Burgou - Burgers & more

Burgou – Burgers & more sits on Carrer del Capità Vila in Palma, a few steps from Plaça Pere Garau, and treats the burger menu as a set of building instructions. The house line is: your burger, your rules. You can order one of the ready-composed versions, or decide for yourself and pick topping and sauce one by one. The kitchen works with the smash technique. The ball of beef is pressed flat on the hot plate so that it takes on a dark, crisp crust while the centre stays juicy. The base is almost always a potato roll, a soft potato bun that the menu names explicitly on nearly every burger. The protein itself is a decision too: beef, crispy chicken or a plant-based medallion. Diario de Mallorca has listed Burgou in a round-up of Palma's burger addresses – notable for a house that sits nowhere near a tourist axis, but in the middle of a residential quarter. Smash burgers on a potato roll The menu separates classics from specials. Among the classics, cheddar leads: on its own, with pickled gherkins, with crisp bacon or with jalapeños. Alongside them stand a version with gouda, lettuce and tomato, and one with Edam and raw red onion. The specials are where the character of the house shows. La Balear is the Mallorcan contribution: Mahón cheese, sobrassada with honey and crushed Quely biscuits – three ingredients everybody on the island knows and which rarely land on a burger anywhere else. La GOAT puts goat's cheese on caramelised onions and a honey-mustard sauce. La Blau combines blue cheese with crisp bacon and a jam of roasted sweet peppers. The Terra brings goat's cheese, sautéed mushrooms and rocket together. For the heat faction there is a version with Edam, hot chillies and sriracha. And then there is the item simply called: build your burger. Three toppings, one sauce, all your own call. It does not sit at the edge of the menu – it is among the house's most ordered items. Milanesa, chivito and the rest of the menu The "& more" in the name is not a filler. Beside the burgers, Burgou runs a section of dishes from the Río de la Plata. The milanesa, a thinly beaten breaded veal escalope, comes classically with two fried eggs or as Milanesa Americana with cheddar, diced bacon and caramelised onions. The Chivito Uruguayo is Uruguay's national sandwich: veal, cooked ham, cheese, egg, lettuce and tomato in soft bread. The Bocadillo de Entraña fills the same bread with skirt steak cut into strips and chimichurri. The starters run to onion rings, breaded mozzarella sticks, nuggets and nachos with goat's cheese, caramelised onions and jalapeños, available mixed on one board as well. As a side there are fried sweet potatoes next to the chips. The desserts continue the same line: chocotorta, the Argentine layered cake of chocolate biscuits and dulce de leche, plus cheesecake, a tart of mango and passion fruit, and a key lime pie on a biscuit base. To drink there is beer on tap or by the bottle, wine, or something soft. Burgou in the Pere Garau quarter Pere Garau is one of Palma's most densely built residential quarters. It lies east of the Avenidas and turns around its market hall; bars, small shops and restaurants from all over the world line up around Plaça Pere Garau. Burgou stands in that row, a short stretch from Carrer de Manacor. The house serves both ways: you can book a table and eat in, collect your order, or have it brought by the usual delivery services. For a quarter whose guests come mostly from the neighbourhood, that is the obvious split. And for visitors who want to see Palma beyond the old town, it is a good reason to walk east for once.