Corkbar

I was downtown at Staples Center for All-Star weekend and decided to stay away from the crowds at LA Live for dinner. I remember by friend Neil (who is supposed to be contributing to this blog) has wanted me to go to Corkbar for a while now, so I gave it a shot. The restaurant is sort of tucked away from downtown on the first floor of an office residential building. It is not very big but has a very foodie vibe. Our waitress was very personable and was knowledgeable about the menu and drink list. They have a good wine list and plenty of microbrews for any taste you might have. The menu is always fairly small and everything looked very good. But, we were there for one reason…

The burger is not huge but was very filling. It comes on challah bread but was not as egg-y as most challahs I have had, which made it a bit like a brioche. Overall, this bun was very good. I thought they could have sliced it to have more on the bottom half but I enjoyed it. It comes topped with lettuce, tomatoes, onion, house-made pickles and roasted tomato burger sauce. Other than the sauce, the toppings were lost in grand scheme of the burger. The reason they are lost is the meat is amazing. I think this was the best burger patty I have had since I started blogging. The waitress told us that the chef grounds the beef for the patties fresh at the restaurant. You really need to go try this burger. It may not be the best all around burger, but the meat is worth the price of admission.

Remember to follow on twitter @bestburgerla.

26 Beach

Once my coworker found out about my burger adventure, she started raving about 26 Beach. We decided to check it out one day after work. This is definitely a beachy place. It is located right on the border of Venice and Marina Del Rey. There are two sections of the restaurant. One is a normal restaurant type of place with booths and tables. The other, where we sat, is on a patio of sorts where the roof can be opened or closed depending on the weather. It does not have the feel of a great burger place. The menu is as varied but burgers dominated the choices.

On to the burger. I was torn between the King Kobe the IV or the Maytag Burger, which is not on the website. The waiter said the Maytag burger was better so I went with that. The burgers are very impressive when they first arrive. Bigger than some people’s head. They Maytag burger comes on a choice of wheat or brioche bun. I went with the brioche. It is becoming the typical bun at all of the burger places. The patty is 100% Angus beef and was cooked to a perfect medium with a little pink in the middle. The burger came with mixed greens, red onion and Maytag blue cheese. They did a good job of not over-doing the blue cheese, especially since Maytag is a particularly strong. To go along with the blue cheese, the chef went with bacon and pear compote. The pear compote is what intrigued ne about the burger. Thankfully, the bacon did not overwhelm the rest of the burger. The pear compote was a nice complement to the rest of the flavors.

Overall this was a very good burger. I could not bring myself to put it in the top five, despite some campaigning. If you are in the Venice or Marina and are looking for a good burger, check out 26 Beach.

Blu LA Cafe

UPDATE: Blu LA Cafe is closed. 

Back to burgers in in Los Angeles. I found Blu LA Cafe through other burger blogs and websites so I thought I would try it. The restaurant is located in downtown LA and that can be either good or bad. In this case, the restaurant is not in a great location. There is only street parking and regular public parking and most of the street parking is in front of homeless people city. The restaurant itself has a cool vibe but a limited beer selection. The service was a little slow but we were a big party.

The burgers all sounded interesting. I was interested in the tamarind turkey burger, but I need to keep this blog legitimate. I ordered the sage derby burger. Most everyone got the Blu LA Café burger. I tend to shy away burgers with bacon on them as I feel it masks the taste of the burger rather than compliments it. The burger is a ½ pound angus beef patty. The odd thing about this place is that they did not ask how we wanted the burger cooked. I usually like mine medium and a little bit juicy. This came out about medium-well. They also were overly seasoned almost as if they were covering something up. The burger was topped with sage derby cheese, grilled onion, garlic, lettuce and tomato. The one redeeming feature was the brioche bun. It was perfectly sweet and tasty and not greasy like some.



Overall, this place was very disappointing. Hopefully my next adventures will bring better burgers. Be sure to find out @bestburgerla

The Oaks Gourmet

We have arrived back on the original list that started the blog. Ever since we found the list, I have been intrigued by The Oaks Gourmet. It stood out because it is not a restaurant. We all thought it was a market in Koreatown, which happened to server a great burger. That myth was debunked when it was featured on the Food Network. It is a gourmet market with a premium beer, wine and cheese selection. They also have a bakery and coffee bar where you can get fresh ground coffee, teas and frozen drinks. They also serve salads, sandwiches and brick-oven pizzas. The only bummer is that they do not have a liquor license, so you can buy beer and wine, but you cannot drink it on the premises.

Let me just start off by saying this is a great burger. I am going to start with the bun. They use a brioche bun, which seems to be a popular choice. This was the best brioche bun I have had. It was not greasy and had a great texture and flavor. The patty is ground on-site and is a mix of very good cuts of meat. It did have a bit of a steak flavor, but I actually didn't mind it. The burger is topped with Taleggio cheese, red onion, tomato, baby arugula, which are all pretty standard and worked well with the rest of the burger. The last two toppings are what I want to talk about. The first is the Black Forrest Bacon. My opinion on bacon burgers is that the bacon should not be the star; the beef should be the star. In this case, the bacon is a complementary flavor, which was perfect. Lastly, is the smoked jalapeno-pineapple compote. I didn't taste much of the jalapeno flavor, but every bite with the pineapple was delicious. It released a bit of tangy sweetness to the burger that worked well with the rest of the flavors. It was a little stronger than the pineapple flavor used by the Foundry but worked well in this instance.

I highly recommend you try this burger. The place has limited seating and may be better as a to go option since you can't enjoy a good beer with your burger, but overall an enjoyable evening with a good burger.

Henry’s Hat

This one was a little off my radar, but my friend Brandon bought a Living Social coupon and we decided to check out Henry's Hat (@henryhatla). At first, I was skeptical seeing as the restaurant is located on Cahuenga just across from the entrance to Universal Studios. Thankfully there is valet parking for a reasonable (for LA at least) $4. Inside there are TVs everywhere so it is a great place to watch a game. They also have a big bar with seating and a huge community table in the middle of the restaurant if you want to make new friends. The most interesting part of Henry's Hat is that they have board games and some video games available for you to play while eating. This would be a great place for a birthday party (young and old) or just a place to hang out while playing games and being served good food and drinks.

The burger I chose is the Black and Blue. This normally comes with sautéed mushrooms but seeing as how I am not a big mushroom fan and this was the closest burger to the others, I ordered it without the mushrooms. The meat is Meyer Ranch Prime beef. The patty itself was just average, but cooked perfectly medium with a little pink color inside. The onions were also sautéed, but in balsamic vinegar. The onions were very good but a little sweet and a little over powering. The burger came with Danish blue cheese, which was nice and creamy but not overpowering, and arugula. I wish more of the peppery flavor of the arugula would have come through as that would have been a nice complement to the onions and the cheese. The bun was a brioche bun that is becoming almost expected as I go through this adventure. The bun was actually a very nice addition to the burger as it was not greasy and the softness of the inside was a nice contrast the rest of the textures of the burgers. Overall, this is a very good burger but not spectacular.


Remember to sign up to follow us on twitter @bestburgerla

Seven Mile House

While I was in San Francisco, I was looking to find a place to watch the USC v UCLA game after my cousin's birthday in Brisbane. My sister and her boyfriend had gone to a local sports bar called Seven Mile House. This place was originally built as a stagecoach stop back in 1853. It evolved from a trucker/biker hangout to a sports gambling joint. Now it is a place for watching a game or catching a great band play. They also have some pretty good food. We started with some appetizers. The clear winner here was the Lumpia. If you haven't had them before, find a Philippine restaurant and go get them. They are little egg rolls filled with pork and came with a sweet chili sauce. So good. Also, if you go make sure you order the garlic fries. They are perfectly crispy and too much garlic that would overpower the potato. As more of our family showed up, they convinced me to test the burger.
 

Now on to the burger. Obviously, if you are watching a game, there is little better than chowing down on a good burger and drinking a cold beer. The burger comes on a standard sesame seed bun. The patty is Angus ground chuck and cooked very well. The burger comes with bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, mayo, sautéed onions and pickles. It is your standard sports bar burger, but made a little better than most. While I don't think I will be craving this burger when I go up for my next visit, this is a very cool place to take in a game or just hang out and get some great food. 

Roam Artisan Burger

I was up in San Francisco for my cousin's first birthday and so it was the perfect time for an Adventure outside of Burgerland. I have been in contact with the Best Burger in SF blogger and decided to go to the only place she gave 5 out of 5 stars, Roam Artisan Burger. We decided to make this a family outing. Roam Artisan is an interesting place. It has the feel of a bar and a great place to hang out. The issue I had was that it was run like a fast food restaurant. To order food or drinks you had to go up to the counter and order from the register. Considering we did not all get there at once and were going to order a few rounds of drinks and appetizers, we could not even start a tab. The service was also lacking a bit. They accidentally spilled one of the beers and did not seem to have much initiative in cleaning it up. They also had some issues with the numbers given when we ordered food and it didn't all come out at the same time.

In keeping with my standard of ordering similar burgers, I got the Pacific Blue. At Roam Burger you get to choose the meat. I chose the beef (obviously) and the patty was great but a little on the small side. Unfortunately the great patty was overshadowed by the overly sweet caramelized onions and the blue cheese. The bun was a bit uninspired. The watercress was a great addition. Overall I was not impressed.