Splitz Grill

Today I had the opportunity to go out and about a neighbourhood new to me in Vancouver, Main St. between about 12th Avenue and Kind Edward. It's a nice neighbourhood with lots of shops and eateries, a bit hipster-ish, but not too bad. We started out with a hot drink at Cafe Rustico, where I had a very bad iced mocha drink that cost too much, and after poking in and out of various cool stores, it was time for something to eat.

As a group we decided on Splitz Grill, 4242 Main St. because we fancied burgers and the prices were excellent. For the uninitiated, and that was us, the menu is located on a big board and you order at the till. The order gets printed out and yelled out to the cook and a tray with your order on it goes to the grill, which is open for all to see. From there, you get to personalize your burger with one of six or eight sauces, then you get to choose your toppings, they take your name, you go sit down, and, in our case, since it wasn't busy, they brought the food to our table.

The menu consists of a variety of burgers, including a lemon & garlic marinated chicken breast burger, a bison selection, and even a wild salmon. For vegetarians, there is a spicy lentil burger that I was assured by my vegetarian friend was not painfully spicy. The burgers were reasonably-priced, and for an extra couple of bucks, you can have a combo which means your burger comes with fries and a drink. If you want special toppings like onions, mushrooms, cheese, or bacon, those are individually priced on top of the base burger price. Also, Splitz does milkshakes, sundaes, banana splits, and stuff like that.

There was a turkey burger special on today as well as a tuna burger special, but I opted for a bison burger with cheese and mushrooms. For sauces, I chose the Splitz sauce, which was a tasty mixture of garlic, dill pickles, sour cream, mayonnaise, Tobasco sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. I was informed that this is their most popular sauce - and no kidding, I thought it was really good. For toppings, I chose lettuce, onions, and dill pickles (because you can't have too much dill pickle deliciousness).

The bison burger was fabulous. I have always enjoyed bison meat, and this was very well done (and well done). The fries, hand cut, obviously, and deep fried how they're supposed to be (blanched in oil first then deep fried again - you can tell when places don't do this), and the Splitz sauce had a great kick to it with that touch of Tobasco. And the burgers were huge! I finished mine, but my friend with the lentil burger could only eat half of hers it was so monstrous.


My only critique is that I would have preferred to have my cheese melted onto the burger rather than piled on with the other toppings.

Considering the location and the price of food in the city in general, Splitz was a really good deal price and portion-wise. I certainly had no complaints and I really liked the open kitchen idea so I could see the cooks doing their thing. Everything was fresh and well-prepared. I'd definitely go back.

Splitz also has a location in Whistler, too.