Food + Beverage
Is Triple O’s the best Hong Kong hamburger restaurant? The popular Canadian fast food chain has several outlets in Hong Kong, featuring hamburgers that are somewhere in between mass-market burger chains like McDonald’s and gourmet burger outlets like Beef & Liberty.
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Best Hong Kong Hamburger Restaurant?
Triple O’s by White Spot doesn’t try to be all things to all people. The focus is on one thing, and they do that one thing well: hamburgers.
Is it the best hamburger restaurant in Hong Kong at the mid-range?
Burgers are cooked to order with 100% Australian beef and topped with crisp lettuce, fresh tomatoes, and the brand’s signature Triple “O” sauce.
In addition to the original burger are bacon cheddar burgers, mushroom burgers, roast beef deluxe burgers, veggie burgers, fish burgers, and chicken supreme burgers.
Prices range from HK$55 to HK$65. Extras such a raw and sauteed onions, fried egg, sauteened mushrooms, or bacon will cost you more.
Chicken Strips round out the lunch and dinner options. They are served with honey mustard of BBQ sauce and priced at HK$35 for three strips of HK$55 for five strips.
Golden Arches
To put those Triple O’s prices in context, hamburgers at McDonald’s range from HK$12.50 for a standard hamburger to HK$22.50 for a Big Mac, and HK$36 for a top-of-the-line Garden Fresh Angus Burger or a Cheesy Champignon Angus Burger.
Chicken McNuggets run HK$21 for six pieces, HK$27 for nine paces, and HK$49 for 18 pieces.
Triple O’s Breakfast Options
There is more on the menu at Triple ‘s than hamburgers.
All-day breakfast sandwiches include Sunny Start, which includes fried egg, crispy bacon, melted cheese, and Triple O sauce on a toasted bun and The Champ, with include sauteed mushrooms and melted cheese in a folded omelette topped with fresh tomatoes and Triple O sauce on a toasted bun.
Both breakfast sandwiches are priced at HK$44.
A Hash Brown Combo with crispy had brown potatoes and soft drink, coffee, or tea is HK$24.
Triple O’s Side Orders and Drinks
Sides include hash browns, Caesar salad, onion tings, garlic parmesan fries, French fries, and poutine, thick cut fries with skins on and topped with melting mozzarella cheese and beef gravy, a Montreal specialty.
Beverages include soda pop, bottled water, juice, coffee, tea, and milk.
Milkshakes come in four flavours: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and blueberry.
The Ambiance …
There are five Triple O’s burger restaurants in Hong Kong, but my favourite outlet is the one at the tony Elements shopping mall in West Kowloon.
I like it for two reasons. First, it is more spacious than the other Triple O’s outlets in Hong Kong.
Secondly, it overlooks an ice skating rink, which adds a touch of authenticity to this distinctly Canadian fast food eatery.
The Food …
If you try googling “best Hong Kong hamburgers” or something similar, you will get a list of restaurants such as Burgeroom, The Butchers Club Burger, The Big Bite, Beef & Liberty, Quarter Master, Beeger – the list goes on.
The hamburgers these so-called gourmet hamburger joints serve, however, are so thick that you need to eat them with a knife and fork.
That’s fine for a once-a-year indulgence, perhaps, but I find them a bit grotesque.
To me, Triple O’s strikes a happy medium between mass-market burger purveyor McDonald’s and the so-called gourmet burger restaurants – in terms of both quality and price.
The focus at the best Hong Kong hamburger restaurant in is on premium ingredients, without the needlessly calorific, artery-choking, and needlessly expensive add-ons.
What I Love …
Other than the yumminess of burgers at Triple O’s, there is one more thing about the Canadian fast-food chain that I love. They put bottles of Heinz Tomato Ketchup on the table!
I really hate having to deal with those little packets of ketchup that most burger joints give you, and they NEVER give you as much as I want.
And I don’t particularly like having to pump ketchup into little paper cups.
What I Hate …
Nothing is perfect, and that goes for Triple O’s as well as everything else in life.
The buns at Triple O’s are good. In fact, they are VERY good. But … they are missing that tiny little ingredient that makes me think “premium”.
Triple O’s buns don’t have sesame seeds! I know you can’t really taste them – at least not on a hamburger bun. They don’t really add to the flavour.
But sesame seeds do have an undeniable VISUAL appeal that makes you think that this burger joint hasn’t scrimped on anything.
The Founder …
Triple O’s was founded by Nat Bailey in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1928. The fast food restaurant’s reputation grew as news of the quality of its burgers spread, and much of its fame is credited to that signature Triple “O” sauce.
There are now 70 burger restaurants spread across British Columbia and in the city of Edmonton in the neighboring province of Alberta.
In addition to five locations in Hong Kong, there is one Triple O’s outlet in neighboring SAR of Macau and one is about to open in Singapore.
The Name …
So where does the name “triple O’s” come from, anyway? According to legend, carhops at the original burger restaurant in Vancouver marked order slips with three O’s if a diner wanted plenty of everything – including that legendary sauce!
And in case you don’t know what a carhop is, the term has practically fallen into disuse, but you might have seen carhops in movies such as American Graffiti.
A carhop was a waiter or waitress that worked at a drive-in restaurant, where customers were served food in their cars.
The concept dates back to the 1920s, and they became popular across the United States and Canada in the post-war years.
Their heyday was the 1950s and ’60s. They have largely been replaced by drive-through restaurants.
The difference between drive-in and drive-through (or drive-thru) restaurants is that customers parked their cars at drive-in restaurants and consumed their food in the restaurant’s parking lot.
At drive through restaurants, diners pick up their food and consume it somewhere else.
Where’s the Beef (from)?
Are the burgers served at Triple O’s fast food restaurants in Asia the same as those served at its outlets in Canada?
They are more or less the same, except for one key difference. The Asian outlets use Australia beef, and the Canadian outlets – not surprisingly! – use Canadian beef.
Do you think anyone can tell the difference?
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The Location …
Triple O’s by White Spot – Elements, Shop G004, Ground Floor (by the Rink), MTR Kowloon Station, Tsim Tsa Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Tel: +852 2889-1000.
There are additional outlets in Admiralty, Causeway Bay, and Wanchai on Hong Kong Island; Tseung Kwan O in Kowloon, Citywalk in Tsuen Wan; and The Venetian Macao in Macau.