I remember back in the 90’s when one wanted to eat hamburgers in Bacolod, one’s choices were limited to Bob’s or Popeye’s. (Anyone still remember Popeye’s and their Wimpy burger?)
Those burgers came with a toothpick inserted on the top bun skewering a pickle slice. It seemed that that was the standard recipe in the Philippines back then. Good Hamburgers had to come with a skewered pickle slice. It was a sign that your establishment was high class. 🙂
An epidemic plaguing Philippine Hamburgers is the atrocious sauce that consists of ketchup and mayonnaise but I’ll not discuss it further since a certain popular burger chain whose name starts with the letter “J” absolutely drenches its burgers with them. Take a bit of their burgers and out oozes the ketchup mayo sauce. I usually scrape it off the burger with a spoon. Have you tried their Champ big burger? Scrape off the mayo and you could almost fill a small white condiment bowl with that abominable sauce.
Anyway, we’re here to present one of the more popular homegrown hamburger joints in Bacolod, Dalum Balay Burger!
Dalum Balay burger is immensely popular with the locals. They have a wide variety of burgers too. They seem to use only one sort of beef patty so the taste is a bit identical. Their burgers are way better than that of that psychotic bee.
DBB has also huge hamburgers that are the size of dinner plates. These are the most popular items on their menu. They come served sliced into four quarters.
Dalum Balay Burger also has the infamous DBB challenge where you try to eat one of their huge burgers with fries and a drink in 5 minutes. I have never tried to attempt this challenge but Mike’s brother was able to finish his challenge in a minute and so got his picture on the cork board of DBB winners. He suggest that would be challengers act like a pig by stuffing their burger with the fries and douse the whole thing with a bit of iced tea to cool it down enough to eat as it is served piping hot.
Err.. Thanks for the tip.
The Challenge!!Dalum Balay is great place to stop and have a nice merienda. Their burgers are real beef and with their wide array of choices you won’t get tired of their burgers anytime soon.
They seem to be focusing more on burgers and less on their sausages seen in the menu as it has now been months since they’ve restocked sausages.
Advice to all burger lovers
Just to be on the safe side always request your burgers from whatever restaurant you order them from to be well cooked.
Ground beef in the Philippines tend to harbor harmful bacteria that grow quickly in the tropical heat. If you bite into a burger and see pinkish meat, spit it out and report it to the management.
Steaks can be medium rare
Burgers should NEVER be cooked and served medium rare. Don’t make this misteak mistake. 🙂
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The Bacolod Food Hunters 
Great photos of the burgers, Martin! They all look good to eat. We have tried the burgers at Dalum Balay and we were not disappointed.
I’ve had hamburgers in the Bacolod area that substituted the pickle with a slice of cucumber. Different taste for expats but not bad.
Have a good day!
~ Gary ~
Thanks Gary! Have a great day!
How does it compare to Tio Sids? Btw, is Tio Sids still open in Tindalo? Once in awhile I do pass by Dalum balay but never got a chance to taste their burgers.
Tio sids quality has gone down.
Really? No wonder all the hype is gone now. Btw, If I were to choose from Champ vs. Big Mac. I would choose Champ… I don’t know, it must be that sauce.. hehe.. Anyways, home-made burgers are still the best..
Jeric, I agree that homemade burgers are still the best. However, it is nice to know where one can get a good burger in Bacolod when they are out shopping or out of the home when eating.
We enjoy grilling burgers but we also have a good technique for pan frying the burger patties. The inventor of the “original “Earl Burger in Carrabelle, Florida, told me years ago to fry a couple strips bacon together with the beef patty and tilt the pan so some of the bacon grease will run into the burger patty, giving it a nice flavor. It works! I had a burger at home two days ago and my side dish was raw broccoli with Thousand Island dipping sauce. I made the Thousand Island Dressing using ketchup and mayonnaise. A semi-healthy lunch!
Have a great day!
~ Gary ~
Are you not allowed to say the Jolly word?
We would eat at the J’Bee on weekends in Hong Kong because thousands of Filipinos meet there and eat together. I tried everything on their menu and unless we shared a bucket of fried chicken, I ordered palabok.
~ Gary ~
I have been hoping for years for a wendys or burger king to arrive here. http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/265198/economy/companies/wendy-s-renews-master-franchise-to-add-10-stores-in-vismin
I love Wendy’s especially their chicken sandwiches. Salads are great too. Hopefully those key units the article is talking about will include stores in Bacolod
It would be great if we had a Wendy’s in Bacolod. I haven’t eaten in a Wendy’s since the year 2000 when I moved from the States! I also enjoyed their salad bar, loaded baked potatoes and their beefy chili. Their burgers were always good, too. Some of my colleagues and I would shoot 21 basketball for a Wendy’s Burger, as the prize.
yes you can have a burger and make it a semi healthy meal with salad sides.
Dalum Balay Burger’s another branch will be opening soon at Mandalagan near K’mas Pension House and Convergy’s. I love them so much!! 🙂
Try the burgers at gourmandz in dream 21 building, It is not the best burger i have had in town but is definately the biggest. I ordered one at P150 for myself and laughed when it arrived, it was bigger than the plate, i couldnt finish half of it.
New on the burger scene is papa dines near Lopues east.
Had the misfortune of being given a takeout burger from pamilya grill in Eroreco tonight, it may have been a cheeseburger, there was something white and sticky under the bun, it could have been mayo. It weighed around half a kilo ,mainly bread and white stuff, cheese or mayo? Iinside was 2 sad slices of green tomato and a lettuce leaf. The meat patty was a third of the size of the bun and did not even taste of meat. A truly bad burger,
Unidentified burger object. 🙂
This blog site has got lots of really useful stuff on it. Thank you for helping me!
Im getting a javascript error, is anyone else?
Nope. it’s only you
Thank you so much martin for such an amazing blog. I would like to inform you that we already changed our brand name for the better and nicer one hope you will use our new brand name Big Beefy Burger ( BBB ). And we do also have another branch in mandalagan with other new menu to try on
Thanks for giving an update about BBB. I saw your one branch across the street from Kuppa the other day, so I will check it out in the near future. I enjoy a good hamburger. Always yummy!
~ Gary ~