MANILA -- 8 Cuts Burger Blends celebrates four years of serving gourmet burgers with a birthday menu available only on Wednesday, November 23, featuring selected items from their new menu.
“We’re already four years old so we wanted to keep up with the times and make sure to be fresh. So we streamlined everything,” explained Ian Palayab, brand manager of 8 Cuts Burger Blends.
Part of the birthday menu are specially priced one-fourth pound cheeseburgers, the Q-daddy, off-menu burgers, as well as the Oreo shake, available for only P88 each.
Under the culinary helm of executive chef Daniel Lachica, the burger joint’s menu features a lot of changes. And as change is never easy, we’ve listed eight things that are new in the menu of 8 Cuts Burger Blends to guide you on your next visit.
Executive chef Daniel Lachica prepares a burger. Photo by Jeeves de Veyra
1. More streamlined patty selection
Instead of having five beef patty blends, 8 cuts now serves only two choices of beef patties.
The House Blend adds brisket to the original mix of short rib and rib eye. It’s fattier, thanks to the brisket, and gets top marks in juiciness.
If you’re more health-inclined, there’s the Grass Fed Burger Patty that’s made from sirloin, round tip flank, and short plate. It’s a flavorful bite and lightly salty, ideal for those wanting a leaner patty. Order when you want to lessen the guilt, especially if you’re intending to pile on the fix-ins.
Note: Lamb lovers need not fret, the house ground Lamb patty is still available for their Lamb Burger, which is still on the menu.
2. New and improved fix-ins
Burger lovers can still customize their burgers with fix-ins.
Feel free to stay with the usual tomato-lettuce-onion norm, or choose more artisan inclined ingredients. With 98% of the ingredients house-made, enjoy fix-ins like sugar-glazed corned beef, peppered onion tanglers, jalapeno garlic ranch, house-smoked bacon, to name some.
Another way to customize your 8 cuts burger experience? Add cheese. Here, cheese comes between your bun as pimiento cheese, beer cheese, egg cheese, or the extra creamy, béchamel gruyere.
3. Half-pounder sliders
Customized slider, the Meathead, and the 'Shroom slider. Photo by Jeeves de Veyra
While burgers still come in your choice of one-third pound and one-fourth pound, burgers now come in slider form. An order of a half-pounder of sliders equals three mini burgers that come default with the sauce No. 3 and house cheddar.
Insider tip? Pay a little extra to customize each of your sliders, you get more variety.
4. Sharing portions
Besides the half-pounder of sliders being ideal for sharing, other items get a “sharing” upgrade as well, like their 8 Cuts onion rings which are now available by the bucket.
Dozen Happy Fried Chicken Littles. Photo by Jeeves de Veyra
Another dish for sharing? The Dozen Happy Fried Chicken Littles are crispy fried chicken lollipops that come with the house ranch dip.
5. Special stacks
8 Cuts has kept some of its old Tribute burgers like the Q-daddy, Four Cheese 2.0, and Piggy, to name a few, with only minor tweaks. For example, the Four Cheese 2.0 now comes with Parmesan-crusted mozzarella instead of just Parmesan and mozzarella. The Q-daddy has almost the same ingredients as before, except now the bacon is house-smoked, and there’s the addition of Sauce No. 3 besides the Sweetly-spiced BBQ Sauce.
Other stacks though feature more obvious deviations. For example, the 2.0 version of the Hangover, now features sugar-glazed corned beef (instead of prosciutto) and shoestring potatoes among its other fix-ins.
The Bar Burger 3.0, which previously had bleu cheese, scamorza, and prosciutto, now has beer cheese, fried shallots, bacon, Sauce No. 3, pineapple pico and pommery mustard aioli.
This author’s favorite burger in the previous menu, the Rising ‘Shroom, has been reborn into the ‘Shroom. And while it still contains portobello, it now has a black truffle aioli (which used to be white truffle cream cheese), an anchovy-dijoinnaise, and spinach tempura (instead of oyster mushroom tempura). It tastes similar, but less on the mushrooms, although the spinach adds an almost herbaceous component to it. I can’t necessarily say it’s better, but it’s definitely different.
But don’t despair: If you’re missing a favorite tribute burger, Palayab assures that as long as they have the ingredients on hand, diners can ask their burgers to be prepared just the way they like it.
6. Spaghetti and sandwiches
The Chick 'Wich. Handout Photo
If you’re not in the mood for a burger, 8 cuts’ new menu also includes a lot of interesting alternatives. Pasta? The Party Spaghetti takes your idea of sweet spaghetti and goes gourmet with it, using a cured egg yolk instead of cheese that’s grated on top of the spaghetti.
“It’s not your usual spaghetti,” quipped Palayab.
Sandwiches? The Chick’wich has a fried chicken fillet, a crispy slice of chicken skin crackling, and coleslaw dressed with green onion and lemon aioli between your toasted buns.
Vegetarians, meanwhile, will be relieved to find that a vegetarian option is still available. The Falafel sandwich has spiced chickpea, quinoa, nut and mushroom patty, sliced cucumbers, pickled red onions, feta, and garlic aioli.
7. Sweet endings
Turtle Pie and Peach Cobbler. Photo by Jeeves de Veyra
Dessert also gets an update in the new menu. We say goodbye to 8 Cuts’ jar desserts and say hello to the new Caked Sundaes.
Glasses come filled to the brim with ice cream and the works --chocolate and brownies with the turtle pie, and fruit and pastry with the peach cobbler.
8. Secret menu
Want to impress your friends? Order from 8 cuts’ secret menu.
Onion rings (yes, even when you order by the bucket) and fries can be enjoyed seasoned with sour cream flavoring. You can also split an order – half onion rings, and half-fries.
Onion rings by the bucket. Photo by Jeeves de Veyra
In the burger side of things, dedicated carnivores should order the Meathead (also part of the birthday menu). This off-menu special stack comes with absolutely zero veggies except for caramelized onions.
“We always have the good stuff,” boasts Palayab.
And while these changes may take a bit of getting used to, especially for loyal 8 Cuts customers, we’re glad to note that some things though haven’t changed — their patties are still as juicy as ever, the fix-ins are always fresh, and the combinations are always exciting.