Apollo Grill

The Royal Burger is the order that explains Apollo Grill fastest. Special sauce, pickles, onions, and cheese on a fresh-ground steak patty, available as a single or a double — a clean old-school build that reads to a Peterborough table as a revival rather than a new idea. Local reporting traces the name back to a legendary city drive-in, and Apollo has carried that lineage forward on Lansdowne Street West since opening in 2011. Most first visits start there. Most return visits start there too.

The rest of the specialty board reads like the same instinct repeated. Apollo Burger swaps the heritage sauce for the kitchen's own Apollo Grill blend with lettuce, tomato, and cheese. The Mushroom Swiss handles a more familiar lane. The B52 Bomber pushes the format until it nearly breaks — a double cheeseburger stacked between two grilled cheese sandwich buns, which is either a punchline or a meal depending on which side of the counter you sit on. The chicken sandwiches widen the order without diluting it: Crispy Cajun Chicken, breaded in-house with chipotle mayo; a Chicken Club with thick bacon; Buffalo Chicken dredged in wing sauce, finished with ranch. The hot dog is a Nathan's Famous Coney Island frank, the tenders come in threes or fives, and a rice-based veggie burger holds the line for mixed tables. A BLT sits in the lineup for the diner who wants four slices of thick bacon, lettuce, and tomato instead of a burger; onion rings share the fryer with the fries.