Roadside Burger Blog

Burger article in Helsingin Sanomat/NYT

2007-11-30T01:34:00.000+02:00

Couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a journalist from Helsingin Sanomat, which is the largest subcription based newspaper in the Nordic region. Helsingin Sanomat offers readers a weekly supplement NYT which is delivered as insert to the newspaper. The NYT supplement is a weekly guide to entertainment and the leading proponent of leisure-time activities in the Helsinki metropolitan area.

They had seen my blog and they had an idea to make a story about burgers. I was asked to join a journalist and dine in different restaurant and taste their burgers. The basic idea was to test four different burgers from gourmet restaurant to street corner booth.

You can find my burger reviews and comments from following links:

- Gourmet hamburger: Kämp Hamburger at Kämp Café
- Diner hamburger: Cheeseburger at Morrison's Grill & Green
- Burger chain hamburger: Club Burger at Carrols
- Grill kiosk hamburger: Giant Hamburger at Harrin Nakki

Backlog updates!

2007-11-28T20:48:00.001+02:00

Hello, my burger loving friends! I know my blog has been quiet for a long time but I have enjoyed some incredible and not so incredible burgers during this break. I'm updating all my backlog during next couple of days in random order. All the burger reviews are back-dated to original dates..

I'll update the links of updated posts to this list:

# Cheeseburger at Willowbrook Alehouse Bar & Grill, Petaluma CA
# Cheeseburger at Angry Dog, Dallas TX
# Cheeseburger at Keller's Drive-In, Dallas TX
# Double Burger at Hesburger, Vantaa, Finland
# Mama Rolls at Rolls, Klaukkala, Finland
# Giant Bacon Egg Double Burger at Rolls, Hartola, Finland
# Triple Cheeseburger at Hesburger, Helsinki, Finland
# No. 5 Special at Keller's Drive-In, Dallas TX
# Corporate America Burger #3, Irving TX
# Another Cheeseburger at Adair's Saloon, Dallas TX
# DeLuxe Burger at Memphis, Helsinki, Finland
# Chico's Burger at Chico's, Helsinki, Finland
# Double Cheeseburger at Tuen Grilli, Lappeenranta, Finland
# Cheeseburger vs. Cheeseburger with grilled onion at In-N-Out, Lakewood CA
# Steakburger at The Apple Pan, Los Angeles CA
# Cheeseburger at Angelo's Burgers, Garden Grove CA
# Double Cheeseburger at Irv's Burgers, West Hollywood CA
# Elvis Burger at Rock 'n Roll Diner, Oceano CA
# Super Juicy Cheeseburger at Juicy Burger, Gilroy CA
# Joe's Fresh Ground Beef Steak with Swiss cheese at Joe's Cable Car, San Francisco CA
# Double Texas Burger at Southern Fried Chicken, Helsinki, Finland
# Big Police Burger at Hampuris, Helsinki, Finland
# Heavy-Mega Burger at Hölmölä Burger Grill, Espoo, Finland

I hope you will enjoy these updates. This post will be deleted after all the backlog is updated.

Club Burger at Carrols, Helsinki, Finland

2007-11-22T21:35:00.000+02:00

This was my fourth and last burger with a journalist from Helsingin Sanomat. He's making a story about hamburgers and I was interviewed for the article while tasting several burgers.

In the 90's there were three big burger chains in Finland - McDonalds, Carrols and Hesburger. Two of these were original US based burger chains. You know the McDonals but also Carrols originally came to Finland as a franchise from the United States. Carrols Corporation was found in Syracusa NY, and during the 60's Carrols restaurant were found in North East and Southern states of United States. In 1975 all Carrols restaurant locations were converted to Burger King franchises. The original menu of Carrols, and the Carrols brand, then went overseas - to Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, and Russia.

First Finnish Carrols restaurant was opened in Helsinki in 1975, and already in 1976 Finnish Carrols restaurants were the last restaurants in the world to carry the Carrols brand and menu. Eventually the Carrols brand was completely bought by the Finnish company Tuko while the original Carrols location in the United States converted to Burger King restaurants. In 1996 Tuko was acquired by the Finnish company, Kesko, until Hesburger acquired their rival Carrols chain in 2002. After that almost all Carrols locations were terminated or transfered to Hesburger restaurants. Only few locations were left alive in Greater Helsinki region. In August 2006 new life was breathed into the Carrols brand when a pilot concept was launched with Pikoil, an operator of Neste branded service stations across Finland. Currently there's only six Carrols location in Greater Helsinki region and one satellite location in Imatra, which is located in South East Finland, near the Russian border.

The flagship sandwhich in the original Carrols menu was the Club Burger. Like the Big Mac at McDonald's, its piled on a sesame seeded triple-decker bun and it has 2 all-beef patties, a special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions. The original Club Burger also had a tomato slice which was left out from the Finnish version. The special sauce in Club Burger is known as Royale sauce. Back in the day I remember Roayl sauce to be a big secret of Carrols but basically it's a simple blend of 45% mayonnaise + 45% ketchup + 10% relish.

While Hesburger almost terminated the whole chain they also changed the menu to fit the Hesburger production chain. This caused the Club Burger taste to change.

So what's the Club Burger like in a Hesburger world? It's still a standard burger chain product, pretty dry and tasteless while the only real taste comes from the sauce. And for this very reason Club Burger doesn't taste the same as it used to. The sauce doesn't taste as strong and delicious after the production was transfered to Hesburger production plant. Suprisingly Hesburger has also cut down the amount of Royal Sauce on Club Burger while they overdo it on their own burgers. Also little things like standard Hesburger ketchup and pickle has changed the original taste.

Recommended for the history and good times but it just doesn't taste same as it used to.

--
Carrols
Aleksanterinkatu 17
00100 Helsinki, Finland
+358-24-808-9369
www.carrols.fi

Larger Map

Cheeseburger at Morrison's Grill & Green, Helsinki, Finland

2007-11-22T20:36:00.000+02:00

This was my third burger with a journalist from Helsingin Sanomat. He's making a story about hamburgers and I was interviewed for the article while tasting several burgers.

Morrison's Grill & Green is a small restaurant in downtown Helsinki. Back in the day this place was called Dick Tracy's Diner and they were know to be a quick and cheap lunch restaurant. Only the interior and name has changed, everything else seemed to be as it was. The menu is almost the same as it used to be and they still serve ridiculously large portions of simple food from Wiener schnitzels to chicken fried chicken and hamburgers.

Actually Morrison's claims to serve the most bodacious burgers in Helsinki. With their King Kong Burger this might even be the truth. King Kong Burger has not one but two 190 gram (6.8oz) pattys, bacon, two onion rings, double cheese with lettuce, onions, tomato and red bell pepper mayo. Since I knew I needed to visit another burger joint after this one, I was forced to skip the King Kong this time. Instead I ordered the standard Cheeseburger which, for some weird reason, was listed as Double Cheeseburger since it has two slices of cheese. The burger had 190 gram (6.8oz) patty with shredded lettuce, red onion, tomato and red bell pepper mayo.

It didn't too long for out burger to arrive. The portion was huge, on the side it had big pile of fries and a salad with lettuce, tomato and cucumber. The burger itself was big but pretty thinly stacked. The bun was grilled and it was crispy from the inside and soft from the outside, but the bun was standard supermarket bun. The patty was nicely seasoned and grilled for a freezer patty and it actually had some of the juices left. Unfortunately processed and frozen beef pattys still are dry and tasteless and the structure is pretty compact. It seems that all the frozen pattys come from one source since the size, structure and non-existing taste is the same as in any grill kiosk or restaurant that I have visited so far in Helsinki.

This burger was ok, but they still have the basic problem with frozen beef. They also should get rid of the cheap soft white gummy buns. It's a good effort but not quite good enough. With freshly grounded chuck this could actually come out nicely dispate the lack of proper burger bun and the lack of personality. Recommended with caution if you grave for a big burger in Helsinki.

--
Ravintola Morrison's Grill & Green
Keskuskatu 7
00100 Helsinki, Finland
+358-9-625-466
www.ravintolaopas.net/morrisons

Larger Map

Giant Hamburger at Harrin Nakki, Helsinki, Finland

2007-11-21T23:03:00.000+02:00

This was my second burger with a journalist from Helsingin Sanomat. He's making a story about hamburgers and I was interviewed for the article while tasting several burgers.

Harrin nakki (Harri's Hotdog) is a typical Finnish grill kiosk. A little booth standing in the corner of local park in the middle of Helsinki. Back in the days the architecture varied from trailers to wooden booths but the city of Helsinki standardized the outlook of these kiosks a few years back.

This particular kiosk has gained fame with 'The best grill kiosk in 2005' award by City magazine and also last year as 'The best grill kiosk in Helsinki 2006' by Helsingin Sanomat. It is also famous for being the quick snack stop for The president of Finland, Tarja Halonen. Yes, the Conan O'Brien 'look-a-like' who is running her second and final period as the President of Finland. After her last election win, in 2006, she went to Harrin nakki for a little snack on her way from national TV's official election night to her election party.

Typical grill kiosk food is "hamburgers", hotdogs, fries with sausages/meatballs/kebab meat. I use quotation marks with hamburgers since those usually don't have anything to do with proper hamburgers. Usually the slap of beef is some hyper-frozen-preservative-filled-piece-of-meat-like-substant which you don't care or realize after you have had couple of drinks too much.

In this case the expectation was right. Giant burger turned to be a flat burger. Top and bottom of the bun was grilled to a flat crispy disc between two flat irons. The bun ended up being a cracker which man could use as target disc in trap shooting. The slap of meat in this case was frozen beef patty not the meat-like-substant. It wasn't a giant one but a regular sized 120 gram (4.2oz) patty grilled to perfection which in this case means a very thin, tasteless and dry piece of meat. Oh, and the burger also had one slice of American cheese. At Harrin Nakki you can choose your condiments from lettuce, onions, pickle relish, mustard, ketchup and handful of mayos. I had lettuce, onions, relish and standard mayo. I normally would have taken the mustard but Finnish mustard doesn't fit the burgers like the standard yellow mustard used in the US.

The end result was propably the worst effort under a description of hamburger that I've tasted so far. Between two crackers I was served a dry slap of beef and condiments. On the condiment side I didn't order everything on it. Maybe the ketchup, mustard or garlic might have given some taste and soften the crackers but I'm afraid it wouldn't change my opinion. This was the worst burger ever.

They may have gained their awards and reputation among Helsinki grill kiosks with other food offering, definetly not with burgers. I do NOT recommend this burger to anyone.

--
Harrin Nakki
Agricolankatu 11
00530 Helsinki, Finland

Larger Map

Kämp Hamburger at Kämp Café, Helsinki, Finland

2007-11-21T21:11:00.000+02:00

This was my first burger with a journalist from Helsingin Sanomat. He's making a story about hamburgers and I was interviewed for the article while tasting several burgers.

The Kämp was opened in 1887 and it was the first luxury hotel in Helsinki. It has seen the good and the worst days of Finland from two wars to independence. The Kämp restaurants were patronised by renowned politicians, artists, composers and writers. For example, composer Jean Sibelius, writer Eino Leino and painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela were regular customers. Original Kämp hotel was closed in 1965. The building was demolished and rebuilt and it didn't work as a hotel until 1999 when it was re-opened as part of the Luxury Collection of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

We visited the Kämp Café which is located on the street floor of the hotel. The decor was nice, modern minimalism with pinch of kitch. The service was good and friendly as you can expect. And yes, this was my second gourmet burger location where you get to use silverware and cotton napkins while having your burger. The reason why we came here is that Kämp Café is said to serve the most expensive burger in town. Here's the description...

"marbled fillet of beef with rucola and horseradish mayonnaise, cheddar cheese and pommes frites"

Kämp is profiled as a gourmet place and this "burger" did not reach the gourmet level. Let's go to details:

- First of all this is NOT a hamburger - this portion should be called a steak sandwich not a hamburger.

- Secondly, the bun should not be standard-supermarket-good-to-eat-for-two-months type of a bun. And the bun was hardly toasted and it crumbled to your hand. With the price of €21.00 you expect to get something else. For example they served really nice focaccia bread while waiting your order to be served which they could use as a bun.

- Thirdly, the combination of tastes were not right. Rucola, tomato and horseradish ok, but what's with the cheddar? Try Gruyère or Manchego, or even strong Emmental (Swiss cheese) - anything else with more taste than standard cheddar. Something which works well with the Rucola and horseradish.

- Fourthly, what's with the portion size. It's gourmet and it's built high to look nice but with a big bun and small piece of fillet you ended up having a 1/3 sandwhich without any meat on it. Ok, you had a good pile of nice crispy (and really salty) fries on the side but for €21.00 you want to have a perfect burger not just bun with horseradish mayo and rucola.

- And finally the 'juices'. If the only moist thing in the serving was mayo there's something wrong. The fillet was correctly cooked to medium but fillet is fillet not 'juicy' burger meat. If they changed the fillet to freshly grounded prime beef it could still be priced as fillet, and the taste could be from another planet with juicy meat.

(As a side note: Kämp is located about two blocks from the market hall which has one or two butcher stores where man could get daily grounded premium organic beef. That could work as a base for gourmet burger. If executed right it would match the expectations of gourmet level. And a free hint for the Chefs who seek a benchmark for gourmet burger - travel to San Francisco and try Zuni Burger.)

With this price I would not recommend this steak sandwich - burger or whatever they want to call it - to anyone. Sadly, the value for the money just isn't there.

--
Hotel Kämp
Pohjoisesplanadi 29
00130 Helsinki, Finland
+358-9-576-111
www.hotelkamp.fi

Larger Map

Heavy-Mega Burger at Hölmölä Burger Grill, Espoo, Finland

2007-10-31T16:50:00.000+02:00

Couple of days ago my friend pointed me a little grill kiosk which was supposed to serve excellent burgers. We needed to pick up a piece of countertop from Ikea and this little burger grill was located only one minute drive from Ikea. So after we got our countertop we stopped for burger at Hölmölä Burger Grill. The place looked like a typical Finnish grill kiosk. It also seemed to be a trucker paradise since it's located near a highway crossing and four trucks were parked by the road. In a way that should be good sign.

I parked my car and walked around the corner and joined to a small line of people formed in front of the counter. I soon realized that everything comes out from the freezer so I already knew what I'll be getting. On the menu they have single and double burgers with three patty sizes - 75 grams (2.6oz), 120 grams (4.2oz) and 188 grams (6.6oz) - and in different variations they add cheese (only cheddar), bacon, egg, pineapple slice, bbq sauce. They also serve other Finnish grill kiosk foods like fries with sausages/meatballs/kebab meat/chicken nuggets, hot dogs, Finnish meatpies filled with sausages/eggs/cheese.

I ordered a Heavy-Mega Burger which stands for a Double Cheeseburger with two 120 gram (4.2oz) pattys and two slices of cheese. You can order your burger with lettuce, pickles, onion, ketchup, mustard and your choice of sauce from American sauce (tomato based mayo with pickles and seasoning) or garlic sauce (basic garlic mayo). I took mine with everything on it, except mustard and ketchup, and it became to be a messy mistake. Since all the indoor dining seats were occupied I asked them to wrap my burger to go. So,I got my burger wrapped in tinfoil and took a handfull of napkins and headed to my car. I took my picture and was a bit worried about all the sauces. I took a careful bite and was really lucky to keep all the sauces off from my car seat. After that I decide to step out and finish my burger outside.

If the burger was messy it didn't do a good job as a burger. The freezer pattys had lost their tasty juices during the grilling. The burger was filled with both sauces but no sauce can fix the problem with pattys. I like to have taste from burger and sauces should work as a seasoning, not as main event. The bun was standard grill kiosk buns with seasame seeds and they grilled the buns heavily from the outside which is a mistake. They also piled burger in a weird way. If look the picture you can see that all the cold stuff is between the two pattys which are topped with cheddar slices and bun. This way the bun doesn't get any of the sauces and when it's grilled this heavily it is really dry. Also when you have all the condiments between two pattys it gets messy since nothing gets soaked in and you end up having the stuff on your lap.

In a way I'm starting to lose my hope with Finnish burgers. This was supposed to be a good joint not just another kiosk selling freezer pattys. The burger was big, nothing wrong with that but the taste is only based on their sauces which are just standard grill kiosk sauces. Not the worst burger I've tasted but far away from my top list. Recommended if you grave a huge burgers and do not care about the juicyness. Unfortunately I can't recommend this place for real burger heads.

--
Hölmölä Burger Grill
Bemböle, Espoo
+358-9-863-1678
Website

Larger Map

Big Police Burger at Hampuris, Helsinki, Finland

2007-10-24T08:24:00.000+03:00

Hampuris is a small grill kiosk chain in Helsinki which started to reposition their business towards burger chain about a year ago. They started to run ads on TV and also offer home delivery. Unfortunately they still are just another grill kiosk. Their pictures of burgers have fresh lettuce leaves and nice looking burgers but the reality is really something else. And I'm not talking about the standard failure to match the marketing images, this was much worst. Just compare the image above and visit their website for comparison.

The funny thing with this place is that they have named their burgers and combos with names like Big Police and XXL, but they do a really bad job on telling what's in the burger. They don't even do that on their website. When you arrive to their counter for the first time you can't know what you are ordering without asking. So, I started asking while sitting on drive through line and cars started to line up behind me. Finally I decided to order a Big Police Burger combo which basically was a large Double Cheeseburger with fries and soft drink. I got my order in a polystyrene box, and drive off to a parking lot without seeing what's in the box. I parked my car and opened the box and was a bit disappointed since my expectations were closer to their images with fresh ingredients. The burger was build as a triple-decker but they didn't use triple-decker bun. They just had one regular bun and they added a top from another bun to work as a middle piece. The buns were warm but not grilled or toasted, just fluffy warm buns. The slaps of meat were the very same frozen beef patties that I'm complaining in every other Finnish restaurant or grill kiosk which serve burgers. In other words, the beef was tasteless and dry like in any other place using the same ingredient. The burger also had a slice of cheddar, little shredded lettuce, not fresh lettuce leaves as in their pictures, a little tomato slice and some standard red bell pepper mayo. The fries were really soft, greasy and tasteless.

I really hated the place and will not visit them ever again. I suggest that you stay away from this place. Not recommended.

--
Hampuris
Lintulahdenkatu 6
00530 Helsinki, Finland
+358-9-739-668
www.hampuris.fi

Larger Map

Double Texas Burger at Southern Fried Chicken, Helsinki, Finland

2007-09-24T20:50:00.000+03:00

My buddy, Brad, came to Helsinki for a few days. I picked him up from the airport. He wanted to take a shower and we planned to meet later in the hotel lobby bar. I planned to take him to local place named as Southern Fried Chicken. I didn't bother to find out what this place was like and it was a big mistake.

When we walked in we started to lauch since we already knew this place sucks big time. The place was a cheap mix of KFC, typical kebab joint and burger chain. Everything under one roof, on the menu they have kebabs, fried chicken, burgers and salads. Well, we decided to give it a try anyway, the clock was ticking and jetlag was about to come in. Brad ordered Fried Chicken combo and I took their Double Texas Burger combo. We moved to the table and started to chat. After couple of minutes our plates were slammed to the table by one waitress.

The burger was built in a standard supermarket bun, fluffy like they are and barely grilled. The two slaps of frozen beef was seasoned with hot chili flakes (they called it piri-piri) and piled with cheddar, tomato, lettuce and onion. The hot chili flakes does not belong to a burger, maybe over a pepperoni pizza slice but not on a burger. Well it really didn't matter since the burger was tasteless anyway.

This place sucks big time. Texas this, Texas that, there's nothing related to Texas or Southern food in this place. It's just another place where everything comes from the freezer and is quickly warmed up. Not recommended.

--
Southern Fried Chicken
Mannerheimintie 20
00100 Helsinki, Finland
+358-9-685-7721

Larger Map

Super Juicy Cheeseburger at Juicy Burger, Gilroy CA

2007-09-20T08:49:00.000+03:00

There's several Juicy Burger locations around the California. What a name for burger joint! I've had my eyes on this joint for a while and I finally had a chance to give it a try. Despite all of the fat-content fears that have made 'organic' and 'low fat' the buzzwords of the last decade, people still love juicy burgers and this name is just spot on. The chain was founded by Bejan Rahmani in early 90's in San Jose. Since then he has sold all the location to different people and every single one of these location has a bit different variation of original Juicy Burger.

At Juicy Burger everything is based on fresh ingredients. A large display case in the counter holds sections filled with full leaves of lettuce, slices of tomato, red onions, pickles, hot peppers, carrots, celery stalks, relish, green olives and jalapenos. You can order up to a 1/2 lb. of grilled burger or make it a full pound as a double burger and dress it with any or all of the above fixings.

I ordered a 1/2 lb. Super Juicy Cheeseburger. After a while the lady behind the grill handed me the standard plastic red basket with my burger and the rest was up to me to decide. The slap of meat was oozing juices while I tried to decide what pile to my burger. In the end I decided to add just the standard condiments - lettuce, tomato slice and few fresh red onion rings. I squeezed in some mustard and was pretty proud how it came out and headed to the nearby table where my Diet Coke was waiting. I sat down, took my picture and waited my friend to take a bite of his burger. His reaction was just what I expected, a smile, thumbs up and he attacked the burger with another bite.

I finished my photo and took the first bite which was full of flavor and juice. The meat was coarsly grinded, really juicy, nicely grilled and had a nice taste from the flames. The bun was standard burger bun but grilled crispy from the inside. All the condiments were really fresh and extra crunchy. Just excellent, a sure top list candidate.

The place doesn't shine from the outside with a little printed Juicy Burger cloth but their burgers really stand up for a Juicy Burger. Recommended!

--
Juicy Burger
8401 Church St
Gilroy, CA 95020
+1-408-847-7151

Larger Map

Elvis Burger at Rock 'n Roll Diner, Oceano CA

2007-09-19T09:33:00.000+03:00

We left this morning from LA and already visited Irv's for early lunch. Our goal was to reach Santa Cruz by evening and we stopped at Rock n Roll Diner in Oceano, which was located around half way. Rock 'n Roll Diner is situated in two railroad cars which sit next to Highway 1 just outside Oceano. The cars are surprisingly roomy, the one we dined in had double and single booths made with red and pearl checkered vinyl. The cars are decorated with vintage ads and pictures plus rock 'n roll memoribilia. The menu offers everything you expect from a regular 50s diner plus Greek entrees since the owner, Marios Poyuioukkas, was born in Creece.

On the menu they had around ten burger choices. Burgers are made with flame-grilled fresh lean choice chuck steak. All the burgers were served with fries, coleslaw or green salad. I ordered an Elvis Burger which basically was a standard Bacon Cheeseburger. After Irv's I skipped the fries and ordered a green salad.

The burgers were served with condiments on the side. You had a standard choice of lettuce, tomato, onion slice and pickles. The bun was grilled from the inside and was spread with little mayo. The bun was the standard hamburger bun, soft and fresh. I added some mustard and piled my burger with condiments and it came out looking as a perfect burger. Personally I think that this burger image is one of the best I've taken so far. The meat was fresh, mildly seasoned with good taste from the flames. All the condiments were really fresh and crunchy. Overall the taste was pretty standard. Everything seemed to be really fresh which was nice as we were surrounded by fields of lettuce, potatoes and other greens.

This place is worth a visit if you are driving along Highway 1. Prices are a bit on the high side and the food offers no suprises, it's just a good basic burger in great atmosphere. Recommended.

--
Rock 'n Roll Diner
1300 Railroad St
Oceano, CA 93445
+1-805-473-2040

Larger Map

Cheeseburger vs. Cheeseburger with grilled onion at In-N-Out, Lakewood CA

2007-09-16T09:28:00.000+03:00

We just landed to Los Angeles. After 12 hour flight and aeroplane food you need a proper burger. My co-worked haven't had an In-N-Out burger before so that was our first stop after we got on the road with our rental and started heading towards Orange County.

During flight I planned my burger tourism and we are going to visit at least The Apple Pan and Irv's. Since we will drive to San Francisco through Hwy 1 I've planned to stop by Rock 'n Roll Diner in Oceano and visit Juicy Burger in Gilroy. In San Francisco the plan is to visit Joe's Cable Car. And I have a feeling that one day in LA area we are just going to ask Neverlost for closest burger joint. Unfortunately we don't have time to go some other legendary burger joints but you need to leave something for the next trip too.

So after 15 min drive towards south I asked Ms. Neverlost if she can help us to find In-N-Out. In 5 minutes we were standing in line waiting our turn to make an order. I recommended regular Double-Double for my friend and ordered two cheeseburgers for me, one regular and other with grilled onion. I also ordered animal style fries for us to share.

After a short wait time our order was done. Fresh and tasty like always. I will not go to more into details than tell that animal style for fries style adds grilled onion, melted cheddar and sauce on top of fries. That sounds and looks like some proper manfood you need after long flight.

Naturally my friend loved In-N-Out and he was pretty impressed about it after I had hyped about it the whole flight. On my regular vs. grilled onion I would go with the regular. Recommended like always.

--
In-N-Out Burger
5820 Bellflower Blvd
Lakewood, CA 90713
+1-800-786-1000
www.in-n-out.com

Larger Map

Double Cheeseburger at Tuen Grilli, Lappeenranta, Finland

2007-09-15T08:29:00.000+03:00

I'm flying to LA tomorrow for couple of meetings. This will be my first trip to LA since I started this blog so be prepared for some serious burger tourism. I kind of started my burger tourism part of the trip already in Finland after dropping my family to parents-in-law who live in South East Finland. On my way back to Helsinki I stopped in Lappeenranta after I had heard stories about a small grill kiosk which serves excellent burgers.

The grill kiosk culture in Finland has long roots and basically the menu is the same in every place with little specials depending in what part of the country you are. The basic menu items are french fries with sausage/meatballs, Finnish meat pies, hot dogs and burgers. Normally burgers have a frozen meat like substance as a patty but when you are drung and grave for vitamin x you don't care or taste anything as long as it's bad for you and is full of grease. Today, a typical grill kiosk has a pure beef burger as a special high price item on their list.

Tuen grilli seems like a typical Finnish grill kiosk. A small building with a stand in front of it. The cool thing is that this place is not located in the corner of the public park in the center of town like these places usually are. Their small 'shed' stands in the middle of residental area across the street to a school close to local hockey stadium. The use only pure beef pattys for their burgers, that's not common. Their pattys come from the freezer but it's still rare for Finnish grill kiosk to only serve pure beef pattys. They serve all standard grill kiosk food from burgers to Finnish meat pies and different variations of fries.

Double Cheeseburger at Tuen Grilli is a triple-decker burger with two meats and two cheddar cheese slices. You can choose your condiments from lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, american sauce, garlic sauce, mustard and ketchup. The bun is not the standard fluffy burger bun that you normally see in Finnish grills. It's big, fresh and firm enough to hold the burger without crumbling to your hand, and it's nicely grilled from the inside. They actually cut their buns to triple-decker buns themself. As I mentioned earlier, meat was pure beef but unfortunately it came from the freezer and were the standard freezer patty. Whatever it is, it works well. This burger is really tasty, they don't over grill the meat and it as juicy as ready made freezer pattys can be. Burger was piled nicely, it was easy to eat and you didn't get too much condiments. I had everything on it except mustard and ketchup, and even if the sauces are basic supermarket stuff it works when there's not too much of everything. Everything seemed to been fresh, even the tomato slice was sliced in front of my eyes.

This was definetly the best burger I've tasted so far in Finland. With a freshly grounded beef this might been a candidate to my top burger list. Recommended!

--
Tuen Grilli
Parkkarilankatu 43
53200 Lappeenranta, Finland
+358-05-415-6002

Larger Map

Chico's Burger at Chico's, Helsinki, Finland

2007-09-09T05:21:00.000+03:00

American style restaurants are a big hit in Finland. For some reason Finnish people has always been a fan of US culture in every single way. Maybe the reason for is history and our location, a long love and hate relationship, with Russia. It's like we love to get as far as we can from Russia and take everything we can from Western culture. Well, what ever the reason is, there seems the be a huge amount of American / Tex-Mex styled restaurants in Finland. There's nothing wrong with that but usually the final product isn't that authentic. And yeah, who am I to judge this after creating a fanzine for American icon - a burger. Well, I think I have some perspective to the matter after living in California and travelling around the different states plus having this fixation with burgers.

Chico's restaurant chain is owned by HOK-Elanto. HOK-Elanto owns one of the biggest supermarket chains in Finland, and they also own restaurants and restaurant chains, service and gas stations, and hotels among other businesses. Chico's chain was found in 1991 and it currently has 17 locations in Helsinki region. Unfortunately Chico's is just another sad example how to build up a restaurant chain, put a little effort to interior and menu and start to call it as American restaurant. They actually brand Chico's as a All American Bistro with the taste of a real America - yeah right. With prepared meals, freezer pattys, ready-made-sauces plus frequently repeating words Tex-Mex and Texas in menu does not make a real American restaurant. It looks fake, it feels fake and most of all it tastes fake.

Well, let's get done with this... They serve a handfull of burgers which all have the very same ingredients that are used across the menu in different mixes and combinations. Their signature burger, Chico's Burger, is a bun with 2 x 75g ground beef patties, bacon, remoulade sauce, cheddar cheese, tomato, lettuce, red onion and pickle served with French fries. Sounds ok but in reality someone has thought it like this...

"Hmm, let's take the biggest bun in the kitchen and throw two small freezer pattys inside it. Oh, and let's pile it high that it looks like a huge burger even if it isn't. And as a cherry on top let's grill the freezer patty until it has lost every drop of its juices and is dry as a sahara. And if someone happens to notice that let's just fill the burger with mayo. And let's cross our fingers and hope that people never travel to America, go to a proper burger joint and see what's a real burger is like."

That pretty much descripes everything what this place is all about. Not recommended.

--
Chico's
Hietalahdenranta 5
00150 Helsinki, Finland
+358-10-766-3660
www.chicos.fi

Larger Map

Another Cheeseburger at Adair's Saloon, Dallas TX

2007-08-11T10:41:00.000+03:00

This night was my last in Dallas and I felt like having a burger before flying back to Finland. I had two options for burger joint. I felt like going out and try some new joint like Jake's or to play it safe and go to Adair's. My problem was that I didn't have much time and I didn't have GPS navigation on my rental. In Dallas you really don't feel comfortable driving around without GPS, so Adair's it was. The drive is easy and only takes 30 min or less to one direction so decided to play safe. I really need to get that Nokia N95 with navigation to prevent his happening in the future. Oh well, what am I complaining, Adair's serves my favorite burger :)

This place seems to hold on and it never let's you down. And yes, it still is number one. Recommended!

Here's a link to my old review about the place.

--
Adair's Saloon
2624 Commerce St
Dallas, TX 75226
+1-214-939-9900
www.adairssaloon.com

Larger Map

Corporate America Burger #3, Irving TX

2007-08-10T04:36:00.000+03:00

Yes, I did it again. I had a two day workshop in a Corporate America world and I finally had a chance to taste Corporate America Burger No. 3. This time I was back in Irving, Texas. Another company and a new burger. This place worked on trays which you picked up from the end of the line and collected your nutritious lunch. As a side note, the black plastic plate seems to be a standard for every second Corporate America cafe/diner.

Suprisingly my choice for burger was a Cheeseburger. This time you even had choices for cheese: a Swiss, a Pepperjack and an American cheese. Bacon was extra 50 cents and I decided to skip it. My burger came on a standard hamburger bun which had taken some hits but it was grilled from the inside and looked crap from the outside. The slap of meat seemed to be a freezer patty but I need to praise the mexican guy behing the grill for saving some of the juices. As condiments you had a choice of lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle wedges and ketchup, mustard and mayo in little sealed bags. I have to admit that this wasn't the worst burger I've had in my life. It was an average burger but definetly the best Corporate America burger so far.

Triple Cheeseburger at Hesburger, Helsinki, Finland

2007-07-31T05:25:00.000+03:00

Oh boy, I'm in Hesburger again. Seriously I'm not a big fan of Hese as we called it in Finland and I tend to avoid the place. You already saw the reason for this - I wanted to take an image of their limited time burger. Yeah, if you didn't notice the image, scroll back, there you have it. It's that thing in my hand, a triple cheeseburger.

Triple Cheeseburger has triple meat, triple cheese, mayo, ketchup, onion and pickle. In short pattys are tasteless, cheese tastes like melted grease. Hesburger ketchup is too strong and they really shouldn't use it in burger. And finally what's with the pickles, those taste weird. Mayo is standard. Oh, and I can tell that it's not healthy for you and it has close to 1000 calories (kcal) in it.

Well, it looks nasty and it tastes like someone would try to drown you with cheap melted cheese. Not recommended.

--
Hesburger
Porkkalankatu 11
00180 Helsinki, Finland
+358-75-325-9249
www.hesburger.fi

Larger Map

Mama Rolls at Rolls, Klaukkala, Finland

2007-07-16T06:41:00.000+03:00

Rolls is the smallest burger chain in Finland. It was founded in 1988 and for long time they had location in smaller towns in Finland which didn't have any other burger chains. Since that McDonalds and Hesburger has expanded heavily and so has Rolls. They are in the middle of repositioning and repositioning the whole business and Rolls is heavily expanding. In 2002 they started a Rolls Express concept which basic idea was to sell Rolls menu in Finnish gas ad service stations around Finland.

Their burgers are made from Finnish ingredients but unfortunately that doesn't mean any better burgers. Their burger are pretty much the same standard fast food burgers as any other chain offers. They also offer the standard milk shakes, chicken nuggets, fries with sausages and variations of burgers from a small cheeseburger to a giant bacon egg double burger which has more than 1500 calories (kcal). I'll have to review that monster some day.

We usually stop at this location whenever we visit the local flea market. It's a good place to stop, wash your hands after flipping through dusty vinyl albums, feed the baby and eat a quick fastfood burger.

Mama Rolls is their equivalent for Bic Mac with a triple decker bun, two meats, one slice of cheddar, special Rolls sauce and other condiments like lettuce, onion, pickle and ketchup. To tell the truth their special Rolls sauce tastes like standard tomato based mayo with some relish and seasoning - the same stuff that you can buy from local supermarket as hamburger sauce or american sauce. The bun is standard soft triple-decker with sesame seeds. Their meat comes from the freezer and is pretty tasteless and dry, the very same stuff you get from McD or Hesburger. Then you have some lettuce, pickles and that's it. Nothing special there but it kind of tastes more homemade than Bic Mac since the sauce is close to what my mother used at home.

Recommended with caution. It's not really special but a little different and smaller burger chain without million dollar marketing efforts.

--
Rolls
Seurantie 1
01800 Nurmijärvi, Finland
+358-9-2769-6590
www.rolls.fi

Larger Map

Cheeseburger at Keller's Drive-In, Dallas TX

2007-06-29T21:06:00.000+03:00

I finally had a change to visit Keller's Drive-In in Dallas. Keller's has couple of spots in Dallas and the one I visited is located on Harry Hines Blvd in West Dallas, close to border of Irving. The area is a bit dodgy with all the strip joints, bars and condoms-to-go-spots. Keller's itself also looks a bit seedy but don't judge the place by its cover. It's often is full of pick ups with some semi-seedy chracters but the service is good and the burgers are so tasty that they must fall from heaven. The car hops are friendly and they might not hit the model look or measurements but they are fast and efficient. Oh, and if you don't fancy a soda or milk shake you can order beer with your burger before hitting road again. Yes, you read right, you can drink beer with your burger and drive off. And if you are really thirsty you can buy beer by cases if you like.

At Keller's you don't have too many choices which is good. Regular burger costs $2.00, Cheeseburger $2.15 and Special No. 5 only $2.48. Fries and Tater Tots adds $1.25 to your total. I didn't order the much recommended No. 5 but went with my regular cheeseburger and left the No. 5 for later experience. All burgers come with poppy seeded buns which might not be the best choice for in-car eating but taste really good. Cheeseburger has a grilled tomato slice, onion, little lettuce and a pinch of black pepper. You can have it with mustard and/or mayo. Their burgers are some serious stuff. Not bodacious, but tasty, greasy and cheap. Fries were ok, but pretty average. Next time I'll just have two cheeseburgers with no fries. Sorry, I'll take that back, next time I need to try that No. 5.

They have fantasic prices for good food and this definetly is another great burger place to check out. And remember to bring cash - it's all they take. Recommended!

--
Keller's Drive-In
10554 Harry Hines Blvd
Dallas, TX 75220
+1-214-357-3572

Larger Map

Cheeseburger at Willowbrook Alehouse Bar & Grill, Petaluma CA

2007-06-28T09:08:00.000+03:00

This morning I was supposed to fly to Dallas but my flight was canned so we decided to head up to Sonoma for a little roadtrip. Our initial plan was to drive to Petaluma and do some shopping at local outlet mall plus visit Mike's at the Yard for lunch. I have been waiting a chance to visit Mike's and do a review but haven't had a chance to do that before this. Unfortunately Mike's At The Yard wasn't where it was supposed to be. I found the building but it was all dead. I don't know if Mike has closed down that location or if his website is really outdated?

Well, in a way we were lucky since we were forced to find another burger joint. We just started to drive to opposite direction that we came from and hoped to find some burger joint. After a short drive I saw a sign: Have you tasted a good burger lately? It came so quickly that I missed the parking lot and we were forced to do an unlegal u-turn like my neverlost would say it. We drove back and parked on front of Willbrook Alehouse Bar & Grill. To tell the truth that place looked a bit rough but usually that's only a good sign as my buddy Brad puts it. We had the baby with us so I went in and asked if they could serve us on location or do we need to get take away. The staff was friendly and told us that they can serve us on the back yard where they had a small patio.

I went back out to pick up my wife and baby and on a way to patio we ordered some sodas and checked the menu. For burger you had three options for a bun - plain, seed and onion - plus added cheese cost 50c, mushrooms and bacon $1. I began to think that this is starting to look really something. I ordered a basic Cheeseburger ($6.00) on onion bun with fries (add $1.00) and my wife took the same with plain bun, and baby got her food microwaved.

We headed to patio to wait our food and to feed the baby and got accompinied by a house cat. It took a while for our burgers to arrive so when the waitress brought our burgers we had already fed the baby and needed re-run for our soda cans. Burgers landed on the table and I was smiling, cheddar was nicely melted on top of the 1/2lb. patty and it was just oozing juices. All the condiments - lettuce, tomato, red onions and pickle - were on the side with a small pile of crispy fries. The bun was grilled crispy from the inside and spreaded with mayo. I added some mustard and piled my burger ready for my picture. While I was doing that my wife had already took a bite and she said that I'll love this burger.

She was right, it was pure burger pleasure. The patty was nicely grilled and full of taste. The bun was crispy, maybe a bit dry put it had a good onion taste in it. After piling everything between the buns it fit to your hand and was easy to enjoy. It just was a one juicy burger made from fresh ingredients - a perfect burger. Recommended big time and a sure bet for my top list.

--
Willowbrook Alehouse Bar & Grill
3600 Petaluma Blvd N
Petaluma, CA 94952, USA
+1-707-775-4232

View Larger Map

Cheeseburger at Burger Joint, San Francisco CA

2007-06-24T19:12:00.000+03:00

Yesterday we got back to San Francisco and I gave a visit to one of the world's best record stores, Groove Merchant Records on Haight Street. I bought a bunch of dusty vinyl from GMR and when I walked to my car I noticed that Burger Joint is located just across the street. I had visited the store for many times but I had never realized it was near to Burger Joint.

Burger Joint has only three locations. One is on SFO International Airport and two in the city. Their burger concept is simple: simple menu with only couple of options, fresh meat, fresh everything and the end result is one tasty burger. All their locations has the same industrial and clean decoration. Service is friendly and fast. You just make your order at the counter, sit in the table and your order will carried to you.

You have two burger options, a regular burger or cheeseburger. Every burger comes with tomatoes, lettuce, onion, pickles, and mayo on a toasted sesame bun and a pile of fries. You can dress your cheeseburger with American, cheddar, Swiss, or jack. This is above the average burger in every way. Meat is juicy, this time is was a bit over done but it was still tasty. You can pile the burger as you like and it's clean and easy to eat. No mess. Recommended!

--
Burger Joint
700 Haight St
San Francisco, CA 94117
+1-415-864-3833
www.burgerjointsf.com

Larger Map | Street View

Mel's Cheeseburger at Mel's Drive-In, San Francisco CA

2007-06-20T07:10:00.000+03:00

Someone might remember Mel's Drive-In from George Lucas movie 'American Graffiti' where teenagers cruise Main Street and stop at Mel's Drive-In and listen to Wolfman Jack on the radio. This legendary drive-in was built in 1949 when Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs started their first carhop eatery. They lured crowds of patrons that fancied dining-in-your-car and it didn't take long for the first unit to multiply into eleven!

As the new franchised fast food outlets and the philosophy of "serve yourself" began to reprogram attitudes about dining, Mels began its gradual decline and in 1972 colorful marquees were scheduled for removal. Mel's story was about to end forever but then came George Lucas and kept the place in history forever. This event didn't eventually save the drive-in since when the movie hit the theaters the bulldozers had already left the site and the trucks where carting off the debris.

Thirteen years later, Mel's son Steven opened the Mel's again. At the grand re-opening in 1985, former teenagers who once dined at the first Mels were now re-visiting with their families. Weary of tasteless road food, they wanted to show their kids a glimpse of what the good times were really like. Mel's was back on the charts with new locations on San Francisco's Lombard and Geary Street. Two more opened in Los Angeles - joined by full-scale replicas at the Universal theme parks in Florida and California.

Mel's serves pretty standard diner food. You can get breakfast, soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers, and thick shakes and other fountain drinks. We visited their Geary Street location which is not so tourist filled as their downtown locations and it has more authentic feel in it.

Their burgers are pretty standard with 1/3 pound patty and there's several options. You can also upgrade any burger to 1/2 pound version. I had a 1/2 pound Mel's Cheeseburger, no fries, no coleslaw - just a medium rare burger. Their burger are served with lettuce, tomato, pickles, onion and a side of mayo. All the condiments come on the side so you can build as you like. Oh, and the cheeseburger comes with not one, but two slices of cheddar. I added some mustard, and piled the burger and it looked nice apart from the bloody juices squeezing out from the patty. The bun was pretty standard, a bit dry, hardly toasted from the inside. Meat was over done and it wasn't particulary juicy since most of the juices had left the patty before it came to me. I would say this was pretty average burger. Interior was nice, service was good and the history is worth telling but I would not bother to visit them again. You can get better burgers from other joints in Bay area.

--
Mel's Drive-In
3355 Geary Blvd
San Francisco, CA 94118
+1-415-387-2244
www.melsdrive-in.com

Larger Map | Street View

#12 at Johnny Rockets, San Francisco CA

2007-06-15T05:52:00.000+03:00

Johnny Rockets used to be one of my favorite burger joints for a long time whenever I visited San Francisco. Since then my eyes has opened and it has found it's place as pricey, above average burger joint.

Johnny Rockets was founded in 1986 by Ronn Teitelbaum in Los Angeles. The first restaurant was established in the Melrose District of LA. In February 2007 Daniel "Redskins/Six Flags" Snyder bought the chain through his Red Zone Capital equity firm. Snyder announced plans to expand the chain both within the United States and worldwide. And you can expect to see Johnny Rockets in all the Six Flags parks. Currently Johnny Rockets locations are in US, Canada, Mexico, middle-East and Australia.

Johnny Rockets concept is to recreate the American malt shops of the 1940s and 1950s. Their restaurant decor include jukeboxes blasting out golden oldies, chrome accents and red leather seats, and waiters and waitresses dressed in attire of the period. The staff are also known to sing and dance every half-hour, twirl straws and make smiley faces of ketchup. Well, the dancing and smiley faces are something what I have read but I've never actually seen it happening. At least this isn't hapenning at their San Francisco branch in Fisherman's Wharf. There the Mexican girls and boys handle it with their i'm-sick-of-this-job-attitude. And to tell the truth, who really can blame them if you need to work in the chaotic Wharf in the middle of tourist holabaloo day after day and listen those golden oldies, againg and again and again.

Johnny Rockets serve burger, sandwiches, shakes, malts and breakfast. Their shakes are one of the best I've tried. Johnny Rocket's hamburger patties are 1/3 of fresh ground beef, hand pressed and grilled to perfection. I've noticed that their perfection is medium well whatever you order, it's always the same. But I really don't want to complain too much about that since their patties are always tasty and juicy, that's a guarantee.

Usually I go with Rocket Double which is their most bodacious choice with two patties. This time I decided to try #12 and was pleasantly suprised. #12 is a cheeseburger with Tillamook Cheddar, fresh lettuce, onion slice, pickle, mayo and Johnny Rockets 'red red sauce'. The bun was nicely toasted from the inside and everything was piled to a nice and easy to eat stack. Basically #12 is just a basic cheeseburger with spicy, tangy sauce and it works for me. Try it.

Recommended, but try to avoid this Fisherman's Wharf location. The Wharf is always packed, it smells like shit and people act like idiots, so it equals to every tourist hell. And you can find better burgers in San Francisco.

--
Johnny Rockets
81 Jefferson St
San Francisco, CA 94133
+1-415-693-9120
www.johnnyrockets.com

Larger Map | Street View

Bacon Cheeseburger at Taylor's Refresher, San Francisco CA

2007-06-12T05:34:00.000+03:00

Yesterday, I tried Taylor's in San Francisco. I do my daily commuting to San Francisco with a ferry and Taylor's is conviniently located in San Francisco ferry building. I was with my bike and decided to use their take away counter which is located in the corrider behind the restaurant. I heard from another burger fan, Joel, that there's usually shorter lines than on the restaurant side. That's good to know.

Ferry building location was opened in 2004 and it has gained a huge success as a lunch spot. Financial disctrict is just across the street so the place is packed with suits and tourists.

After my last week visit to their original location in St. Helen I've wanted to give them another try. I ordered a medium rare Bacon Cheeseburger to go, waited for 10 mins, picked my burger and moved to my ferry. I dropped my bike to lower level and went up on the deck and enjoyed my burger out in the sunshine.

As before, burger was built in a golden-yellow egg bun, this time with crispy bacon, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles and secret sauce. Taylor's did it - This was definetly one of the best burgers I have tasted. This time there wasn't too much their secret sauce, patty was perfect and everything was in great balance from crispy bacon to tasty egg bun.

I've heard and read rumours about their quality issues during lunch hours. From this experience, try to avoid lunch hours and make your visit to Taylor's later in the afternoon when there's no huge lines and you'll hopefully get their best effort. Recommended.

--
Taylor's Automatic Refresher
1 Ferry Building
San Francisco, CA 94105
+1-866-328-3663
www.taylorsrefresher.com

Larger Map | Street View

Barney's Cheeseburger at Barney's Gourmet Hamburgers, Berkeley CA

2007-06-10T08:53:00.000+03:00

Barney's Gourmet Hamburgers is a local Bay are joint with 10 locations. Barney's has often been named as Bay Area's best burger joint. I lost my count how many awards they have won, but you can check them all from their website. They started in Oakland in 1978 and since then they have spread around the Bay area. And the word 'gourmet' stands for one million different burger options from Russian Burger with sour cream to Maui Waui Burger with pineapple and teriyaki sauce.

I ordered a Barney's Cheeseburger, medium rare with a side of curly fries. Burger was served with lettuce, tomato, red onion, house sauce and slice of orange. Their sauce was just the basic pink-colored sauce. A basic recipe with 50% mayo, 50% ketchup and a little relish to give taste. This one was pretty tasteless. I didn't even taste it in my burger.

There really isn't anything gourmet in Barney's. The burger was big but size does not matter if the slap has lost all it juices before you get to take a bite. I found all the bloody juices on my plate and partly soaked to my bun. End result was tastless and dry slap of meat. And the bun, just the basic bun, barely grilled - I could call it just blah.

On the other hand curly fries were really excellent, and I can believe that with some special burger the whole experience might be something else.

I don't know about their 'gourmet' burgers with this, that and little bit something else, but as for standard burger/cheeseburger they have totally lost it. There might awards, and good reviews in forums but the fact is that all that is a result of their variety of choices on their menu. If you grave a tasty standard type burger, go some place else.

Cheeseburger at Taylor's Automatic Refresher, St. Helena CA

2007-06-04T23:21:00.000+03:00

Today we did a little roadtrip to Napa Valley and I had a change to visit original Taylor's Automatic Refresher in St. Helena. They have another location in the San Francisco Ferry Building which I haven't yet tested.

The original location in the middle of Napa valley has been around for 54 years. Lloyd Taylor opened up the place in 1949. Back then Napa wines were thought as a joke and burgers cost only 24 cents. Current owners, winemaker Joel Gott and his brother Duncan bougth Taylor's in 1999 and gave the place an extensive facelift through professional branding and extended menu.

Taylor's roadside stand is still on the same spot as it use to be. Behind the stand you can find a lawn with red picnick tables with white umbrellas. When your order is ready they announce your name through crackling loudspeakers. Bing-bing! John, your order is ready. Bing-bing! Janet, your shake is ready.

It was Sunday morning and we went there around 11am. There were only two families in front of us. We weren't in a hurry so we took our time, eat our burgers, feed the baby and then took off. When we moved from the lawn to parking area we realized that the place was packed. In front of the counter there was a 70+ feet line of people waiting to make their order. And more people arrived all the time. That was pretty mad.

Taylor's menu could be called eclectic. Among several burger choices you have a choice of Ahi Burger - A raw tuna burger with ginger wasabi mayo and asian slaw. There's also sandwiches, tacos, hot dogs, soups, salads, fish'n'chips and a wine list. Yes, a wine list, we were in the wine country. I ordered a Cheeseburger, medium rare like always. My wife had the same, well done like always. We also had chili cheese fries on the side, chocolate milkshake and soda. All this totalled for $25.81 with tax, that's not particulary cheap.

Burgers are nicely stacked between a golden-yellow egg bun which is toasted from the inside. Beef is hormone free California beef. Burgers come with lettuce, tomato, pickles and secret house sauce. House sauce is a mustard based thousand island type of sauce and it has a nice kick to it. It's a type of sauce that can make the burger or destroy it. For me it did latter. There was too much sauce and besides that the only thing I really tasted was the egg-tasting bun. I had bite of my wife's burger and it was much better. There was much less sauce and the burger had a good balance between tasty bun, beef, condiments and sauce acted as a gentle seasoning.

At some level I was happy with Taylor's, on some level it felt like I just took a visit to a mini-Disney Land of burgers in the middle of Japanise tourist group. I expected Taylor's to hit my top list but it wasn't even close with this experiece. I would still recommend you to stop by if you visit Napa. Just be aware of long waiting times during tourist season.

Phat Bacon Cheeseburger at Pearl’s Phat Burger, Mill Valley CA

2007-06-02T04:35:00.000+03:00

Pearl's Phat Burger is small hole in the wall joint in Mill Valley. I read about the place from Yummy Chow's Burger Holy Grail list, listed to my burgers-to-taste list and wanted to give it a try. They are also highly recommended in most of the forums so my expectations were high.

We went there on late Friday afternoon, after the lunch time. One thing that I noticed right away was the missing personality. They have a nice 50s style logo and that's about it. They try to look like an old school diner with checkered floor and standard diner tables and stools but the place still has really indurstrial feel in it.

I made our order on the counter, went to our table and waited, and our order was served to our table. They only have 4 or 5 tables so the space is pretty small. It worked well but when the place is packed I bet it's a chaos.

Burgers are served in standard red baskets, and yes, the word phat means BIG. Their Phat burger size is 1/2 pound and they also serve Mini Pearl Burgers which are 1/4 pound.

I don't know if my patty was really 1/2 pound, it looked really thin and it wasn't particulary juicy. I ordered it medium rare but got it well done. Cheese was cheddar and bacon was crispy, all the burgers are served with lettuce, tomato, onions and mayo. Nothing wrong with those and as you can see it was nicely stacked. The bun was a nightmare, it was toasted from the inside but the texture was fluffy and it was one of those buns that just crumb in your hand. With a proper bun it would have been easy to eat but now it was just a big mess.

After all the reviews I was really disappointed. Maybe the place has a new owner, dunno?! I need to give it another try some day.

Zuni Cheeseburger at Zuni Cafe, San Francisco CA

2007-05-30T23:05:00.000+03:00

This burger has been hyped in different forums, and it's been stated as 'the best burger in Bay area' for multiple times. The fact is that it really doesn't fall under burger joint category but I decided to give it a try after all the recommendations.

Zuni Cafe is a pretty well-known, award winning Mediterranean style restaurant in San Francisco. It was established in 1979, and it sits on Market Street between Civic Centre and Castro areas. Zuni is known for their extensive selection of exquisitely fresh, pristine oysters and really excellent roasted chicken. Atmosphere is relaxed, service is friendly, and their interior is really spacious with minimalistic details, huge windows and partly open kitchen with wood owen.

So what did I ate? My burger was:

"Mesquite grilled house-ground hamburger with Gruyère on grilled rosemary focaccia with garden lettuces, aioli, and Zuni pickles."

Before I go into details let's make couple of things clear:

1. This burger is not just any burger, it's a gourmet burger from gourmet restaurant menu.

2. This was the first time I got some house bread and butter served on my table while I was waiting my burger.

3. I expected this to be expensive but $16.55 with sales tax is robbery for a single burger, gourmet or not.

4. And finally, this was propably one of the best burgers I have tasted. Yes, it's gourmet and it's expensive but I can finally say 'What A Burger'!

Their meat is, naturally, organic and grown in sustainable way, it's juicy and tasty, and it was perfect medium rare as ordered. The meat was coarsly grounded and when I pressed gently from the top of the patty, it was just oozing juice. Perfect! Focaccia bread was grilled from the one side so that it was crisp from the inside and soft from the outside. The bottom part of Focaccia soaked in all the juices that squeezed out from the patty. The garden lettuce was fresh, crispy and marinated with the juices from the meat. House pickles were two types of marinated onion and pickle. Really tasty. And as 'a cherry on the top' I added some dijon mustard which was brought to table as condiment.

This was absolutely delicious burger. Recommended!

--
Zuni Cafe
1658 Market St
San Francisco, CA 94102
+1-415-552-2522
www.zunicafe.com

Larger Map | Street View

Another Cheeseburger at Hamburgers, Sausalito CA

2007-05-29T04:20:00.000+03:00

We went for a walk on Sunday and had a burger at Hamburgers, again. Yes, I'm boring, two posts in the row about the same place. Well, I was young and I needed my vitamin X. It's close, it's good so what can I do!?

Mexican boys behind the counter wasn't as busy as last time so my burger topped the previous tasting. This was perfectly cooked medium, with real grill taste from the flames, fresh condiments - this was even more excellent than my previous try couple of days ago.

Here's couple of more images about the place: rotating grill through a greasy blurred window, the menu on the wall, and of course a close up of a perfect cheeseburger.

--
Hamburgers
737 Bridgeway
Sausalito, CA 94965
+1-415-332-9471

Larger Map | Street View

Cheeseburger at Hamburgers, Sausalito CA

2007-05-26T06:39:00.000+03:00

We just moved to Sausalito and I've been driving through the tourist-filled downtown several times and smelled some divine grill smell. Yesterday my wife finally spot the source and spot me the place, which was a small burger stall right in the middle of prime Sausalito tourist area. Today I decided to give it a try after my ferry ride from San Francisco. I joined the endless line of people and waited my turn. The local guy in front of me happened to know a bit of history about the place so I got proper update while waiting my burger.

The place is simply called Hamburgers. Despite their not-so-original name the place has been there for over 25 years. Current owner bought the place a few years ago and the previous Asian owner really make the place famous with her world famous burgers. The recipe for their success has been simple since the beginning: Fresh ingredients, rotating flame-broil grill, prime location with endless flow of tourist around the year, and of course the tasty burgers.

I was told that they use to ground their own meat on location and everything was really fresh. The new owner changed direction a bit and he only uses organic ingredients. Their beef comes from Creekstone Farms and it's USDA certified black angus - 100% vegetarian, hormone and antibiotis free meat. And the cheese is Finnish Lappi (Finlandia) cheese.

Their signature has been the rotating grill which sits behind their only window. Window is blurred with grease and flames hit high when the juices from the burgers hit the flames and the smell is ventilated to the street. That's proper marketing for your nose and eyes if you happen to walk by the place.

So, after a while I finally made my way inside the place. Burger options are simple, you can have hamburger or cheeseburger. They also serve chicken and steak sandwiches, hot dogs, super beef burrito and fries. Everything on it means lettuce, tomato, onion, relish, mayo, mustard and ketchup. Prices are high, $6.60 for a cheeseburger and $2.55 for the fries. Prime location definetly has its effect to the prices.

When I crossed the door step I was already asked my order and they gave me a waiting number. I ordered a Cheeseburger with everything on it except ketchup. I stayed in the line until I reached to the counter, paid and got my burger wrapped in paper. They only have three tables inside and most of the people eat their burger on the street or in the park across the street. So I squeezed myself out of the place and headed to a park across the street.

I opened the wrap and enjoyed my burger in the sunshine and felt like a happiest guy in the world. My nearest burger joint serves excellent burger which taste like home made. This burger was really good; tasty, fresh and perfectly stacked with a proper homemade feel in it. Recommended!

Next time I will call my order in to avoid the long waiting time in line. They had a note on the wall saying: If you live in the area, call your order in, it will be ready when you get here.

--
Hamburgers
737 Bridgeway
Sausalito, CA 94965
+1-415-332-9471

Larger Map | Street View

Cheeseburger at Original Joe's, San Francisco CA

2007-05-23T23:07:00.000+03:00

Original Joe's is a well known restaurant in San Francisco. It sits on the out-skirts of dodgy Tenderloin area near to Market Street and it has 70 years of history.

The first Original Joe's was established in San Francisco by Louis Rocca and Tony Rodin in 1937. The little restaurant initially consisted of two counters and a row of booths. As business grew, Louis and Tony leased a vacant space next to them that allowed the addition of a full dining room. Later, further space became available next to the dining room enabling the addition of a full bar, thus completing Original Joe's in San Francisco. The second Original Joe's was opened in May 1956 and it's located in San Jose.

Original Joe's serves a wide variety of foods themed more toward Italian food. They serve over 100 entrees including a large variety of salads and soups, sandwiches, roasts, veal, chicken, fish, pasta, steaks and chops along with a variety of omelets and other dishes. Their signature is extremely large portions of food regardless of what you order and penguin suited, only male waitrons (or at least during the time a visited the place). The atmosphere and the waitrons were friendly and they seemed to know every other customer by name.

Large portions means large burgers. You have three choices: the Original Joe's burger with or without cheese, a Diet Plate which has hamburger steak with tomatoes and cottage cheese, and your third choice is a Joe's Special which has fresh spinach, eggs and mushrooms mixed with ground chuck (this is something that could really make your arteries sing). All sandwiches are served on sourdough French bread and include fresh hand cut steak fries.

I had the original Joe's Burger with cheese: 12 ounces of ground chuck on a French loaf with cheese. Cheese was white cheddar and the big slap was covered with it. Burger was served with hand cut steak fries. And that's it - a bread, a big slap of meat and cheese - no condiments of any kind. I poured some mustard and started to destroy this monster. The slap was made medium well as ordered and it was mildly seasoned and mixed with onions, really really tasty. I was told that they ground their own chuck so it's fresh every day. My fries weren't really good, barely warm, dry and propably done long before I arrived to the restaurant.

After finishing my first half of the burger I started to grave for lettuce, tomato or something, so I asked for the extra stuff and heard that bacon, lettuce and tomato costs extra and are available only on request. Maybe you should mention this in your menu?!

There really wasn't anything wrong with the burger except the missing lettuce, tomatoes etc. I definetly recommend Original Joe's, maybe not for their burgers but for a friendly and authentic dining experiece.

# Original Joe's San Francisco
# Wiki
# Google Map

Double-Double vs. Double-Double Animal Style at In-N-Out Burger, Mill Valley CA

2007-05-22T07:45:00.000+03:00

After my two week excursion to Dallas Metroplex area I'm back in Bay area. Today we pulled to In-N-Out in Mill Valley to pick up something fast on our way to home after a long day on wheels.

I didn't feel like fries so I decided to go head-to-head with Regular and Animal Style Double-Double. I've been a big fan of animal style burgers at In-N-Out but I have to admit that in the head-to-head battle regular Double-Double beat Animal Style 6-0. Double-Double stands for two meat patties and two slices of cheese. Normal double-double comes with lettuce, tomato, onion and spread. Animal Style is one of the 'secret menu' options and it comes with fried onions, pickle, extra spread and mustard fried patties.

I've already told the basic In-N-Out story so let's dig deeper to 'Secret Menu'...

At In-N-Out you can order custom-made food. Some customizations are available at no additional cost. Those that use inventoried items such as cheese, meat, and buns cost extra. While it's not on the printed menu, there are buttons on the cash register for these items. You can pretty much order anything you want, as long as they have the ingredients. The 'secret menu' is listed on the In-N-Out corporate site, it is far from complete. Here's some details:

Custom Burgers

1. Animal style adds to the standard toppings pickles, extra spread, grilled onions, mustard fried onto each meat patty.

2. Protein style (low carb burger) replaces the hamburger bun with large leaves of lettuce. You can also combine first two options for animal protein style.

3. 3×3 and 4x4. Here number refers to a burger with a varied number of meat patties and slices of cheese. For example, the popular Double-Double would be 2×2 (a Two-by-two). As of August 2006, the largest burger that can be ordered is a 4x4. Only four slices of cheese maximum may be permitted on a single burger. Before that you were able to order generally any Meat x Cheese. A burger with 6 meat patties and 3 slices of cheese would be a 6×3 (a Six-by-three). With this freedom of choice you were able to go crazy, check 100x100.

4. One-by-Bitch (1x0 aka One-by-zero) is a One-By-One with no cheese. Naturally not all employees will appreciate the term One-by-bitch and may ask you to revise your order.

5. Double-Meat (2x0 aka Two-by-zero) is a Double-Double with no cheese. By definition a Double-Double automatically includes two slices of cheese, for two patties without the cheese, a double meat burger must be ordered.

6. The Flying Dutchman is two meat patties, two slices of cheese, no bun. Note that other condiments (including lettuce, tomato, spread, and onions) are not included unless you request them.

7. Grilled Cheese is a sandwich with two slices of cheese, no meat with spread, tomatoes, lettuce, and onions if you would like. Like most orders, this can be combined with other styles such as animal style.

8. Wish Burger or Veggie Burger is a sandwich containing only vegetables, and no meat or cheese.

9. Additional options are Chopped Chilis which adds some mild pickled peppers to the bottom of your burger. And you substitute mustard or ketcup for the spread.

Custom Fries

1. Fries Well-done are extra crispy fries.

2. Fries Lite are fries that have been cooked less than normal.

3. Animal Style Fries includes two slices of melted cheese, grilled onions, and spread as toppings.

4. Cheese Fries are fries with one or two slices of melted cheese.

5. Fries no-salt have no salt added to them.

Custom Drinks

1. Root beer float is a concoction made of half vanilla shake and half root beer soda. Be sure to specify whether you want it more creamy or soda-ey.

2. Neopolitan shake is a mixture of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry flavored shakes.

3. If an order contains a shake of each flavor, this is called 'Around the world'. 4. Strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla can be combined in any way, ie, just chocolate and vanilla, chocolate-strawberry, etc.

4. You can also ask for extra syrup in your shake (ie extra chocolate or strawberry) — not all employees know how to do this, but this option is available.

5. Large and extra large shakes are also available. The cup sizes for these shakes are one below soft drinks (i.e. a large shake is a medium soft drink cup, while an extra large shake is a large soft drink).

6. Milk.

Side Items

1. Spread - good with fries

2. Side of pepperoncini - container of little colored mild and sweet peppers.

That's it. Go and try 'em!

--
In-N-Out Burger
798 Redwood Hwy
Mill Valley, CA 94941
+1-800-786-1000
www.in-n-out.com

Larger Map | Street View

Double Meat Cheese Burger at Chip's Old Fashioned Burgers, Dallas TX

2007-05-20T07:55:00.000+03:00

During my two week visit to Dallas Metroplex I've got about dozen tips about different burgers. Today was my last day in here so we decided to pick one joint from my list: Chip's Old Fashioned Hamburgers.

Chip's has two homey locations in Dallas: one on Cole Avenue and other on Lovers Lane. I typed Chip's to my always-got-lost-navigation and followed its instructions to Chip's on Cole Avenue. My friend told me that this was the hip area of Dallas where people look like they only eat organic food and live a healthy life. And in the middle of all, there's a small green house and a sign Chip's Old Fashioned Hamburgers.

Chip's is all about the burgers and it has got good review all over the places so my expectation was really high. Chip's also serves hot sandwiches, hot dogs, chicken strips and salads, but most folks go for the burger. Atmosphere is well suited to the food: wood floors, clean enough but not sterile, low lights, air conditioning and a patio where you can go and enjoy your meal.

Their burgers are served on a huge poppy seeded bun which has been toasted on the outside and left soft on the inside. Burgers are stacked with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, onions and mustard. The result is a thick, juicy burger, cut in half so you should still be able to eat with your hands.

I ordered a double meat cheese burger with grilled onions which ended up being a big messy mistake. The burger was big and juicy but that's it. I was kind of disappointed and I didn't get that big 'what a burger' feeling while the grease was dripping from it and I believe that with two big slaps of meat the thing just got too big.

Chip's was ok, not really special but I'll definetly give it another try with less bodacious choice. The journey continues...

Special Burger at Café Brazil, Dallas TX

2007-05-18T20:18:00.000+03:00

Last night went to a local punk rock gig and ended up having a burger in Café Brazil around 2am. Café Brazil is local Dallas restaurant chain where you can enjoy a great breakfast and specialty roasted coffees from around the world in a smoke-free environment. Their Deep Ellum location is areas premier 'deep night' dining spot.

After the bar was closed we headed to Café Brazil for 'breakfast', or salt and grease as I say it. I didn't know if they would serve burgers so I just ordered the most bodacious burger they could come up with. They serve two burgers and after reviewing the menu from their website I guess that I ended up having a mix of Brazilian Burger and BBQ Burger. Let's call it as a special burger. This burger had a slap of meat covered with jalapeno bbq sauce, bacon and american cheese with tomato, lettuce, red onion, bell peppers, mustard and mayo.

If I remember right the burger was excellent. Juicy and tasty, and I have to mention those peppers, excellent addition to a burger. During the time, place and situation it might have been the best burger I've ever had... It was served with fries which were crispy and coated with spicy seasoning. Just excellent.

I have a feeling that I need to give Café Brazil another, and a sober, try someday for objective review.

Country Burger at Southern Recipe, Irving TX

2007-05-16T07:14:00.000+03:00

We had lunch in this hole-in-the-wall place in Irving. My local buddy knew the place but told that he hasn't gone there for years after her sister had a bug in her meal. It was nice to hear after making your order.

There's not much to tell about the place. The building had seen it's best days and it had propably worked as a restaurant longer than I have lived. It was just one of those local small diners where you can get decent food quickly and cheap. The place was almost empty when we arrived. Couple of things that I noticed was a sign "Non-smoking Area" and an electronic fly trap. First when you see a sign which says non-smoking area you don't expect to see anyone sitting under that sign with a cigarette in his hand. Secondly should the flies be trapped before they get in?

I was about to skip the burgers and go with Chicken Fried Chicken but their Country Burger caught my eye. Brown gravy? On a burger? What the heck? This burger had slap of meat, grilled onions and mushroom topped with some white cheese and brown gravy. The burger was ok. With that gravy it was a safe bet to mess you up so I ate it with utensils. You didn't really taste the gravy that much so it ended up being just a regular burger with gravy on it.

I also had some excellent onions rings that I renamed to Chicken Fried Onion Rings since this whole concept of chicken-fried-something is really confusing. There's no real logic for it, even thou that my buddy does his best to convince me that there is.

This is one of those places that you really can't say if you recommend it or not. If you come across it, go and have a meal but don't bother to make any extra effort to get there. Homemade food is homemade food, even with bugs on it.

# Google Map

Triple Meat Triple Cheese Burger at Whataburger, Dallas TX

2007-05-13T22:05:00.000+03:00

Yesterday we went shopping in Dallas North Park Center and on our way back to the hotel we ate at Whataburger. I saw their TV ad couple of days and the company values and burgers looked good, and most importantly I remember seeing Whataburger in King of The Hill animation so I really wanted to review this joint.

First Whataburger was opened in 1950, in the little town of Corpus Christi, Texas. A young man named Harmon Dobson opened his small burger stand and had a simple idea. He wanted to serve a burger so good that whenever someone tried one they'd sit back and say, "What a burger!" This bigger, better burger with 100% pure American beef, fresh ingredients and a big 5-inch toasted bun was an instant hit.

Since those days the small burger stand has grown. It's still privately owned, but it's far from small since with more than 650 restaurants serving burgers around the clock in ten states. I don't know how original Harmon Dobson burger tasted more than a half a century ago but I didn't get that "What a burger" feeling. Whataburger is one of those places where burgers look big and good on the images and the version you get on your tray is something else. Don't get me wrong, burgers are pretty tasty. It beats your average Burger King or I'm-loving-it-not places any day but there's no competition with places like Adairs, Griff's or In-N-Out.

Since I have a word "bodacious" in my blog description, I try to review the meanest burger available. At Whataburger they have Triple Meat & Triple Cheese Whataburger so I went with that. It was joined with medium fries and medium drink. The service was friendly and fast and I got my burger in front of me quickly. As you can guess triple stands for three meat slaps covered with american cheese. Stacked with tomato slices, pickles, onion, lettuce and mustard between 5-inch bun. Burger was made to order so it was hot and fresh. Mustard is made with a house recipe and it made this burger above average. In the end, the burger was just an another standard burger with some personality through tasty mustard. No big suprises on the way or the other.

Recommended with caution. I'll have to give it an another try some day.

# Whataburger
# Google Map
# Wiki

Cheeseburger at Adair's Saloon, Dallas TX

2007-05-11T23:29:00.000+03:00

I've been in Dallas for a week and today I finally had a chance to go taste my favorite burger at Adair's. One could call Adair's just another regular hole-in-the-wall-honky-tonk-bar but it propably is one of the best hole-in-the-wall-burger-beer-and-live-music-joints around, and it sits in the middle of nipple-pierced-body-tattooed Deep Ellum on Commerce Street, Dallas. If you ever visit Dallas, Adair's Saloon is the place for some quality burgers and country music. Totally recommended!

Adair's was opened by S.L. and Ann Adair in February 1963 on Cedar Springs. Their clientele consisted mostly of college students from nearby schools. The now famous burgers got started because Ann would make the 1/2 lb. cheeseburgers to satisfy S.L.'s large appetite. The school kids decided the burgers looked good and began to request them from Ann. Another Adair's trademark, the graffiti on the walls, began as kids would leave their "mark".

Current owner Lois McKinzie Adair bought the place with her late-husband in 1977 when S.L. and Ann retired. They moved Adair's to it's current location on Commerce Street in January of 1983. At the grand opening party, Lois handed out black markers and the old traditions began a new. The tables, photos, walls, ceilings, and everything is full of black "graffitis" and messages from anynomous visitors from country stars and random visitors to George W's secret service agents. On the walls under the marker lines you can see photos of some famous and not so famous folks that, Lois, has come across including a blown up photo taken of Lois and some guy named Elvis Presley back in 1955. There's history all over the place and everything is like it was almost 25 years ago.

The one other thing is the music, Adair's is all about the music. There's a stage where now famous country stars have started their career and new stars perform almost every night. Adair's jukebox is one of a kind and it has been said that it has the best selection of country songs in Texas.

Ordering burger at Adair's is easy. You get a hamburger, or you get a cheeseburger. You can add lettuce, tomato, pickle, and onion and you have a choice of mustard, ketchup, or mayonnaise. The bread is a regular hamburger bun. The meat is "juicy" but not all-over-the-place-juicy and weighs half a pound, it has some peppered seasoning which just makes it taste even better. The cheese on the cheeseburger is American. The whole thing is topped with a jalapeno and held together with a toothpick. You can take the fries on the side but you can live with just the burger. Fries are thick slices of potato covered with seasoning. Perfect!

--
Adair's Saloon
2624 Commerce St
Dallas, TX 75226
+1-214-939-9900
www.adairssaloon.com

Larger Map

Monster Burger at Griff's Burger Bar, Irving TX

2007-05-09T23:00:00.000+03:00

Griff's Burger Bar was a regional fast food chain founded in the early 60's. The chain no longer exists, but individual stores remain open mainly in southern states. Back in the 60's, they were only famous for the 15 cent burger, nothing particularly juicy or good. Just cheap! You could pull in and for less than a buck have a shake, fries, and a handfull of burgers. Since then their burgers must have changed.

We went for a lunch to Griff's Burger Bar in old Irving, Texas. I ordered a monster burger aka triple cheeseburger which had three big cheddar covered slaps of "juicy" meat with onions, tomato, lettuce, mustard and mayo in the middle of two buns. Combo came with the tasty fries and big bucket of coke. This was a sure thing to mess your face, hands and the tray.

Griff's burgers beats the hell out of 80% of the burgers out there. It's has a good taste from the grill, it's juicy and it has good combination of mustard and mayo. Perfect stuff for $5.73. Recommended!

--
Griff's Burger Bar
718 E Irving Blvd
Irving, TX 75060
+1-972-579-7651

Larger Map

English Burger at Babe's Cafe, Aliso Viejo CA

2007-04-20T09:08:00.000+03:00

Our "quick" visit to Babe's Cafe could be called an unique dining experience. We decided to rush in to Babe's since it was the only option and we kind of got lost on our way to a meeting and were forced to pick something quick for lunch. When we went in and sit around the table, we already knew it was a big mistake. Place was half full of senior citizens and everything seemed to resemble slow motion film.

The only waitress, age of 50+ or something was doing her best to handle customer service in her own unique style. She approached to our table and my buddy said hello and threw in how'ya doin' with his Texas accent. This was a big mistake. She started to tell her story how today was better than yesterday when she had somekind of allergic reaction and big rash and she wasn't really feeling well. That's something you don't want to hear from waitress.

We ordered our drinks and she went away. After a while she started to serve food to other table and continued go around the cafe and clean tables etc. After a while she appeared again in her slow motion style and we got our drinks, five different sizes of water for four people!? She got our order and went away. At this point we were already checking the time and hoping for the best.

After a while our food started to appear on the counter from the kitchen side, but our waitress had disappeared. After a while she showed up again, this time with couple of coffees. It seems that if you order two it means three and so on, since she approached our table with extra cup of coffee asking if anyone would want that. Hell yeah, but where's our food, Mam? During this our food including a tuna salad and coleslaw, were sitting under the heat lamp. We declined the coffee and she finally remembered the food and went to the counter to pick it up, slowly but surely. When she served the food we told her that we were in a hurry and asked for the check right away. She came back and I gave her my credit card, took my photo and started to enjoy my burger.

After a while we were done and ready to leave and I still hadn't got my credit card back. I decided to do a move and went to the counter and asked for my credit card and receipt to sign. At this point she started to complain how difficult these cards are and most of the people pay with cash. After ten tries she got me my receipt to sign and we got out and on our way. Finally.

Well the story didn't end up here. We had our meeting and got back to the airport when Babe's hit me again. I rushed to the restroom and you don't want to know the rest. After three or four trips to restroom I got the Babe's out of my system and things calmed down.

Sooooooo, what did I ate at Babe's Cafe. I had an English Burger which was just a basic bacon cheeseburger and it had tomato, lettuce and red onions. I also ordered a coleslaw on the side. The burger wasn't bad but there is nothing special to mention about it. Just the basic burger that you can get from every other place. Coleslaw was mixed with mayo and vinegar and I didn't notice anything weird than it was a bit warm. I didn't think about the coleslaw at the time but afterwards it was pretty obvious with all the waiting mixed with the heatlamp. What can you expect with mayo and heat?

Well, one thing is for sure, I recommend you to stay away from Babe's!

--
Babe's Cafe
24310 Moulton Pkwy
Laguna Woods, CA 92637
+1-949-380-0465

Larger Map

Corporate America Burger #2, Greenville SC

2007-04-18T07:02:00.000+03:00

I promised to get back to Corporate America Burgers so here we go: Corporate America Burger 2.0.

My second try was acquired in a Fortune 500 company premises in Greenville SC. This time I lost my hope already while waiting my burger. It took ages to get the slap grilled. Options were thin: pepper jack or american cheese, grilled onions and mushrooms, and mustard and mayo. This was a poor effort as you can see from the image. There's nothing to mention except long wait and the average taste.

I'm starting to lose my hope with the Corporate America Burgers but the journey continues...

3x3 Animal Style at In-N-Out Burger, Millbrae CA

2007-03-27T21:15:00.000+03:00

I could write a three page post about In-N-Out Burger but I won't do it this time. I can get back to this issue later. This time I'll just cover the basic company info and the menu options.

In-N-Out is a private burger joint in Western United States. It was founded in 1948 and the chain has restaurants only in California, Arizona and Nevada. In-N-Out have a commitment to freshness and all orders are made to order from fresh, never frozen ingredients. The menu is made simple, and you have three burger options along with one size of fries, shakes and sodas. Despite the apparent simplicity of the menu, there are literally hundreds of different ways to customize a burger. And on top of that there's a "secret" menu which is only available on their website.

We stopped to an In-N-Out in Millbrae next to SFO airport before rushing in to a domestic terminal. Place was packed as always and this burger almost made me miss my flight to Dallas. Luckily we got to ticketing 5 minutes before they closed it for my flight.

My 3x3 Animal Style burger was one of the secret menu options: it had three 100% pure beef patties, hand-leafed lettuce, tomato, spread, three slides of cheddar stacked high on a freshly baked bun. Animal style adds pickle, extra spread and grilled onions. Combo adds a drink of your choice and freshly cut fries. Meat patties are "juicy" and tasty, In-N-Out spread is really tasty and grilled onions finalize the perfect mix of grease and taste. The fries are hand cut in front of your eyes and they are from another planet when compared to their frozen cousins. This is man-food with the twist of freshness!

# In-N-Out
# Google Map
# Wiki

Corporate America Burger #1, Irving TX

2007-03-22T07:46:00.000+02:00

Today, I had an opportunity to taste a Corporate America burger. I had this meeting in one of the big Fortune 500 companies located in Dallas Metroplex area. There's a nice internal diner at the company headquarter and I took my chance with the corporate burger while we had lunch.

The Mexican double team behind the counter had ran out of burger buns so they needed to improvise a bit with the bun. From that one could think that corporate burgers are popular. After tasting the burger one could also make a conclusion that corporate burgers are not popular and that's why they didn't have the buns.

My corporate burger had the basic setup: one slap of beef, cheddar, tomatoes, lettuce, crispy bacon, mustard and a sideorder of corporate fries. As I already pointed out between the lines, this was a disappointment, meat was dry and tasteless and something was missing big time. I have a feeling that the slap of beef was some processed piece of fossile from the back of the freezer.

Based on this experience I really can't recommend corporate burgers, but this matter definetly needs more research and tasting. I'll get back to corporate burgers in the near future...