Port of Call

I was in New Orleans for Jazzfest and I just had to find the best burger there. So I asked around and Port of Call was the consensus best burger that I had to try. One of the people in our group is part of the New York burger club and she said Port of Call is the place to try. It was voted best of New Orleans a few times as well. The restaurant is at one side of the French Quarter. This is a small place and they do not take reservations. When we got there, at first we couldn’t figure out how to put our name down, but then we found one of the employees with a small note pad writing down names. The wait was over an hour! And people were still coming in. So grabbed a drink and staked out the bar. We eventually got seats at the bar where it is first come first serve. Manners should be left at the door when you are trying to get a seat since people are pretty ruthless and will grab the seat from you if you don’t sit down right away. Another interesting twist, was that they do not have a deep fryer, which is strange in New Orleans. So instead of fries, the burgers come with a baked potato. I highly suggest this over the other sides. It just seems to work together.

These are no frills burgers. The bun is a standard sesame bun. It really acts as a vessel for the rest of the burger. The patties are ground fresh daily. They do not skimp on the size of the patties. The meat was cooked to a perfect medium and was very juicy. I felt it lacked some flavor for being freshly ground. I am not sure what it was, I think we get spoiled here in Los Angeles with the quality of the meat we get in our burgers. The burger came with lettuce, tomato and pickles. You can also choose to get cheese and/or mushrooms. I got mine with cheese. They literally pile shredded cheese all over the burger, but it would have been nice if the cheese was a little bit melted. Overall, this burger is a well executed standard burger.