Pizza Burger but the entire thing was wrapped in aluminium foil. This kind of perturbed me because there are a couple of reasons for this. One, it’s to keep things hot. The more likely reason is that the Pepperoni Pizza Burger was cooked while it was all wrapped in foil. This may not seem like a big deal but, if that’s the case, then the pizza burger never comes into direct heat from the oven. This would result in a cooked but not charred pizza crust. Still, I don’t like to jump to conclusions so, after briefly wrestling with the foil, I was able to view my Pepperoni Pizza Burger from Beyond D’ Crust in all it’s gooey cheesy glory.

There were a few things that pleasantly surprised me about the Pepperoni Pizza Burger. For one, it actually looked decent! Sure, it doesn’t look anything fancy but it looked okay. I also have to say the smell after I unwrapped it was much better than I thought. You could smell the pepperoni and the beef coming off it! I also have to give Beyond D’ Crust for using actual mozzarella cheese to top the pizza burger as, in the Philippines, most other “cheap” pizza places use cheese food AKA not real cheese. I could be wrong but, when I did tear into one of the slices, the cheese topping stretched off and did have a mozzarella texture to it.

Taking a look at one of the slices of the Pepperoni Pizza Burger, my suspicions were correct as there weren’t any charred edged to it. It did look cooked through, though. You could also kind of see that they use a really thick pizza crust for this. It actually looked more like a circular flat bread rather than a traditional pizza crust. Then again, that’s actually a smart move as, judging from all of the cheese and sauce it had to withstand and not become a soggy mess, it held up well against all that moisture. I was also surprised at how the burger patty wasn’t some crumbly mess as it held it’s integrity, too.

But enough about Beyond D’ Crust’s Pepperoni Pizza Burger’s appearance! How does it taste? Actually, much better than I expected! While there was no charring on the burger patty, it was nicely cooked through and rather tasty for what it was. The crust did also come off as really good but, like I said, didn’t really have the same texture as your regular pizza crust. The tomato sauce they used was rather sweet and, while I don’t really care for sweet pasta sauces, this was rather okay. The overabundance of cheese really helped add a lot of good flavor to it. I also have to commend the guy who thought of using what I assume is cabbage instead of lettuce as it did add a nice textural crunch. But the star for me was the pepperoni. You can tell it’s rather cheap pepperoni but that doesn’t mean it’s bad pepperoni. There was a lot of pepperoni flavor in those little discs!

So, the Pepperoni Pizza Burger was okay but I think I made the mistake of trying to eat two slices of it in quick succession. While I was happy with how it tasted during my first slice, my enthusiasm slowly dropped in the middle of my second slice. Sure, it tastes good but it’s pretty tough to eat two slices as, if you do the math, that comes out to around four slices of pizza, the top and the bottom, a whole mess of cheese and around a third pound of ground beef. That’s a lot and, without some kind of contrast to break the flavor monotony and give it more depth, I did feel a little blah afterwards.

That’s not to say I wouldn’t recommend Beyond D’ Crust’s Pepperoni Pizza Burger. I actually wholeheartedly give it a thumbs up! It’s just not meant to be eaten by your lonesome. This is the kind of thing you bring to a party and have everyone marvel at something that’s both a pizza and a burger at the same time. It’s something you’re supposed to eat with a group of people to make sure each one gets one or two slices only. It is kind of gimmicky but it’s a gimmick that works. Honestly, this wasn’t a terrible way to close out this year’s Burger Month, even though it does skirt the line on what people consider to be a burger.

Have you tried something like a pizza burger before? What other weird food mash-ups would you recommend? Let me know in the comments section below!