The Finest Jozi Burger Money Can Buy

2Summers | 21 October 2011
johannesburg food restaurants blogging

The week I met Shelly, a faithful 2Summers reader who is in the middle of an epic trip around Southern Africa. (By the way, this is the coolest thing about blogging. I have fans!)

Shelly is awesome – she brought me tons of cool stuff from the States, including my favorite breakfast cereal, American baking chocolate, and birthday presents from my parents. She decided to spend some extra time in Jozi specifically because of my blog. So Joe and I wanted to show her some local places and treat her to a nice dinner.

Turns out Shelly introduced us to a new great place in our own home town.

A South African tour guide in Cape Town told Shelly that when she went to Joburg, she had to try Dukes Burgers in Greenside. Greenside is just around the corner from Melville and Joe and I have driven past Dukes a thousand times. But for some reason we’d never been until now.

Dukes. Like the rest of Greenside, it’s hip. But there’s substance behind the hipness.

I could spend a few paragraphs describing Dukes’ elaborate burger menu, the non-traditional combinations, and the hilarious burger names. But honestly, I don’t have time and nothing I write could get the message across better than this photo:

Dukes Burgers’ flagship menu selection: ‘The Dukes’. Beef patty, grilled pineapple, mushrooms, fried tomato, sunnyside-up egg, bacon, cheddar cheese, gherkins, cucumber ribbons, and onion rings. And potato wedges. Joe ordered this and ate most of it. He’s a brave man. He said it was great but he would have preferred less deep-fried stuff.

Dukes offers beef burgers, ostrich burgers, lamb burgers, chicken burgers, and veggie burgers. I had the ‘Big Bird’ – an ostrich patty with red wine, chocolate sauce, delicate greens, and deep-fried rosemary-infused butternut. That’s right, rosemary-infused butternut. It was delicious.

Shelly had the ‘Mrs. Sam’ (little sister to the ‘Uncle Sam’) – a 120-gram beef patty with tomato relish, gherkins, cucumber ribbons, and a selection of add-ons.

‘Mrs. Sam’ with salad. And yes, that is a chocolate milkshake. Dukes has an extensive milkshake menu.

I’ve written a few posts about burgers. In fact, the post I wrote about the Spur Burger is one of my most popular. But my Dukes burger put the other African burgers I’ve eaten to shame.

A 2Summers burger post would be incomplete without a photo of 2Summers stuffing her face.

Dukes Burgers range from about R70 to R90 (about $9-$11).

I’ll be offline for a while, as I’m leaving on an exciting trip tomorrow. I won’t say where I’m going but here’s a hint: There will be donkey carts.