For my birthday, my friend Nilabjo (yes that’s a real name) bought me a Travelzoo gift certificate for Wild Burger near Yonge & Eglington.

I’ve never heard of it prior to getting the certificate but their menu selection quite literally lives up to their name. They offer a variety of burger meats including elk, bison, venison, ostrich, kangaroo and camel. They also advertise sustainable food and flavours that represent the diversity of Canada.

I chose the camel burger which came with a sweet cilantro sauce, brie, baby spinach, mango, dried fruit salsa and onions. I’ve never had camel but it had a texture and consistency of beef but was much lighter tasting. I loved the cilantro sauce and I thought all the ingredients married together. There was also a nice crunch that I wasn’t sure if it was from the spinach or something else.

As my side, I chose the duck fat fries garlic fries. They were great on their own but I also tried dipping them in a selection of house-made sauces. One of the strangest was a banana-mustard.

Nash settled on the Chimichuri Elk Burger that had chipotle aoli, brie and a fried egg. Elk is a lean meat so this can be downed so easily!

He accompanied his burgers with fried pickles. I stole quite a few because they had a perfect crunch. They were sliced in a way that didn’t give you too much pickle or too much breading.

To drink I tried a Social Lite for the first time in Lemon Cucumber Mint. It was an alcoholic cooler of some sort but I didn’t find it as flavourful as the fancy cocktails you could find around town. It advertises no sugar, but I feel like it needed it.

We really enjoyed our burgers at Wild Burger and now I’m itching to try all the other types of patties!