Smizzle Burger sits on the top floor of Central Embassy inside Open House, the bookshop floor where the seating spills out between the shelves. Burgers run ฿150 to ฿300 and I had The Hulk at ฿300 with fries and a side of nuggets. Here is what the room is like, how the menu and the combo sets price up, which of the two burgers I would order again and the one side to leave alone.
The Room Is Half Of What You Pay For
Take the lifts to the top of Central Embassy and you come out into Open House, a floor built around a bookshop with a library at its centre and restaurants ringed around the edge. Smizzle is one of the counter operations along that ring, marked by a red sign and a display case of buns behind glass.
Most burger counters in a Bangkok mall put you on a stool in a food hall and hurry you along. This one puts you at a proper table with cutlery among people reading, which changes the meal more than the menu does. It works at lunch and it works better after work, when the floor thins out and nobody minds how long you sit there with the last of the fries.
How The Menu Prices Up
Every burger comes as beef or pork, with pork running ฿10 cheaper across the board. The beef is Australian and the board makes a point of it being free of antibiotics and hormones. You also pick the patty size, where Lite takes ฿80 off, Regular is the house recommendation and Loaded adds ฿80.
The range runs from the Happy Kiddo at ฿150 up to The Hulk and the P.B.B. at ฿300 for beef, with Uncle Sam, The Oklahoma, Crusty Blondy, Uptown Funk and the Afterburner filling the ฿260 to ฿290 band between them. Sides sit alongside at ฿85 for chicken nuggets, plus french fries, garlic fries, tater tots, sweet potato fries, messy fries, truffle fries and a crispy smashed potato.
If you want more than the burger alone, the combo sets undercut ordering the pieces separately:
- Set 1, with french fries, ฿85
- Set 2, with french fries and a soft drink, ฿115
- Set 3, with french fries and an ice cream shake, ฿245
I took Set 1 and would take it again. The fries come out thin, hot and salted properly, which is all the burger needs beside it.
The Hulk Against The Afterburner
I had The Hulk this visit, ฿300 for beef: double patties, double cheese, mashed avocado, sliced tomato, sliced onion and a dijon mustard mayo. The patties carry a proper dark crust from the smash, the avocado keeps the whole thing from drying out and the mustard mayo has enough bite to cut through two lots of cheese. It is a good burger and I would happily order it again.
I would still reach for the Afterburner first, which I had on an earlier visit and which costs ฿20 less at ฿280. Same double patties and double cheese, but jalapeños, crispy shallots and their special sauce give it heat and crunch where The Hulk goes smooth and rich. The cheaper burger is the better one, which is a rare thing to be able to write. If you are only having one, have that.
The Sides Ranked Honestly
The nuggets at ฿85 are fine without being memorable. They come out crunchier and coarser than the McDonald’s version most of us grew up on, which took a couple of bites to adjust to, though the gap is small enough that it may be habit talking rather than the nuggets. Order them if you want something on the table while the burgers cook.
The crispy smashed potato is the one to leave alone. Ours came free on a credit card promotion, which turned out to be the right price for it. Under the shredded cheese and a heavy lattice of sour cream sauce the potato gives up whatever crispness it started with, so once the cheese cools and sets you are working through something claggy where the name promised crunch. There is a good side dish somewhere under all that sauce. Put your ฿85 on the nuggets or another round of fries instead.
What Lunch Costs
Ordered as I ordered it, The Hulk at ฿300 with the Set 1 fries at ฿85 and nuggets at ฿85 comes to ฿470 for one before service and drinks. Take the Afterburner and skip the nuggets and the same lunch lands at ฿365. Pork instead of beef pulls another ฿10 off.
That is not a cheap lunch by Bangkok standards and Smizzle is not pretending otherwise. It sits in the middle of the market: well above the mall counters, well below the hotel dining rooms charging double for the same idea. What the money buys is Australian beef, a patty smashed and crusted properly and an hour at a real table on the quietest floor in the building. Somewhere between a food court plate and a sit-down dinner, this is the version I would choose.
Go when a burger craving needs settling and you want somewhere unhurried to settle it. Order the Afterburner, add the fries for ฿85 and leave the smashed potato for somebody else to discover.