8bit’s burgers, hot dogs and shakes are exactly what Footscray needs.
It’s a culinary 180 from the numerous Vietnamese and African options in the suburb. While it’s admittedly pretty cool to have such gourmet ethnic diversity on my doorstep, before now it’s been pretty hard to get after a good quality straight-down-the-line burger and fries. A rude shock for me after being within walking distance of Huxtaburger!
The venue is in a prime location on Droop Street. It’s easy to spot thank to the distinctive light box hanging from the outside wall of an 8bit video game character, as the restaurant is all themed around arcade games. For instance, all the burgers are named after video game characters, the table numbers are all constructed with video game characters from PacMan to Super Mario and you can even play classic games from the console in the back (for free).
We tried the Altered Beast with beef, bacon, cheese, grilled onions, lettuce, 8bit sauce and BBQ sauce ($9.50) and Golden Axe with crispy fried chicken, cheese sriracha mayo and slaw ($9.50).
Both burgers were generously sized ie not slider sized with fillings stuffed to the brim between two buttered and toasted organic Lievito brioche buns. The beef patty had been cooked on the griddle, crusty on the outside and juicy on the inside. The chicken was also light and crispy without being over-fried. The sriracha is not hot at all so if you’re not a chilli fan you’ll still be ok.
The accompanied our burgers with a small serving of potato gems ($4), little golden puffs of steaming hot shredded potato.
And the milkshakes! At 5pm they’d already run out of salted caramel so it was back to the chocolate bar milkshake which is actually a mint Aero shake. A chocolate milkshake, only crunchy (and minty!) and served with one of those fat bubble tea straws so you can suck out every shard of chocolate.
I suspect 8bit will do very well in the west. They were very friendly and seemed genuinely interested in asking for our feedback. Even on its first day the bright interior drew in lots of students, families and given it’s open till 11pm it will catch the after-work / late night drinks crowd. Happy eating!
8bit, 8 Droop Street, Footscray 03 9687 8838
Open daily, 11am-11pm
OH GOD I NEED DIS!!
heh
serious – thanks for the tip off. I want those hotdogs in my belly right now 😉
Sooo glad to have this down the road now. Yes, I’m a Huxtaburber freak too (my studio is around the corner), but having this on my way home is awesome. Hopefully this is the start to some more diversity in the area.