It's the only thing I get at Red Robin. I go "carbless", though, and get the lettuce wrap. Makes one heckuva mess. And RR is the first restaurant I've been to that pulled out the calories, fat and sodium list for every single thing on the menu. Kind of sobering.
check out: http://portlandhamburgers.blogspot.com/ it's a local blog on hamburgers and it's a very good read. i've always loved me some burger love, but in the last year or so my cravings have gone through the roof. here are my 3 plateau's of burgers: 1. Homemade: just about anything made at home is ALWAYS the best; beef, turkey, veggie, buffalo...doesnt matter. 2. Restaurant/Bar: my faves in portland are from Pause (nopo), cafe castagna (se), slow bar (se grand). gourmet buns, strawberry mtn beef, these are the art of hamburgers. 3. Fast Food: Five Guys certainly is the best in town, i swore off Burgerville after like 4 freakin bad experiences there (messed up orders, service, taste, etc.). i actually hit up the 24-hr McD on Burnside last weekend and got a Qtr Pounder, it was quite amazing. had been years and it was good.
for you home-made types...what's in your patties? do you use ground meats from a butcher (different cuts of steak ground up on the spot and mixed)?
I was wondering about the hype of the strawberry mountain beef......i had that in Portland when I was there over the holidays.....forgot where though.
I remember when Five Guys was a small chain in the DC area. The fact they've opened one up across the street from where my wife works in Denver and now one in the Portland area is just not good for my LDLs.
strawberry mountain: im paraphrasing here, but it's basically a cow's paradise. free range, organic, all that stuff. the beef is simply superior to really anything you can get. kobe is good too, but much more expensive. making homemade burgers: for regular beef burgers you can ask your butcher to grind sirloin and many places have the strawberry mountain beef. but if you're just aiming at regular beef you always want to stay away from the "lean" ground beef. lean means less fat and less fat means it will dry out very quickly, particularly when cooking burgers which is usually high heat on a grill or in a pan. i mix beef simply w/ some onions, salt, pepper, garlic and an egg (to bind everything together). do not over mix b/c it will be mushy. this is the basic formula for all homemade burgers when dealing w/ ground meats. turkey for example is extremely lean by nature, so i usually add in some ground pork to give it some fat so it's nice and juicy. funny story: my friend who is an ardent WinCo shopper and against all things free-range or organic claims that his cheap ass disgusting beef from WinCo is the best. while it takes a lot to not make a burger good, i disagree with him. cheap beef is nasty all the way around, it's not how cow is supposed to taste. so i had him and other friends over for a Blazers game and prepared burgers before they got there. but i used the "vegan/vegetarian" fake ground beef stuff, which is not too bad. i made them exactly like above and served them. he and others said it was the best burger they'd ever had. my buddy said, "there's nothing better than ground beef!" while eating it. i informed everyone that they'd been had and no one could believe it. so it just goes to show you that the cheapest of beef really is tasteless, much like the faux beef. but strawberry mountain or nice ground sirloin...you can certainly tell!
I've had "Kobe burgers" several times, they are NOT worth it, less flavor. Give me a good ol' Angus burger over that any day of the week.
In N Out has the best burgers out of any fast food joint I have tried. Goddamn I want a burger right now.
In-n-out- overrated. I actually like burgervilles better.....just the spread. And Fatburger > in-n-out.
