Dinner at Lily’s Burger

Elna Nykänen Andersson
Posted June 20, 2014 in Food & Drink

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The newly-built housing area of Hornsbergs Strand on western Kungsholmen, is gradually coming alive with restaurants, boutiques and small offices and Lily’s Burger is one of the more charming places having opened their doors here over the past year. Decorated like a 1950s American diner, it’s aiming to capitalize on the gourmet burger trend that doesn’t yet show any signs of waning. Originally opened as a competitor to Flippin’ Burgers, Lily’s is run by Mahmut Suvakci, an actor who you might recognize from films like Snabba Cash (Easy Money), but who is also a trained chef with establishments like Berns, Hilton and Grand Hôtel on his resumé. But since the enormously popular burger joint relocated to Vasastan recently, Lily’s has the market for better burgers all to itself on this particular stretch of the Kungsholmen waterside.

On the burger map, Lily’s places itself somewhere between the Rolls Royce versions of AG and Mathias Dahlgren and ambitious fast food chains like Vigårda. The basic burgers cost around 100 kronor, and to go with them you can add all kinds of tempting, calorie-packed side orders. There’s  onion rings, fries or a coleslaw (25 kronor), toppings like cheddar or pepper jack cheese, bacon, jalopeños, avocado and fried mushrooms (10 kronor), and dressings like guacamole, truffle mayo or blue cheese (10 kronor). There are four different basic burgers to choose from: the classic one and what Lily’s has dubbed the bad, the good and the ugly, with different toppings. All of them can be ordered with beef, chicken or as a vegetarian version – which in itself is worth a few plus points. In addition to soft drinks, Lily’s also serves beer.

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We go for the vegetarian “ugly” with extra avocado and a beef “good.” As if that wasn’t enough, we decide to give the home-made chicken nuggets a go, and top the order with onion rings, fries and coleslaw. The verdict? The “ugly” burger, which comes with truffle mayo, fried oyster mushrooms and melted gruyère cheese, is unusually tasty for a veggie burger but lacks a certain freshness – perhaps a green salad on the side would have balanced things out a bit. The beef burger, with pepper jack cheese, yellow beets, avocado, spinach and soft cheese, is very good for this price range and my dining companion gives it an 8 out of 10. Both are served in a soft, freshly-baked bun, and are easy to eat – a detail not to be taken for granted given the ridiculously high burgers served in some other restaurants. The fries are ok but nothing to write home about, and the coleslaw is a bit heavy on the mayo to our taste. In fact, the best advice would be to skip both and just order the onion rings as a side. They are just as sinfully crispy and juicy as they should be.

But what’s perhaps best here are the milk shakes (49-55 kronor), served in huge, ice-cold metal mugs. Whether you choose strawberry, Nutella, Oreos, peanut butter or chocolate, you should not leave Lily’s without having tried at least one of them.

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