Jake's of Pasadena -- Pasadena, CA

38 West Colorado Boulevard
Pasadena, CA 91105
626-568-1602
website

I'd been a good boy all week in terms of nutrition and exercise, and so had Happy Meal. We decided to treat ourselves to a cheeseburger. Destination: Jake's of Pasadena. Why: We had a Groupon. Parking in Old Town Pasadena on a Sunday afternoon was a nightmare, but we found metered parking a few blocks away. The signage proclaimed that Jake's of Pasadena served the best burger in Pasadena. I had to wonder if they could top Plate 38, which was really darned good.

The seating was nearly all counter--several counters, and there were three small tables tucked away in a corner. Happy Meal loves counter seating, and I obliged. We opted for the Build Your Own Burger route. Ordering at Jake's of Pasadena was a matter of checking boxes on a form and handing it to a server. Our cheeseburgers arrived in about 5 minutes.

The Burger Breakdown...

The Beef: The burger meat at Jake's of Pasadena was about 1/3 of a pound of Chuck. The patty was strongly beefy with a firm note of funk and a bit of iron at the end. I assumed that the beef was sourced from Sysco Foods, since most everything else there was. The Chuck had a fat content of about 20% fat. The grind was coarse, and the beef lingered after the cheese and bun had departed the palate. The firmness and grind of the beef was satisfying in terms of mouth feel. The kitchen did employ griddle weights while cooking the burgers, but this did not dry out the irregular, hand-formed patties.

The Seasoning: I noted that the burgers were not being seasoned as they cooked, so I interceded. I wanted a good burger. I asked the kitchen to apply a little salt and pepper to my burger as it cooked. If you go to Jake's of Pasadena, I strongly encourage you to mirror my request.

The Sear: Hell yea! The griddle at the busy establishment maintained its heat, and the burgers were delivered with a deep, dark, crisp sear. The sear on my burger was most satisfying when coupled with the requested salt and pepper.

The Preparation: The cheeseburgers at Jake's of Pasadena were cooked to Well-Done but not an aggressive, dry Well-Done. The 1/3 pound burger patties were hand-formed during the morning prep shift. The patties were formed gently, and this resulted in a bite that was firm but not chewy.

The Cheese: There were a variety of cheese options, but I chose American cheese to top my burger for the usual reasons: creaminess, savoriness, umami, and iron. The perfectly melted cheese delivered on all of those points. Furthermore, the cheese served to wed the bun to the beef. Keep in mind that they charged $1.29 for a slice of American cheese. The pricing was aggressive...leaning towards offensive. I can buy 32 slices for $5 down the street, so I found a 800% markup over retail just plain outrageous.


The Bun: Jake's of Pasadena also offered numerous bun options. I went with the standard burger bun. The bun did not disappoint. It was fresh, moist, a little sweet, and perfectly toasted. The kitchen buttered the buns and toasted them on the flat top alongside the burger patties.

The Meat To Bun Ratio: The large bun was a little too large for the single burger patty. The bun would have been more appropriate to a double burger, but a double burger would not have been appropriate to my long-term survival odds.

The Fries: The fries were the standard, food service, frozen, peel-off, par-cooked, peel-off fries that show up in a bag. The fries were perfectly crisped and nicely seasoned. The fries were about $2, and the portion was not impressive.

The Toppings: I passed on the shredded Iceberg lettuce, because it was shredded Iceberg lettuce. The tomato slice was red, ripe, juicy, and flavorful. I splurged and got some avocado. The avocado was just fine.

The Value: Meh. I dropped 10 bucks on a 20 Groupon, and I still paid an additional 9 bucks (incuding tip) to cover the bill. It was about $25 for two cheeseburgers, one order of fries, and two sodas. This was a little more than the quality of the food warranted. The value was a little below average.

Jake's of Pasadena was not the best burger in Pasadena. Plate 38 was better by far. However, the burger at Jake's was flavorful and properly prepared. It may have been the best burger in the neighborhood....it was the only burger that I had sample in that part of Pasadena.

Burger Review : A competent, flavorful, but slightly over-priced burger at Jake's of Pasadena.

Rating...3 Bites (3.5 Bites with a .5 point deduction for weak value)

Bachi Burger -- Los Angeles, CA

I was driving down Sawtelle Boulevard the other day. I had to grab some Tekka Maki to pack in Happy Meal's lunch box. It was then that I discovered that Bachi Burger had begun expanding. It wasn't really news, but it was news to me.

Sadly, like Umami Burger, Bachi Burger waited until they had lost steam in terms of quality to begin expanding. Umami Burger was once the best burger in Los Angeles, but that faded within a year or so as their standards went out the window. Presently, Umami Burger has been pumping out pretty good, but over-priced, burgers from multiple locations for a few years. All the while, Umami Burger has been steadily expanding. Bachi Burger, the former darling cheeseburger of Las Vegas, has followed suit, and the LA location will be the third storefront. When I visited Bachi Burger, I was underwhelmed, and I have heard similar comments from my burger loving brothers and sisters.

Fortunately for burger lovers in Little Osaka, there is a really, really good burger spot a few blocks away....Plan Check,
Bear in mind that Bachi Burger held it together for a few years in Las Vegas before jumping the shark, so it is possible that they will turn out great food in LA during the honeymoon phase...hopefully beyond that.

On the plus side, The Cult's "She Sells Sanctuary" was playing on the radio in the car this morning, and that was pretty awesome. It's a lot butcher if you don't watch the video. Also, you should probably start watching Workaholics on Comedy Central. It's juvenile, and I love. it.

Burger House -- Oceanside, CA

515 Mission Street
Oceanside,CA 92054
760-757-5890 

The Burger House Newman Open Range burger

Happy Meal and I were at Legoland to celebrate the weekend of his 10th birthday. We had driven past Burger House in the past while scoping out breakfast spots in Oceanside, but we had never been in the vicinity at dinner time. Before heading over, I looked up "burgers Oceanside, CA." This search revealed that the local Yelp favorite was Ty's Burger House. Since Burger House shared the same address as the establishment reviewed on Yelp, I assumed that there had been a name change. On a Sunday evening, street parking was free and plentiful. The menu featured a variety of game meat burgers such as elk, kangaroo, wild boar. and venison.

We lined up, placed  our orders, and waited for about 15 minutes for our burgers to arrive. Happy Meal ordered the standard, 1/3 pound Classic Burger (cheeseburger), and I ordered the 1/3 pound Newman Open Range grass-fed beef burger. I asked the manager/owner about the cuts of beef used, but he had no idea. He told me that all of the other burgers were Chuck, but this was suspect considering that a kangaroo shoulder is relatively tiny. A later web search did not turn up a Newman Open Range purveyor , so it seemed safe to guess that this was probably a Niman Ranch product. 

The Burger Breakdown...

The Beef: Happy Meal's Classic Burger was only mildly beefy. The fat content passed 25% with gusto--the bite was oily. The grind was coarse, and the mouth feel was firm. The Classic Burger was average.

My Newman Open Range burger was beefy in flavor. The funk of aging was strong in flavor and aroma. It seemed that the beef had been dry-aged. The fat content was about 20%. The grind was very coarse and somewhat inconsistent. Some bites were only partially ground. The bite was rubbery/chewy. I couldn't quite make out if this was due to the large amount of connective tissue in the Chuck, over-manipulation of the ground beef, or if the beef had been frozen. The beef was moist, so it seemed fair to guess that if had probably not been frozen. The beef was lacking in any notes other than beef, so Chuck was the cut. The beef in the Newman Open Range burger was only two notes, but it was above average in flavor.

Open Range Burger Sear

Classic Burger Sear

The Seasoning: There was none.

The Sear: The sear on the irregular patty of the Classic Burger was meager. The sear on my Newman Open Range burger was weak. I found that frustrating, because I ordered my burger to be cooked Medium. Instead, I got a Well-Done burger with a crappy sear. Lose-lose. I didn't want to wait an additional 15 minutes for a re-fire that would have gotten me to the half-assed sear of the other burger, so I dealt with it.

The Preparation: The irregular burger patties at Burger House were hand-formed and firmly packed. As I have already stated, my burger was over-cooked and a little chewy. Happy Meal's burger came out Medium. I found that comical, because I did not specify the temperature of his burger...irony. The problem here was that the kitchen found themselves overwhelmed with a mini-rush. Rather than pacing the orders and communicating longer wait times, the staff chose to continue jamming burger patties onto a tightly-packed grill that couldn't maintain a proper surface temperature. I would have gladly waiting a little longer for a properly seared, seasoned, and cooked burger.

The Burger House Classic Burger

The Cheese: The Classic Burger came with a nicely melted slice of American Cheese. The American Cheese did all of the things that American Cheese should do on a cheeseburger. My burger did not come with cheese. The strong funk and overt chewiness of my burger would have crushed any cheese but Bleu, so the absence of cheese was not noted.

The Bun: The burger buns at Burger House were delivered by a local bakery, but the name of that bakery was kept secret--I did ask. The buns were sweet, dense, fresh, and moist. These resembled a dense version of King's Hawaiian Bread. The buns compressed much like school lunch rolls. The dense mouth feel of the bun did work with the chewy, coarse beef.  The buns were perfectly toasted  on the same flat top upon which the burger patties were cooked.

The Meat to Bun Ratio: This was fine.

The Toppings: The tomato slices were ripe and juicy. The lettuce was shredded. I removed this and set it aside...yuck.  Stop! Everyone, stop shredding the lettuce that is destined to go on cheeseburgers. It is cold, wet, and unpleasant.

The Fries: Hooray--the fries were terrific. They arrived frozen, par-cooked, and bagged. Burger House crisped these fries perfectly. The fries remained crisp as they cooled, and they were properly salted. I had to fight Happy Meal to get a few of them.

Open Range Burger Cross Section

The Value: My burger and fries was $8.90. Happy Meal's burger was $5.90. A soda was $1.95. With tax and tip, I dropped just over 21 bucks on a couple of smallish burgers, a single order of fries, and one soda. The value wallowed in lameness.

Burger House served up over-priced and well-hyped burgers. It seemed that the schtick was wild game, and that was good enough. The preparation was lackluster; the prices were high; the knowledge of the meats was meager. All that said, the premium cheeseburgers were a little above average in terms of flavor.

Burger Review : Too much money for not enough burger at Burger House. The beef in the high-priced burger rose above the preparation. The beef in the standard burger was average and oily.

Rating...3 Bites (ratcheted down from 3.5 for the premium burger due to careless and inconsistent preparation and poor value...3 Bites for the Classic Burger)

Jax Bar and Grill--Glendale, CA

339 North Brand Boulevard
Glendale, CA 91203
818-500-1604
website 

Jax Bar and Grill was within walking distance of the office where Beefaroni and I were spending the bulk of our days. It certainly made parking easy! Jax was a jazz club by night. Our waiter informed me that the owner of Jax also owned the nearby Hamburger Central (a block away). We had high hopes for our cheeseburgers. The wait was about 12 minutes. Considering that my burger was thoroughly over-cooked, the time could have been reduced.

The Burger Breakdown...

The Beef: Maybe I take sh!t too literally, but when I ordered the Half Pound Cheeseburger, I sort of assumed that this would have been the weight of the actual beef. The patty was much closer to 5 ounces than 8. Perhaps the meat, bun, cheese, and toppings weighed in at 8 ounces. Perhaps the over-cooking robbed my burger patty of those three ounces. The waiter assured me that I would be eating lean ground sirloin.I think the claim of Sirloin was about as accurate as the claim of 1/2 pound or offering a Med-Rare cheeseburger. The beef was firmly beefy and..........that was it. There was none of the complexity that one might have expected from Sirloin. No aging and no iron. The grind was coarse, and the burger meat was juicy. The fat content was around 20%. The cut was most likely Chuck. If it was Sirloin, then I am glad that I did not order the steak.

The Seasoning: There was none.

The Sear: The burger patty at  Jax Bar and Grill picked up a nice backyard BBQ sort of grilled sear to it. There was a hint of char, and that was just fine.

The Frisco Burger

The Preparation: I ordered a Med-Rare burger. I got something closer to Med-Well, and I did not have time for a re-fire on my lunch break. Beefaroni's Frisco Burger did come out Med-Rare, so that was a freaking head scratcher. The burger meat came in pre-ground from Golden West Trading, Inc. The thinnish patties were hand formed. The burger patties were gently formed, so they were not chewy.

The Cheese: This was a blend of shredded American, Jack, and Cheddar. The cheese did its job. It added savory notes and a creamy texture.

The Bun: Jax Bar and Grill got there buns from Frisco Baking Company. The burger bun was just fine. Toasted, seeded, sweet, soft, fresh, and moist. The bun was a winner.

The Meat To Bun Ratio: The bun at Jax Bar and Grill was a bit big for my under-weight and over-cooked cheeseburger. The bun was better suited to the what the menu promised.

The Toppings: The shredded Iceberg lettuce was fresh, but I would never top a burger with a wet mess like that. The tomato slices were perfectly ripe.

The Fries: The fries were of the previously frozen, peel-on, par-cooked, and shipped in variety, but the fries were excellent. They were cooked to a crisp golden brown, and the fries were perfectly salted.

The Value: I dropped about 13 bucks on an under-weight, over-cooked cheeseburger, great fries, and a soda. The value was not good.

Jax Bar and Grill was a jazz club, and the cheeseburger shared some jazz elements. There were a great many missing notes, and it left me wanting for more.

Burger Review : Jax Bar and Grill served up an average burger at a premium price.

Rating...3 Bites (rounded up from 2.5 bites)