[RESTAURANT REVIEW] Forkers (佛客)

Andrew Lunman had a dream. Like many long-term foreign residents who have grown tired of teaching, he wanted to open his own restaurant. So he started Bongos, a low-key North American-style place in Gonguan. That did pretty well, so last year he opened Coda, a slightly more upscale Italian-American restaurant in the same neighborhood. Business there hasn't been bad either. So now Lunman has taken on a new project and is helping Joe Hodgson with Hodgson's new gourmet burger restaurant, Forker's, which opened last month in an alley behind the California Fitness Center on Zhongxiao East Road.

The concept at Forkers is simple. Lure customers with a basic burger that, at NT$190 with a drink and two sides, doesn't seem much more expensive than a combo meal at a fast food restaurant. Then present said customer with a very long list of optional upgrades. How about a burger with mushrooms and cheese for NT$60 more, and Tex-Mex fajita fries for NT$40? Sounds reasonable. Only NT$30 extra for endless drink refills? Seems like a good deal. And why not drop another NT$80 on a deluxe patty made from imported Kobe beef? (The latter option will be available at the beginning of next year, Lunman says.)

It's hard to resist so many temptations. A few NT dollars here, a few NT dollars there, and soon you're spending a lot more than you originally intended. Not that you'll mind. Though the core products more than hold their own against the competition - the patties are well-seasoned and beefy, the fries are cut from unpeeled russets, not frozen potatoes - the upgrades are phenomenal.

Take the monster burger (NT$270), for example. Served with red hot sauce, blue cheese, fried onions, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and ranch dressing, it is the kind of Dagwood sandwich you probably dreamed of making one day when you were really, really hungry. In the wrong hands, it would be a mess, but Forkers gets the combination just right. Each bite delivers a burst of distinct flavors - tangy blue cheese, spicy hot sauce, creamy ranch dressing - and the burger holds itself together neatly until the end. The bun doesn't break, the patty doesn't separate itself from the toppings, and the sauce don't ooze out and get all over your hands.

The menu lists more than 30 souped-up burgers like this one. And then there's the restaurant's signature dishes, which are called, of course, the forkers. These are open-faced hamburgers topped with things like poutine or spaghetti.

On Sunday, Feb. 3, 2008, everything at Forkers will be priced 25 percent off.