The Counter, Custom Burgers, Dundrum Town Centre.

The Counter in Dundrum Town Cenyre’s Pembroke Quarter has a novel twist on the gourmet burger scene. Paolo ventured there during the big freeze of 2010.

The Counter does burgers, but they do it with a novel twist, where you construct your own burger. You don't actually cook the thing, you fill in a form with lots of options to create the burger of your dreams.

Step one: Decide if you want a beef, turkey, chicken or veggie burger, then pick the size you want -- a third of a pound, two-thirds or a pound. That last one is 16oz, a truly enormous burger. Then you decide if you want it without a bun and, if so, whether you want it on a bed of lettuce or mixed greens. With me so far?

Now step two. Choose from 10 cheeses to top your burger, which leads to step three: pick four toppings from a list of 26. Then, step four, choose a dipping sauce from the 18 listed and, lastly (step five), pick your bun from a choice of three. If all these choices are too much for you, you can simply order a classic burger with no forms to fill out.

There were seven of us: Max, Sophie, Marian and me, who arrived together, and Gemma, Gavin and Alex, who had come from town on the Luas directly to Dundrum Town Centre, declaring that it was the easiest possible of trips. Definitely easier than mine, where I had to make use of a shovel to get me through the worst of the snow drifts.

Gemma and Gavin had eaten in The Counter before, so Gemma helped me fill out my order. You get a clipboard, your form and a pencil on the table when you arrive, so we all constructed our various versions of the perfect burger. I'll bore you with the details of my selection. First, I decided on the Irish Hereford beef and I didn't want a bun, just a big burger, so I picked the two-thirds of a pound weight. Then I chose Emmental for my cheese and, not being a greedy person, I chose just three toppings: a free-range egg, honey-cured bacon and a dill pickle. My dipping sauce was the Dijon mustard balsamic dressing. When I'd finished I was almost drooling in anticipation -- a perfect burger for me was on the way.

There's a basic wine list of about 20 wines ranging in price from €18.50 to €30 and all are available by the glass. There's one bubbly, a Cava at €34.95, and it's available only by the bottle. There's also a list of beers, both bottled and draught, but I thought I'd go with the classic accompaniment to a burger: a cola. All the minerals are priced at €2.95.

To go with our various burgers we ordered two 'Fifty-Fiftys' -- one was a platter with chips and onion rings, the other sweet potato chips and onion rings, both priced at €6.25. Good chips and very good onion rings. We finished with a couple of desserts: a caramel brownie and an apple pie à la mode, which we all dipped into.