THE PATTY SHACK - Oshawa ON

* The Patty Shack is NOW CLOSED*

Having a bit of business to attend to in Oshawa Ontario and not having a lot of time for lunch, I happened to stumble upon a burger joint downtown.

Patty Shack seemed like a decent looking burger joint, but then I saw that they are also a wing place. Burger and wings? Yes please!

Inside the place had a different feel - it was quite large inside, but a lot of wasted space. There is an upper level and a lower level. It`s fast food style, but orders are placed fresh and it takes a reasonable amount of time. I was there well after lunch, and it was pretty empty in there, but by the time I left more and more people were coming in.

There was so much to decide when picking my order. There are 14 different flavours or wings and there are something like 40 toppings for the burgers. Crazy. Choosing was not easy but I was up to the task. The girl at the counter was very helpful with all my questions. When it came to sauces I was asking her to describe so I could get an idea, but she asked if I wanted to just taste them - so I did. Then I ordered my burger. After a few minutes, my order was ready and brought to my table.

Two small orders of wings, veggies and dip that came with them, and my 4oz burger. And a drink. Good times.

Here is the fresh celery and carrot sticks (nice healthy, crunchy) with dip. What kind of dip is it? Ranch? Blue cheese? Nope, its gardillic (garlic and dill).  It was good, but it tasted a little weak in both garlic and dill.

The burger. They have three sizes, I went with the smallest, the 4oz ($4.49) since I was also having wings. I added old cheddar cheese ($0.99) and bacon ($0.70). When I said bacon, I was asked "regular?" and I assumed streaky bacon as opposed to peameal bacon . . . but they in fact have different 'regular' bacon, like jalapeno smoked (a fact I saw on the menu board later).

The deal on their burger is summed up on a big poster on their wall:

"The Patty Shack patty is seasoned, hand formed, made fresh daily and accompanied by over 40 toppings.

We use farm fresh beef from the Ontario farming communities. Their cattle have zero growth hormones and have less than 14% fat content (these cows are in great shape!!)"

I watched my burger be assembled and pointed to each topping I wanted. The burger was wrapped up. When I opened it up, it was a messy delight. Here are the toppings I put on my burger: (I think I also had BBQ sauce on here too).

Wow. Simply wow. I really enjoyed this burger. It was meaty tasting, cooked just the way I like it. The bun was fresh, as were the toppings. The one topping that really set the burger off was the spicy onions - it was a little kick and smokey flavour. The bacon was good, but I would like it crispier.

At the same time, I was also mowing down on wings.

I asked the girl at the counted how the wings were made. Apparently they are marinated before frying to give the meat an added level.

As a big poster indicated on the wall:

"Our wings are locally raised in Ontario and they are never frozen.Our sauce portfolio boasts 12 unique home-made sauces that you simply won't find at any other wing joint ... Our unique cooking method combined with our home-made sauces, really seal in the flavour"

I went with a regular order of wings (8) and they let me split that into 2 flavours, which is awesome, because lots of wing places won't.

Size-wise, we weren't dealing with monsters. They range from small to medium, with some wings being super meaty, and others the meat had pulled considerably away from the bone. The meat itself was also inconsistent. Some pieces were tough and pulling the bones apart was a chore, while other pieces were tender and soft. The skin was somewhat crispy. At first I thought the wings might be smoked, but I was told fried.

Now as for the sauces, I went with Southern Cajun BBQ and Hot (7 Pepper). The problem I had was that I don't really know which wings were which. Not simply because they came on the platter and I couldn't see a difference, but I also couldn't tell which was Cajun and which was Hot. Both were mild in heat. Both had a smokey flavour to them. Both were good. The hot that I sampled at the start seemed to be more distinctive on its own than being tossed with the wings.

So below are the wings and what I think visually looked like their respective flavours:

I liked the flavours, but again I'm embarrassed to say I couldn't which was which. They didn't taste the same, but they were similar.

FINAL SCORE:
I wish I lived closer to The Patty Shack. The wings were good. Unique flavours, fresh wings with levels of flavour. The quality and size was a bit inconsistent, but I would have them again for sure. The burger on the other hand was awesome. Super messy, juicy, flavorful. 6/10

The Patty Shack

24 King Street East, Oshawa ON

pattyshack.ca