Today I went out to lunch at a nice place that specializes in burgers. There, I had a $14 burger. It was pretty good. There was some dissent from others that maybe the burger was not worth $14, even though it was pretty good. I'm on the fence. Recently, Five Guys beat out In-N-Out as the best cheap burger for the first time in a while. I've never had a Five Guys burger, but I have had In-N-Out. I like In-N-Out, but I like a Carl's Jr. burger just as well, and a Jack in the Box Sourdough Jack (sans tomatoes) about as much. If I'm going to spend money on a burger, I do like The Counter. Their burgers taste charbroiled and they will cook one for you properly medium-rare, which is a rarity (no pun intended) these days. Their fries are also top-notch. Another hole in the wall nearby serves a signature burger that includes a complete hot link sausage on top. Basically the hot link is a condiment. It's almost as much meat as the burger. It's surprisingly good but you probably shouldn't eat there more than once. Burgers are pretty simple things, but they can vary widely in quality. One of my lunch companions today opined that high-quality bread is underrated as a 'make it or break it' element of a great burger, which I thought was insightful. FOCUS: What makes a good burger for you? Where's the best burger in your area? What do you put on your burger?
Ever since I left New York City I have dreamt of going back. One of the biggest reasons is to pay a visit to Bistro Burger. Located on W 4th pretty far west (a little ways from the ACE lines). It is really designed to be a bar but it seems nowadays more people come for the burgers and rightfully so. They use their own unique blend of spices for the meat. All the meat is fresh and very high quality. The burger itself is quite simple, no crazy condiments or anything. Just a simple cheeseburger that lets you focus on the meat with a side of very thin sliced french fries (side note: fuck potato wedges). To me that is really the best kind of burger. No crazy concoctions with mozzarella sticks or sausage on top of the patty or anything. Just good quality meat with a great blend of spices. I even disregard cheese pretty often. Just the bun, patty, and some raw onions. Incredibly delicious. Highly recommend to anyone in the area. They've got a pretty decent selection of beers too for you to enjoy with the burger.
Over two years later, I'm still fucking salivating about the BBQ Bacon Charburger I had at Habit Burger on State Street in Santa Barbara. I'm yet to find something better. Outside of the generic shit fast food chains, burgers here are way too hit-and-miss. Even some of the places that purport to do "gourmet" burgers can't even make their own fucking burger patties. How is "frozen disc on the grill" gourmet? Because there's red onion under the bun? Fuck you, $14 burger joint, McDonald's fancy-ass Angus burgers have red onion and they're only $7. I may be a little too easy to upset when it comes to grilled meat products between pieces of bread.
While few things in life compare to the majesty of a well-made beef burger, of late I confess to having a Lou Reed-esque walk on the wild side, by which I of course mean filling my burger with cock. Ignoring the contrived pun, the spicy chicken burgers I've been making have been fucking phenomenal. A lot of you know this already, but in case there are any impoverished souls missing out, do yourself a favour - Peri Peri Chicken Burgers: marinate chicken breasts in hot sauce (I prefer Nando's extra hot) for at least an hour. Drink beer and blaze joint while BBQing over medium heat with onions, along with fresh (not shitty packaged) bacon in the final moments. Place on bread rolls fresh out of a legitimate bakery. Add lettuce, slices of avocado, jarlsberg cheese, and perhaps some halved grape tomatos. The key ingredient, though, is 'peri-naise'. Mix your left-over peri peri sauce with mayonnaise, and coat roll liberally. This gives the whole burger a creamy, yet tangy taste. Enjoy!
What a timely topic. It's been three weeks since my surgery, and still another three weeks before I can eat a burger. (Mainly because of the bread, oddly enough) And while I never ate that many before, it's the food I crave most now. Among the SoCal spots, Top's Burgers is outstanding, as is Big Boy, and if you know what to order, Burger Continental. After that is probably Carl's Jr, and In-N-Out. (decent, but overrated) The number one thing is fresh ingredients. Fresh pickles and tomato do an awful lot for the taste, as does doughy, delicious bread. While I normally eat my meat medium or even medium-rare, for burgers, it's the one instance where well-done (code for "burn the shit out of it") is acceptable and even preferable. A nice, toasty, well-grilled patty with the afore-mentioned fresh ingredients and top-notch bread...that's a great burger.
You must have a good one, the Counter near me, the only one in my state, is so-so. For me, the best burgers is a place near where I went to school called Tavern House Grill. The best burger they have is the Rodeo burger. Its not unique in any way: bacon, BBQ sauce, cheese. However its the best tasting burger I have ever had, bar none; Ive been to all sorts of regular burger and gourmet burger joints and for some reason this one is by far the tastiest. They give 1/3 lb burgesr and they make their own BBQ sauce and get the bacon from a butcher locally. For a side they have honey glazed sweet potato fries with more honey for dipping sauce. However I am pretty jealous of people who live on the west coast and get all the better fast food places. Here its Mcdonalds, Burger King, Wendys.
I don't know how to explain Serenbe, the community where this is located. You just have to see it for yourself. But, if you ever find yourself just south of Atlanta between Fairburn and Palmetto, go to the Blue Eyed Daisy Bakeshop and get the Kobe beef burger. (This is one of the strangest locations of delicious food you'll ever find.)
I really miss Burger Burger on Stone Street in New York. Bacon, blue cheese, and barbecue sauce. Oma nom nom nom.
There is a place in downtown Denver called City Grille. They supposedly have the best burgers in town. I wasn't disappointed. The service is purposely full of attitude and condescension but on time and quick. Burgers rock my socks. I think as others have pointed out that it tastes fresh and that seems to be the key.
Dude, you're in CT, right? Try Harry's if you're ever in the Colchester area during summer. They are cheap and fucking delicious. No pre-made patties, they have a tub of ground meat and form the burger as they put it on the grill. When I drive by there I have to keep the windows up or the smell will make me pull in. My gf will make me drive her down there for lunch when she's visiting... it's over a half hour away. FOCUS: I like mine to be nice and juicy but I like them cooked to medium (I eat all steaks and other stuff rare). Depending on where I go I'll go crazy with the toppings and usually end up with some combination of three or four of the following: - fried egg (if you haven't tried this yet you're depriving yourself of something great) - goat cheese - mushrooms - onions - peppers - bacon - sprouts - chipotle sauce - BBQ sauce - salsa Most of the time I skip the lettuce and tomato unless I go to Harry's, then I'll just keep it simple with lettuce, tomatoes, ketchup and sometimes bacon. It's a burger that doesn't need to be dressed to impress. Fuck I think I might get one today.
Vera's Burger Shack. (Any burger from Vera's is amazing.) There are a few locations around Vancouver, and my God... that place damn near made me obese. And I didn't even care. Sadly/luckily I didn't discover it until about the last 6 months of my 5 years in Van, but I did my best to make up for lost time. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.verasburgershack.com/home.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.verasburgershack.com/home.html</a> "You can't beat Vera's meat!"
Not my absolute favorite burger, but definitely something I miss from college. In St. Louis there's a place called Carl's Drive In. Carl's makes their burgers on an old griddle by flatting them with a spatula, sort of like Steak and Shake but instead of tasting like shit it's delicious. A triple cheeseburger at Carl's with grilled onions that they press into the patties on the griddle is pretty fucking awesome. Also guaranteed to make you hate yourself, which is what I normally go for in grease-food. If any of you live in St. Louis and don't know about it, Carl's is on Manchester in Brentwood. Go. Get a double or triple cheeseburger and you must get grilled onions in addition to whatever condiments you like. Get fries and a root beer too. They make their own root beer and it's boss. *Edit - I forgot to mention the place is as big as a living room, with counter space for about 14 and the same three surly women there all the time, which makes me happy. They also close for a month or two every once in a while, which I find amusing.
I was introduced to my favorite burger by Man v. Food. When the host was in Denver, he went to Duffy's Cherry Cricket. While there, they made a burger called the Goober Burger for him, and after seeing it, I had to try it. On the show it was just the burger patty, bun, cheese, a fried egg, and peanut butter. Yes, you read that right, peanut butter on a burger. I cannot explain how amazing this burger is. I tried it simply because of the novelty of it all, and I was just astounded by how well the combination works. The peanut butter melts from the heat of the burger, and it is the perfect complement to the fried egg, which are awesome on burgers. If you're in Denver, make a trip to the Cherry Cricket and get a burger. I love the Goober Burger, but you can build your burger just about any way you want it. Everything I've had from there has been great so far, and you don't have to get raped by a $14 burger, they should just cost you like $8-9. I googled the Goober Burger to make sure I had the ingredients correct, and some people claim to have seen mayo on the burger. I don't recall seeing that on the show, and I would never taint my food with such a disgusting condiment. Seriously, fuck mayo.
Rocky's Burgers - The patties are all hand made, and cooked on a flat grill with an iron. Deliciously crispy on the outside and really juicy on the inside. All served through the window of an old city transit bus and cheapy cheapy. I think a single burger is around $4.00. Get it to go and the bag is almost translucent by the time you get where ever you're going.
I've got a place really close to me called BFHS (Burgers Fries Hotdogs and Shakes) that makes a really good burger and some amazing hotdogs. Better than Five Guys, which is also relatively nearby. I never order off the menu and usually just ask for a chili burger when I go in. It's a messy beast, but it's amazing. Like some kind of sloppy joe on crack. For the other CT guys here, BFHS used to be the second Danny's Drive-In. The original is still in Stratford, I believe. It's been there for like 75 years. There's also this place that I want to try so badly. They were featured on Man v. Food and steam their burgers.
I'll second The Counter. There was one right down the street from my apartment when I lived in Dallas, I couldn't get enough of that place. I'm a little surprised that no one has mentioned this yet, but as far as fast food goes, it doesn't get any better than Whataburger. There is just something perfect about the combination of their buns and those nice big patties with mustard only, and the pickles too...oh my God I want one right now. Also, for those in the South-Central US area, Braums makes a pretty killer cheeseburger. I realized the other day that one of the reasons I like their burgers so much is because the cheese they put on it is a good 2-3 times thicker than the standard cheese slices that all the other fast food places use. Here in town though, the best non-chain-fast-food burger joint is a place called Flat Tire right off of UCO's Campus (OKC's commuter university). It's a small place, but they have a nice patio outside with a second story deck which makes it awesome to sit out and drink beer in the spring/early fall. Their burgers are fucking great, too. Really good, high quality beef with patties just the right size. The Theta burger is their best one. Include the fact that they have fried pickles, amazing cheese fries, and sweet potato fries...oh my God the sweet potato fries. Thank God it's almost lunch time.
Freddy's makes the best burger I've had, hands down. Get the #1, add cheese and bacon, and make it a large because those fucking fries are also some of the best I've ever had. Beats Carl's Jr (though their jalapeno burger is delicious), Whataburger, Fudruckers, Five Guys, Wendys' Baconator, and Jack n' the Box hands down. I'll agree on the buns being a real important part of the burger, but I believe it's more that shitty buns can ruin a good burger, rather than great buns can compensate for an otherwise less-than-stellar burger. In my opinion, the best buns must be lightly toasted. Bacon, for me, is also one of those tricky things you have to get just right. Too thick and it can ruin it (I'm looking at you, Chili's); too thin and it's barely noticeable. A bacon and cheese Whataburger, add jalapenos, no tomato is great. Perfect amount of bacon and condiments. I also think that some places (like Five Guys) make their burgers a bit too thick, and that can ruin it as well. When I bite into a burger, I want to be able to bite through the entire thing, enjoying all the condiments, patty, and bun in one perfect bite. I don't want to be forced to make a fucking plan of attack, though admittedly it does make me feel more manly.
My favorite burger place is Kelly's. Better known locally for their roastbeef sandwiches but known for their burgers from Good Will Hunting when Casey Affleck is going to put a Kelly's burger on lay-away. The thing that makes the burger special is the quality of meat and the fact that it's cooked on an old griddle. Spicy brown mustard, cheese, lettuce, and onion. Perfect.
I recently moved from NYC to LA, and am really sad to have left all the great burger spots in the city. Two of my favorites in New York are Zaitzeff and Burger Joint. Five Napkin is pretty amazing as well. So far in LA my favorite has been the Pork, Pork, Pork burger at Tavern in Brentwood. Father's Office also has a great burger - along with really great beers.
I'm from the Bay Area, but the best burger I have ever had was in San Diego. I mentioned it before on the Rant and Rave thread, but I'll get more into detail here: First of all, these burgers are fucking HUGE. You can barely open your mouth wide enough to eat a double cheeseburger. The meat is seasoned and cooked to perfection; it's so tender, yet still juicy. This place is such a popular local restaurant that there is usually a 20 minute wait just to get inside the motherfucker. TOTALLY worth it. I normally put bacon/BBQ sauce on my burgers. They were out of BBQ sauce when I went there, but let me talk about the bacon. The bacon they use in this restaurant does not fuck around. It compliments the burger so well. The bacon is smoked and thick and plentiful. Delicious. After I finished my burger, I realized that I would never have a burger like that again unless I went back down to San Diego. Not sure if I'm up for the 8 hour trek from the Bay Area, anytime soon. The place is called Hodad's. Now don't get me wrong; I love-love-love me some In-N-Out, but this place totally shits on it. 5 Guys comes nowhere close. In fact, the only other place where I've had such amazing burgers was from a shack in Livermore, CA called John's 1/4 Burger. Check these two places out if you're in the area. They will NOT disappoint.