Super Juicy Cheeseburger at Juicy Burger, Gilroy CA

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!

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


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Cheeseburger at Willowbrook Alehouse Bar & Grill, Petaluma CA

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.

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


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Cheeseburger at Burger Joint, San Francisco CA

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!

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


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

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.

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


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#12 at Johnny Rockets, San Francisco CA

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.

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


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Bacon Cheeseburger at Taylor's Refresher, San Francisco CA

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.

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


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

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

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

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

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!

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


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Another Cheeseburger at Hamburgers, Sausalito CA

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.

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


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Cheeseburger at Hamburgers, Sausalito CA

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.

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


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Cheeseburger at Original Joe's, San Francisco CA

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

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!

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


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

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
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