kooky canuck

somegoodbbq. i had the maple bacon sirlon. ... amazing. simply could not put my fork down. the cut pieces were grilled to perfection with just a miniscule pink left showing. super sweet, super tender. i would definitely recommend the side of bake beans (i think they put some bbq pork in there ;) besides the gimmicky restaurant decor, was a great stop in memphis.

best burger in memphis. i've been going here since the bigfoot days. the canuck is by far my favorite spot downtown. not to mention that it's the best place to get a burger in shelby county. $6 humongous beers and a very unique menu that i have never had one bad thing from keep me going back. mr. danko is also the kindest person you could ever meet. keep up thegoodwork, shawn!

awesome desserts, cocktails too big!. kooky canuck recently became a favourite of my crowd and the reason i attribute is the presence of novelty desserts. i have tried both a 'kooky cookie a la mode' - which you almost certainly will need two friends to finish; i managed it alone and i'm not proud - and the s'mores - standard fare but with the added excitement of a 'campfire' (a small burner brought to the table); also feeds more than one!

entree food was pretty standard for memphis - i had a grilled chicken sandwich and it was good, but nothing special. this seemed true of everyone's meals. unfortunately, they don't seem to have much in the way of lighter food - and you'll need a small salad if you want to finish those desserts.

strangely, and i've never complained about this before, the cocktails were far too big. 34 oz is a lot for a cocktail - mostly ice and don't think you'll be able to carry it around with you; it spent most of the time firmly planted on the table as i couldn't lift it. put in less ice and have a smaller cocktail!

overall agoodexperience, though. not sure about the deer heads on the walls..!

late lunch. not just a burger place...veggies aregoodtoo.

this place is awesome great service and even better food! they have a great menu and they also have a surprisinglygoodselection of craft beer. if i'm in memphis this is where i'll be eating at hands down.

they have interesting lunch menu, that's the only time i go there. surprisingly, you can find some healthy options in their lunch menu for health conscious folks like me such as grilled chicken/fish with veggies. but largely, they are known for their kookamonga burger challenge and their burgers. if you don't care much about the calories, you will find a ton ofgoodoptions there.
overall, i like their food, service is okay, and i would definitely consider it one of the better lunch places in downtown memphis.

my first time. so my fiancée had kept saying that there was this great burger place in downtown memphis. he had been there once before with his daughter & son -in law. so today i suggested we go out for a burger. first of all parking can be a challenge in downtown memphis, but lucky for us we found the perfect spot very close.
there were a few people in and plenty of open tables for a sunday afternoon. the hostess wanted to put us all the way in the back but i told her we were waiting for a friend and we would like to sit up front by the window so our friend could see us.

our server sara was very friendly and took our drink order, we wanted to try one of the local beers on the menu but was told the drink menu a little outdated , no problem we ended getting one of our favorite beers. so our friend arrives and we each order a different burger. i ordered the memphis best burger with the trimmings on the side and medium rare. my fiancée ordered the canadian burger also medium rare & our friend ordered the bacon bleu cheese burger also medium rare. we waited about 15 minutes for our food, they looked awesome but once we all cut into our three different burgers they were all over cooked not medium rare at all. but the burgers were moist & juicy and the flavors were there, so we overlooked the fact they were over cooked. oh the sunny side up egg on my memphis best burger was slightly undercooked as well.

when our server sara checked on us we told her everything tastedgoodbut they were defiantly over cooked. she apologized but we said it was ok cause they tasted good. so when she brought our check she had taken 25% off our bill plus had charged me for a build your own burger instead of the memphis burger since it was cheaper that way. so all in all the service was great & the food was great. so i would go back again.

total disappointment. i've been wanting to try kooky canuck for a while based on somegoodreviews and the best memphis burger blog rated it very highly.
that's where thegoodstops.
we started our meal with a bloody mary and an order of fried green tomatoes. the bloody mary was tasty but then i realized they use zing zang for the mix. yes zing zang is a verygoodmix but i can buy zing zang at the grocery and make the same drink much cheaper at home.
next came our fried green tomatoes. a meager serving for $8.00 and they weren't even freshly fried. (see photo.)
now the reason for the visit was to try the four cheese burger. a burger praised on the "best memphis burger" blog as a "perfectly cooked medium masterpiece." wow, i wish i had his burger. mine was overcooked, cold and the cheeses were no where near melting. i barely ate a third of it before giving up through disappointment. the fries served with the burger were really good. at least one saving grace to the meal.
my companions bleu cheese burger was cooked to medium as requested but still not served warm. she said the flavor wasgoodbut not what she hoped for.
the service was friendly but inattentive and clumsy. near the end of our meal the server walked by and placed a second bloody mary before me. i said "i didn't order this." he said "sorry, it's on me then." kind of the i don't care attitude that displayed the whole experience.
too bad, very disappointing overall.

reallygoodburgers, posted a pic of my shroom burger. our waitress, ne-ne was great. didn't have room for the deserts :-( the appetizers were awesome too.

 next time you’re in downtown memphis, the burger of choice may very well be the four-pounder at kooky canuck on 2nd street, just around the corner from the main entrance to the peabody hotel. finish the four-pounder in 60 minutes — or bring a friend and polish off a six-pounder — and you’ll find yourself not just full, but famous, with your picture hung on the canuck’s wall of fame. if your appetite isn’t quite that big, their regular burgers measure up to a measly half-pound. while you’re waiting for yours, the canuck has a few appetizers that you will find interesting: the poutine, a dish of hand-cut fries mixed with white cheddar cheese curds and smothered in tasty brown gravy, differs from the french canadian original only in its size, which is big enough to mush a dog sled all the way from quebec to vancouver. the fried green tomatoes are asgoodas you’ll find anywhere, although they

good eats. heard about the large portions, and yeah its true. my gf and i shared the fried pickles starter - and that was a meal itself. shared the 'smoke' burger - the one with the japalenos - a reallygoodburger with kick. couldn't finish the fries with the burger either. but that's also due to having to wash it all down with one of their massive beers! i'm not complaining, but portions more suitable for americans. should look to share them when going. overall an enjoyable meal.

holy smokes! this burger sizzles!. the holy smoke lives up to its name, for it's a scorcher. the burger's "heat" mostly comes from the fried jalapeño slices topping a sizzling patty of ground beef. along with red onions, tomato, pickles, lettuce and cheddar cheese, the holy smoke burger has agoodcombination of spiciness and other flavors that make this a great burger.
when i order the holy smoke again, i will wash it down with something that is sweet enough to counter the jalapeños while not hitting me with a "sugar bomb" á la a soda. personally, i believe that cinnamon and other spices of most "pumpkin" wheat ales (such as the shipyard pumpkinhead) are a perfect match for the burger. unfortunately, that particular style of beer is seasonal, but other wheat ales such as anheuser-busch's shock top might make agoodsubstitute. but even with water, the holy smoke is a damngoodburger.

great service, had the donair for lunch, it was fantastic.goodportion,goodfries, cooked properly. waitress was very friendly. as a canadian, i approve.

overrated and overhyped. hamburger wasgoodbut nothing amazing. service was weak, and messed up my order. not a bad place - just not as great as the websites and blogs think it is (perhaps memphis people have low expectations?)

before writing this review i looked back at my last review of kooky canuck. i still like it. the atmosphere and the big beers are fun. this time i ordered the bbq nachos and they suffered from the same problem i had with my last order of poutine. the nachos had not been heated enough to melt the cheese or even warm up the meat. i would have liked them hot, but tepid nachos were disappointing.


-----07 aug, 2011-----

we live east, but venture downtown on occasion. we we sad that the pork tenderloin sandwich was no longer on the menu, but we managed to comfort ourselves with the grilled chicken sandwich, fries and poutine. the sandwich had alot of bun and was ok. the poutine had ample gravy, but the cheese curds would have benefitted from a little more melting. still,goodand indulgent.