Bonditony’s Burger Joint offers casual, family-friendly dining

Bonditony’s Burger Joint welcomes everyone, from toddlers to seniors, and bankers to surfers. Oh, and it serves a belter of a burger, too.

At Bonditony’s Burger Joint, an image-festooned restaurant 10 minutes walk from Bondi Beach, menu choices are hampered by staring at the walls.

Almost every inch of the interior, ceiling included, is covered in music posters, CDs, photographs, magazine covers, framed chart-topping records, artwork and hand-written messages and signatures.

The Boss burger with sweet potato fries.Janie Barrett

There is evidence of dark green paint underneath but this is obscured by years of paraphernalia, including hundreds of photographs of customers and staff, stuck (with double-sided tape) across the surface. It is not a mess.

Owner Tony Gosden, who opened the restaurant (named after an old email address) in 2017, has added every sticker, polaroid or poster with care and thought.

It is a belter of a burger. Let its fiery, sweet, rich and earthy juices run down your forearms on the second bite.

The loo, which features a white electric guitar, shelves of VHS videos, record covers (Leif Garrett overlooks the basin) and a framed photo of the 1964 Ford Falcon Gosden once drove across the US, is a tribute to important people, places and memories in his and the venue’s life.

Take time to drink it in. Then eat burgers. Good ones. Stout two-handers with soft buns and jam-packed mountains of grass-fed beef, high-melt American cheese, iceberg lettuce, fruity barbecue chutney and tomato relish.

That is the Classic Cog, named after Australian band Cog, one of eight burgers Gosden titled in tribute to years representing and booking rock bands, before he managed or owned bars and venues.

There’s the Trippin Zeahorse, Just a Jezebel, #Bordy, Vero Valentino, the Delta Ring, the Boss and the Johnny Collide.

The Boss, the burger Gosden makes for himself, layers a beef patty with bacon, double American cheese, McClure’s garlic and dill pickles, deep-fried jalepenos and Gosden’s handmade aioli (French truffle-infused and tomato-mustard infused).

It is a belter of a burger. Let its fiery, sweet, rich and earthy juices run down your forearms on the second bite.

Take time to drink in the cruisy vibes at BondiTony’s.Janie Barrett

It comes with sweet potato fries, normally an “upgrade” for the menu’s other burgers, which come with piles of whip-thin, golden and crunchy potato chips.

They are good (excellent with gravy), but oh what glory lies in the sweet potato version.

Salty, crispy, dark copper delights verging on melty inside. Upgrade immediately.

It is also worth trying the Sticky Fingers free-range chicken wings, marinated in Gosden’s special brine recipe, double-crumbed and served with thick wedges of carrot and celery.

Alternate bites of aioli-laced wings with fresh vegetable.

Sticky fingers chicken wings.Janie Barrett

Match this with a Bonditony’s Kick Ass Bloody Mary cocktail, a mind-tuner after a late night, and a margarita made with Olmeca Altos Plata Tequila from the Los Altos region in Mexico.

There is also wine, beer (including non-alcoholic) and soft drinks, including kombucha from Mullumbimby brewery Good Happy.

Gosden, who plans to sell bottles of his sauces and aioli (truffle, chipotle, honey, sundried tomato and lemon dill), says deciding to run a burger restaurant was a gut reaction.

“I’d just come out of the music industry,” he says. “I was tired. I had a kid as well and he was two, and I was like, ‘Look, I’ll build us a bar’.

“I did probably too much homework on burgers, and I made them really, really, really good pretty quickly. And it went gangbusters. I just had a feeling that if I opened up a burger joint, people would come and hang out and just be casual and not pretentious.”

The Altos-listo margarita.Janie Barrett

Seven years later, in 2023, he opened a second Bonditony’s in Enmore, with broadcaster Steven (Stevie) Jacobs, but closed it last year.

“We tried something but unfortunately the market wasn’t right over there,” Gosden says.

Bonditony’s burgers are excellent but Tony himself is a big reason to visit.

When on shift, which is regularly, he greets customers, tea towel over his shoulder, hand ready to shake yours, with an affability and interest that seems indefatigable.

Customers, from toddler to senior, from banker to surfer, are swept into a bonhomie that feels like family.

People stay on to chat into the night. On leaving, one tiny, just-fed child hugs Tony with unprompted force.

“It’s all suits and ties in the city but, when people come home to Bondi, they just want to put on their thongs, go round the corner and have a burger with the kids, have a bit of realness and authenticity. The community loves it and I’m stoked and I’m blessed.”