Upmarket restaurants in Oz will occasionally do roast beets on plated meals as a vegetable (these things are fashion sensitive in gastronomy ) but the default setting for non-chain burger joints is canned beet root on any burger unless you specify otherwise. I always do - cant stand the taste of canned beet root. Dominates completely the less aggressive flavours with its tinny vinageriness, too.
I’m Australian, and I’ve never liked beetroot on burgers.*
It’s not even something like gherkins that you can easily just pick off, it just infects the burger forever. If they’ve put beetroot on in the first place, then you can end up with soggy pink bread.
*Though I’ve gotten a taste for beetroot in other contexts in the last few years after having some amazing borscht
Are you sure that isn’t just cranberry sauce?
(Which, now that you mention it, might not be TERRIBLE as a garnish for a burger…)
This is second hand, as I’ve never had a burger with beet in Australia, only the ones my Australian friend has made here, but her assertion is that the Australian ones are a much more mild pickle flavor, not as strong as US pickled beets. Hence her preference for Harvard beets.
See, I like the ‘sharpness’ of dill pickles. I often ask for extra pickels if I’m having pickles on a burger. A mild green chile is good when there’s a fried egg on the burger, and jalapeños are great any time.
Oh, I agree. For me, its dills all the way. Bread and butter pickles are too blah. That said, I prefer beetroot to bread-and-butter pickles. But my family is Polish, so liking beets, especially the pickled kind, is kind of in my blood.
I haven’t done cranberry sauce on a burger, but one of my favorite sandwiches is a BLOCT - Bacon, Lettuce, Onion, Cranberry sauce, on Toast.
I normally don’t like the jellied cranberry sauce in cans, but for this sandwich its a must, nothing else will slice the way that stuff does.
in aus ive never had pickled, always canned. you also need pineapple and fried egg.
you wont find a pickle in a burger here outside of mcdonalds
I adore beets, but I find that they introduce way to much starch to something that is already crammed between two pieces of bread. It was also too big for the burger, though that’s easily remidied by using smaller beats.
Beets aren’t really starchy, though. They are sweet and have perhaps more simple sugars than your average vegetable, but they are not starchy like potatoes or yams or whatnot.
ETA: For example, here’s a list of “non-starchy” vegetables from the American Diabetes Association. Beets are on the list.
Every diabetic source I’ve seen lists beet (the root) as a starchy vegetable to avoid. Not as starchy as potatoes, but more so than carrots.
ETA: I’m wondering if the link you gave includes beet greens.
To tell the truth, I am a little surprised, given the sugar content of beets. I never thought of them as “starchy,” though.
Anyhow, here’s something that looks legit, that gives starch content per 100g. Beetroot is 0.6g/100g. For comparison, potatoes are 15-30g/100g, sweet potatoes are 15.6g/100g. Chickpeas are 15-16g/100g (cooked and drained.) Green beans are 0.9g/100g. Raw brussels sprouts are 0.8g/100g. Beetroot is not particularly starchy. Carrots have hardly any starch whatsoever, so I don’t understand comparing it to them.
I was just comparing to carrots from a diabetic/foods-to-avoid/carbohydrate standpoint.
I’m surprised it’s that low in starch, but I still feel it works very poorly next to bread. Maybe because of its carb content, but I think vegetables as a topping are far superior. Maybe there was just too much of it on the burger.
Yeah, too much beetroot can easily overwhelm a burger. I’m very simple when it comes to my burgers: twice slices of dill pickle, onion, mustard, ketchup, bun, patty. A fried egg is acceptable, too. I do like beetroot as a change of pace. I’m not a fan of lettuce (in most cases) and tomatoes are pointless unless they are fresh and flavorful. 99% of the time, they are just pink slices of water-logged cellulose.
Yeah, I only eat tomatoes out of my garden. Sometimes I can find good heirlooms in the high-end markets off season, but they’re an arm and a leg.
I’m not necessarily even sold on heirlooms. (I’ve had some pretty shitty heirlooms.) Heirloom or hybrid, I don’t care as long as it’s FRESH, RIPE, and TASTES LIKE A FRIGGIN TOMATO! That’s all I ask. All I ask. I’m sad, as I’m slowly running out of tomatoes and have maybe a month to six weeks left of tomato sandwiches on toast. 
There are few things in the world that make me happier. I’m not exaggerating.
Last week I went to lunch with some coworkers at a local bar that is known for their gourmet burgers. Their special that day was an Aussie burger. One of my coworkers thought it sounded good and ordered one.
A couple of minutes later the waitress came back to the table. “Um… we’re out of beets. Do you still want the special?”
We spent the rest of lunch trying to figure out why the heck you would make something your daily special when you are out of a key ingredient. Or why you wouldn’t just send someone to the grocery store to grab some pickled beets once you figured out you were out of them.
You’re preaching to the choir. I only bring up heirloom because it seems as though that’s the only name decent tomatoes are sold under. I find them listed that way at The Fresh Market and Whole Foods. They are ripe, soft, delicious… and about $5 or $6 per pound.
In my garden, I grow some heirlooms and some Better Boys.
Sorry for the hijack, everybody.
Yep, Better Boys are my hybrid of choice. 
As far as this Aussie is concerned, you’re not missing a thing. I loathe beetroot.