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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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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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.

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