Pokemon Go fans gathered outside the Sir John Young Hotel in Sydney's CBD last week had a new catch-cry, rather than catching them all, it was about eating them all.
Cashing-in on the Pokemon Go phenomenon, Sydney's Hashtag Burger and their pop-up restaurant Down N' Out Burgers created Pokemon-inspired burgers featuring characters Pikachu, Bulbasaur and Charmander in burger form.
With only 100 burgers available per day and hundreds waiting in the queue, the team at Hashtag Burgers were kept busy preparing for the hungry and excited patrons.
"The inspiration for these burgers was obviously the latest Pokemon Go craze. But we are always looking for new and interesting things, we like to keep it fresh and really we think, you know, there was nothing new in burgers and we were just tired of seeing the same old thing, and we have just bought something that's visually and, you know, gastronomically appealing for people," said Archie Saliba, Operations Manager for Hashtag Burgers.
Inspired by three of the Pokemon Go characters, the "Pokeburgs" offered patrons a taste that matches each of the character's personalities.
"As you can see, we've got Bulboozaur over here, he's known for his leafy green vegetables, so we've packed him full of greens. Peakachu at the front there, he's got some electric aioli and chips and lots of cheese just to match with his yellow colour and Chugmander, at the back here, is a bit of a nacho-style burger with a slightly spicy salt salsa and some volcanic cheese," Saliba added.
Unfortunately, with most patrons after the Pikachu-inspired burger complete with corn-chip ears, patrons could not pick their character, rather the chef got the final say.
"Part of the idea behind that is to recreate the experience of Pokemon which is the excitement and the not knowing of what's going to happen next or which character you're going to get and that sort of thing," said Ben Kagan, the Hashtag Burgers Creative Director.
Kagan admits that the process of creating the burgers was a difficult one and the recipe and construction of the burgers is kept top-secret.
"Literally four weeks, yeah, there was a long process of figuring out what the best way to do the faces would be because for me the faces were the most important, that's what brings the whole thing together and then of course it was the chef's responsibility, our chef Sebastian, to balance all the flavours and make it interesting and really make it kind of fun," Kagan added.
With the pop-up restaurant selling the Pokeburgs only until last Saturday, patrons agreed that Pikachu was the one to eat.
"It's got the ears on it and I just want to eat it, like, how often do you get to say 'I've eaten a Pikachu burger,' you know what I mean, I want to be one of those people," said Kirk Canda.
"I got the Pikachu Pokemon burger and I'm really excited about that because that's the one I was hoping to get," added customer Shane Rays.
The popularity of augmented-reality Pokemon Go around the world has generated crowds of people in parks and other public places searching for monsters.
The game has also been blamed for injuries and robberies of distracted users.