Tompkins Square

Tompkins Square was actually one of the first places recommended to me when I first started the blog. So I have been wanting to try it for a while. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I thought it was going to be more of a bar scene. It turns out that it is actually more restaurant and chill place to hang out and catch a game. They have a pretty good beer selection and there was a pretty good vibe in the restaurant.

I ordered The Eddie. At first glance, I noticed the bun. It seemed as though the bun was a sort of brioche style bun but seemed at first to lack the special quality of a good bun. Once finishing the burger I realized this bun worked well since it did not get overly soggy and held together. The meat when tasted alone was a little salty and had okay not outstanding flavor. It was cooked to a perfect medium. The Eddie also came with blue cheese, cracked pepper and caramelized onions. I did not get the cracked pepper flavor. But the onions were a nice touch and the the blue cheese was creamy and not over powering, which is impressive in its own right. Overall, if you are in the area and looking for a chill place to hang and get a good burger, check out Tompkins Square.

 

Plan Check Bar

Since I work on the Westside of LA, I tend to check out most of the places in the area for burgers. A couple of my coworkers found Plan Check Bar and I had to try it. The restaurant is kind of tucked away from a major street, but is worth checking out. It has a chill gastropub-like environment. They have a great list of beers and wine. One of the people I went to with also got the fried chicken and they said it was very delicious. I may need to go back and try that next time.

I order the PCB burger. All of the burgers come with Akaushi red wagyu beef. The meat was good and flavorful but not the most flavorful I have had. It also seemed very salty. The waitress let us know that they salt the patties before they cook them, which is normal, but I think they were a little heavy handed this time. The coworkers I went with said that usually the burgers are not this salty. They use what they call a “crunch bun”. I am not sure what the crunch refers to but the bun was soft and held together nicely. It came topped with americanized dashi cheese, house made pickles, schmaltz onions. I personally wasn’t a fan of the cheese. It basically seemed like a fancy version of the cheese used in fast food restaurants. I think because of the cheese and the saltiness, I really didn’t get much flavor from the pickles and the none at all from the onions. It seemed like it was an off day, so I should go back because I could tell there was potential for a good burger, but on this day is was only average.