Burgers and milkshakes made fancy: Bistro Burger brings the fine touch to Fumin Road

By Jeremy Breningstall

If you’re going to go out for a late night burger and milkshake, why not make it gourmet?

The modest-sized restaurant’s long interior is decorated with classic urban chic. For wall art along one side, restaurateur Eduardo Vargas selected dark-gray-and-red tinged back alley-type street photographs (visitors may recognize these images from some of the tourist boutiques on Taikang Lu and other galleries around town). An extensive mirror on the other long wall projects ambience, lending an illusion the restaurant is larger than it actually is. The overall feel here is comfortable and relaxed. “We’re trying to keep it very casual,” Vargas said. “You can come here on a day when you have nothing to do.”

Last Tuesday, my fiancée and I took in a media preview of the menu fare, designed by Vargas and Eric Brown, (of Pinnacle Peak Steak House). Our meal started with some warm tasty egg rolls in sweet and sour sauce, followed by a chicken salad with a delightful sweet citrus flavor. The chili cheese fries were a favorite around the table, offering a delicate and spicy sauce that exuded originality. After the spinach cheese dip, we were almost full but the burgers were just coming out. I tried the chicken burger and the bistro burger; of the two, my vote was for the chicken. We finished with a desert of apple pie and ice cream and a rich chocolate cake.

As for the chef? Vargas says his personal favorite is the lamb burger.

Beverage selections include a variety of milkshakes, cocktails and drafted and bottled beer( most in the 25-50RMB range), with a particular emphasis on the milkshake selection (fruity flavors, mixed flavors, alcohol-laced flavors).

The hamburger menu looks like a page off a world atlas: Hawaiian, Tuscan, Aussie, Mexican, etc. (60 RMB).

The most expensive menu item, at 190 RMB, is the bistro 10 oz. ribeye steak.

 The key difference between the burgers at Vargas Bistro Burger and the beef found elsewhere, according to Vargas, is he imports all his hamburger meat from abroad as steak and grinds it in-house. In addition to the set toppings for each burger, customers can choose from six kinds of cheese, chili, avocado, and other choices at 8 RMB per add-on.

Vargas came to cooking early. At the tender age of nine, he appeared on Peruvian television to bake a chocolate cake with his grandmother, a famous chef, he said. After moving to the U.S. as a teenager, he attended Georgetown University, then worked for Merril Lynch, but cooking remained in his heart (and a part-time job). Working for famous chefs like Mark Miller (in college) and moving through Washington, D.C., Hawaii, Africa and Singapore, Vargas soon shifted from the finance world to the restaurant business, landing in Shanghai about eight years ago.

 His impact on the city cooking scene has been pervasive: Che, Azul, Casa 13, City Diner, Mexico Lindo, Bambou, and Vargas Grill are just an abbreviated list from the restaurants he gets credit for having opened.

 Once Bistro Burger is fully running in a month or so, it will be open later hours: from 10 am till 4 am., Vargas said. That will be the spot for one heck of a delicious late night snack.