TEMPLE TERRACE — With the Burger Wars on the horizon — we see you, Cook Out and Culver’s — we decided it was time to get a jump on checking out the combatants.

So, I had a burger at Haddaburger, which bills itself as the first halal smash burger place in Tampa.

The latest burger joint to open in Temple Terrace is the brainchild of co-owner Hassan Diab and his business partners, who took over the spot formerly occupied by Abbott’s Frozen Custard on 56th Street.

Diab built a rep selling his Dubai cheese halal burgers and homemade sauces out of the SandWishy food truck in Land O’ Lakes, though his dream was to own a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Whereas many burger joints may do too much, Diab is content doing just enough, and doing it well. And it’s paying off, he says. The day HaddaBurger opened, folks stacked up for a try, and it’s been busy ever since.

“We’re doing good,” Diab says.

The Burger

Smash burgers are the star of this one-man play. Diab’s plan was to make it better, bolder and halal.

The restaurant uses carefully selected beef with an 80/20 meat-to-fat ratio. Because it’s halal, it’s a “clean” fat, with great marbling, Diab explains. So the burger doesn’t need oil added to the grill; the fat in the meat does the work and carries the flavor.

The patties, in fact, are minimally seasoned. Instead of the usual salt-pepper-garlic trio, he uses a blend of spices that are already on the market, but are used mostly for soups.

Thin-sliced onions and jalapenos are smashed into the patty. Cheese is the primary topping.

If you want lettuce and tomato on your burger, you’re out of luck. In fact, there’s not a trace of either in the whole restaurant.

The meat is king, with add-ons like beef bacon and mushrooms and comes in single, double and triple patties.

Taste Test

We ordered a single burger and three doubles, with a side of fries and some Cajun corn ribs.

All four burgers disappeared quickly. We topped one of them with mushrooms, and on the others poured on a few of the four made-daily sauces — the Hadda Special, Hadda Umami, Hadda Heat and Hadda Ranch.

Diab says he has been working on the sauces for a few years. The Special was great, and the Heat was well done and not obnoxious. Diab says the Umami goes perfectly with mushrooms. We did not try the Ranch, which Diab says leans heavily on the dill flavor. He warns some people may not recognize the Ranch sauce if they are used to the bottled stuff, which he says is bland.

No one had any trouble finishing their burger (they were a decent size, not crazily large or anything, however). The fries had a strong tinge of cayenne, but were nice. The corn ribs had so much potential, but weren’t heated properly. Does that mean we didn’t finish them all? No, no it does not.

We also tried, and nearly fought over, the Desert Gold, a shake made with Biscoff Ice Cream and Biscoff spread and the Arabian Classic, made with Pistachio ice cream and dates.

We’ll go back for the Gulf Sunset (mango ice cream and rosewater) and Golden Spread (saffron ice cream and caramel) another time.

Diab said the ice creams are made at a nearby factory and carefully tested to achieve the perfect flavors.

Pro Tip

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen my messy-fingers-averse wife happier than when she noticed HaddaBurger has plastic gloves to wear when you eat your burger. I found the burger to be juicy but not enough that I needed gloves, and besides, who doesn’t like a messy burger? She, however, was delighted to have clean fingers after devouring her double patty. Either way, it’s a fantastic and useful gimmick.

Pricing

Four burgers, one order of fries, one Cajun corn, three sauces, one shake: a little over $70 bucks. It felt expensive, but when is going out to eat not these days?

Final Verdict

Was this the best smash burger we’ve ever had? Well, we’ve decided it’s definitely in the conversation and we need to go back to settle the debate, and maybe try a triple patty and an order of the Dubai cheese fries just to be sure.