West 4th and Jane (Redux)

So I reviewed West 4th and Jane almost a year and a half ago. Since then, it has become one of our favorite happy hour places after work. The upstairs area is a great lounge-y place to hang out and play connect 4 (provided by the restaurant). The wait staff is very friendly and the beer selection is still very good. Over the past year, they have revamped the menu and even updated the burger, so naturally I had to give it another try.

The new burger is made with Ground Waygu beef. The meat was pretty good but didn’t deliver the strong meat flavor of the elite burgers on my list. I also ordered it medium and it was a little undercooked, but not to the point where it needed to go back. The bun was one of the best parts. It had some poppy seeds on the top and had a somewhat salty flavor to it. It also held together well even with the juicy patty. The burger comes topped with truffle mayo, fried onions, goat cheese, and purple Cherokee tomato. I did not get a lot of the flavor from the truffle mayo. The goat cheese was very creamy but I think they were a little heavy handed with the cheese. It kind of overwhelmed the rest of the flavors. The fried onions were a good touch, but I felt there could have been more of them. I should have been able to get that salty fried onion flavor in more bites.
Overall, it is still a very good burger and great place to hang out. So stop by if you are in the area.

Fraiche

I went to lunch with a couple of coworkers to Fraiche. Fraiche is a fancier restaurant right by my office, but have some decent deals for lunch and happy hour. We went to the location in Santa Monica. There is also a location in Culver City. The lunch menu features several other sandwiches and some entrees that sound delicious but are a little pricy for lunch. Overall, this is a great location for a good meal and probably more of a business lunch location.

The burger is called a the Truffle Burger. It is served on a brioche like bun. It is not overly buttery and is a little lighter than most. One issue I had is they toasted the bun a little too much so I tasted charred. The meat seemed like it was freshly ground, had very good flavor. It was also cooked to a perfect medium. The burger came topped with boshetto cheese and what they call onion fondue. The onions were sweet and the cheese was a little understated. Now you wonder why its called the Truffle Burger, because it also comes topped with a truffle aioli. The aioli was very creamy and a little earthy but not overly flavorful. Overall it is a good burger, but I am assuming the other entrees are a better bet at Fraiche.

The Curious Palate

Merry New Year! (Sorry big Trading Places fan). Its been a little while since my last post. I have been on a burger fast for a little bit due to the holidays. I feel some good burger vibes for 2012.

For the first burger of 2012, I went to The Curious Palate (@curious_palate) at Santa Monica Place with my department from work. It is located in the Marketplace on the third floor. Them menu is full of fresh salads, sandwiches and comfort food. There isn’t a ton of seating in the restaurant, but there were many people getting their food to go and eating out on the patio. If it is a nice day out I would recommend this tact.

On to the burger. The patty was think and juicy. It had decent flavor but was a little overcooked and couldn’t match the burgers at the top of the list. The bun was the standard brioche bun. It had good texture but kind of fell apart as it got soaked with the juice from the patty. It came topped with gruyere cheese, baby greens, tomato, red onion, and house made pickles. Everything was fresh and crisp. The last aspect of the burger were the two sauces. The first is a homemade aioli. I am usually a fan of a homemade aioli, but it was hard to taste over the other sauce. Luckily, the other sauce, a tomato jam, was really good. It was a little tangy and almost had an Italian flavor to it. If your are in the Santa Monica area and want to have a good burger outside on a nice day, I can think of worse places to go.

M Street Kitchen

I met up with some friends and coworkers for dinner after work and we decided to check out M Street Kitchen. This used to be La Grande Orange. The menu seemed to be the same. There is a variety of items from sushi to fried chicken to burgers.

Speaking of burgers, I ordered the cheeseburger. It comes on a typical sesame seed bun. The meat is house ground all natural beef. It wasn’t overly flavorful and a little bit on the small side. The meat flavor did not come through as with other burgers I have tried. It comes topped with lettuce, onions, pickles, tomatoes and Russian dressing. Finally, it was topped with shredded cheddar cheese. The cheese wasn’t fully melted and tasted almost cold. Overall I was a little disappointed as everything else on the menu seemed so flavorful and fresh.

Jack N’ Jill’s

We went to Jack N’ Jill’s for lunch a while back and kind of forgot about it. The Santa Monica location is a bit on the small side and there is a lack of seating. The first time I went I got the rotisserie chicken, which I highly recommend. They also have a lot of pastries that I have not tried, but they look amazing.

On to the meat! I ordered the Hickory Burger. The burger comes on standard bun. The meat is nothing special, probably a standard 80/20 blend. It was cooked well to medium. It comes topped with cheddar, tomato and lettuce. It also comes with bacon. If you read this blog you know my feelings on bacon. But this was a perfect application of the delicious meat. The burger stood on its own and the bacon was purely complimentary and that is a good thing. Bacon can really steal the show making it a less impressive burger. I will say the star of the show was the hickory barbeque sauce. It was tangy and sweet and complimented the rest of the burger. There is also an aioli on the burger, but I feel it is wasted since it gets lost behind the barbeque sauce.

True Food Kitchen

For my birthday, my department took me out for lunch and we decided to try one of the new restaurants at Santa Monica Place. After looking at the menus and realizing that we wanted to sit outside, we decided on True Food Kitchen. This restaurant is perfect for Santa Monica. When you walk in, the vibe is that of organic place and most of the menu is locally sourced or organically grown. They also have vegetarian/vegan and gluten free selections. Now you might be thinking, seems a little too healthy to have a good a burger. You will have to keep reading to find out how good it is.

The burger is made from grass fed bison. This is my first bison burger and I must say I am fan. It tastes very similar to beef and as I understand it is leaner. Even though it is a leaner meat the burger was still very juicy and had great flavor. The bun is a flax bun. This type of bun is made from whole grains and flaxseed. It was not the best tasting bun as I usually have a butter filled brioche so this was a little bit of a change. Even though it was health-food style it tasted pretty good. The burger usually comes with mushrooms, which I have mentioned in previous post that I do not care for on my burgers. It also comes with caramelized onions which were sweet and tasty as well at topped with mayo and Parmesan cheese.

Overall this was a very tasty burger. One downside is that it cost $16 which is a little more than what you would want to spend on a simple burger such as this.

The Shack

I have a lot of family and friends from Philadelphia including my Mom and my Sister's boyfriend, Marc. On a visit to LA, we all went to The Shack to watch the Eagles game. The Shack is the Philly bar in LA. Watching a game there is so much fun. Almost feels like you are in the upper deck of the old Vet with the chanting and singing Fly Eagles Fly. Also important is that they are known for their Shack Burger…

The Shack burger is basically a standard burger with a Louisiana Hot Link split and put on top. The burger is the standard 4 oz. patty topped with castup (that's how they spell it in Philly), mustard, mayo, pickles, onions, lettuce, tomato and cheese on a standard hamburger bun. While the burger itself was good the kicker was really the hot link. Biting through all of the layers at once was a really great bite of food. Overall this burger does not compare to the others on the list, but if you want to watch some football and have a tasty burger then this is a good place.

Rustic Canyon

Just another Friday night out with my friends and we were going for burgers. The only hold up was where to go. We decided to go to Rustic Canyon Wine Bar. This place was recommended to me by my friend Nate. The picture in the link he sent made this look amazing. Overall this is a great place for a romantic evening. Probably not for three guys eating burgers and drinking beer. Highly recommended for a date night or romantic evening out. Now on to the burger.

The presentation is very impressive. It just looks like something you want to devour. Starting with the Niman Ranch beef used in the patty. This was very good meat and cooked perfectly. The bun was a brioche bun. Thankfully this one was not greasy and was a good complement to the rest of the burger. The meat was topped with cheddar cheese (seems to be the cheese of choice if not some kind of blue cheese) onion fondue, and bread and butter sweet pickles. On the side are some ketchup for the fries and an herb remoulade. The herb remoulade also came slathered on the burger. This was my one issue. I enjoyed the majority of it but they were too heavy handed with the remoulade and it over took the flavor of the whole burger.

Also, remember to add us on twitter. @bestburgerla. Changed the user name to be more search friendly. 

West 4th Jane

I drive by West 4^th Jane on my way to work every day. One day my coworker suggested we check it out for lunch. Unfortunately, they are only open from 5 PM on. So I went to grab a bite to eat and a beer before a softball game. The bar is very nice and has a great beer selection. The bartenders and waitresses all seem very friendly and it appears as though there are a lot of regulars that frequent the bar.

Now on to the burger. The burger is made from grass fed waygu beef which is very tasty. The patty was cooked perfectly and came on a rockenwagner bun with mixed greens and tomato. My issue with this burger is that it is very plain. For $11 dollars it should come with more. You can add caramelized onions and cheese for a dollar each. The rest of the burgers on so far came prepared the way they were supposed to be eaten. I wish this one was similarly made.

The Yard

I know I have been slacking a bit in the burger eating department. So I decided to get back on track by going to The Yard. I have been to this gastro pub a few times before but have not had the burger yet. First let us talk about the restaurant. I love this place. My first visit was on a date and it is a great place to go and share a few dishes. The Chef roams around the restaurant and on that first occasion came up and explained the dish to us. The chef is Chris "CJ" Jacobson as seen on Top Chef. He just seems to have a good feel for putting together flavors.

Now onto the burger. When it first comes out, it has the look of a good burger. The burger comes with grilled onions, thousand island, heirloom tomatoes, and cheddar cheese. Kicker to this burger is you start eating it and all of a sudden you realize there is a hint of bacon; stealth bacon if you will. There is no mention of bacon in the description. I examined the burger and could not see any bacon. MY only thought was that the bacon was ground into the patty. Usually, when comparing burgers, using bacon seems like cheating or covering up the rest of the burger. With that being said, this burger had a perfect amount of bacon. The bacon worked with the rest of the flavors rather than what seems like a masking agent.



Overall this is a very delicious burger. I feel it still lacks the originality or sophistication of the Foundry or Father's Office burgers. Check out the updated rankings on the right.

Umami

I feel like Umami Burger has taken the city by storm. I had never heard about it until I saw it featured on the Food Network's "Best Thing I Ever Ate." Now it seems as though there is a new one opening every month. I recently found out about one right by my office in Santa Monica. The location only had a few tables inside but a few large tables outside for multiple parties. 

 
Since I felt I should try to keep the tastings comparable, I ordered the Port & Stilton Burger. The burger comes with Stilton blue cheese and port-caramelized onions. The burger had good flavor. They used the right amount of blue cheese so that it didn't overpower the rest of the flavors. The sweet port-caramelized onions were sweet, and complimented the rest of the burger well. The issue I had is with the bun. They seemed to butter the bun and it came out looking good, but was really greasy. All in all it is a pretty good burger, but not the best thing I ever ate.


 
UPDATE: As Umami is the closest gourmet burger place to my work, I figure to eat there more than the others. I recently went back and tried a different burger. This time I went for the SoCal Burger. I think this is supposed to be an upgraded version of an In-N-Out burger. It comes with their homemade bun, butter lettuce, caramelized onions, roasted tomatoes, and of course spread. I ordered it without cheese because that's how I usually get my double-doubles. Unfortunately, my opinion has not changed. The burger was well constructed, all of the ingredients were fresh and the burger was perfectly cooked. The buns are still too greasy and make the burger feel like it was soaked in oil. I will probably go back again, hopefully not for a work lunch, to enjoy a burger and one of the fine beers they have. But its position on my list remains the same.