Year in Burgers

Turn around and Christmas is over. Friday was spent on a mad dash of cooking, I had four meals in one day. After preparing the yule log and other stuff the night before, I woke up to a bowl of wonton udon, then two hours later it was fruit salad and various noodle stir-frys for lunch, then it was the dessert high tea at around 4:30pm then around 9pm was dinner. I didn't know you can get desensitized from food but then the boyfriend brought home 8 bags of leftovers from his family dinner and blown my mind. The friend that took pictures didn't post all the pics yet. So I'll have to re-post some stuff when she does. Meanwhile there are these:

Inspired by a post on Serious Eats: AHT, I thought I'd do the same since I have taken some burger pics this year. I think a lot of us love to find the ultimate hamburger in the city, since it's fun and very rewarding to do. Though sometime I have the intention of taking some pictures and my gluttony gets the best of me and I bite into one and realized it's too late for a picture. Ha!

1. Goodburger



Although extremely fatty, I do like the milkshake/burger/fries combo. If you're going for it, you might as well go all out so you don't have any regrets, right? Though Goodburger was a nice joint, they took extremely long with their made-to-order unpressed burgers. I waited a good 25 minutes standing around waiting for the burgers to be cooked and while the burger was nice, it's not so outstanding that it's worth the wait. For a fast food joint, it was really not fast enough. Well, I guess it's the reason why they aren't in business any more, they still have locations in NYC for the patient ones.


2. Bridget Foy's



I had a nice lunch there, but the best thing of the meal was the Barritt's ginger beer. It was high in sugar content of course, but it balanced out the stronger ginger flavor that is so pleasing. Regular ginger ale has nothing on it. The fries had a good crisp on. My burger was decent, I ordered to have bacon and mushrooms on my burger for extra flavor.


3. Monk's Cafe


Not my picture

Monk's Cafe is a standard in Philly. They have probably have more than 60 kinds of beers and half of them available on tap. Since I'm not much of a beer person, it doesn't have much effect on me. The food is decent though, the menu is vast, interesting and affordable. Just for hamburgers, they have 7 different kinds. I ordered an Antwerp which is with sottocenare truffle cheese and shiitake mushrooms. It was nice.


4. Standard Tap



Another crowd favorite in Philly located in the up-and-coming neighborhood of Northern Liberties. It's a cozy bar that seems to be a lot of fun, though it's a bit awkward not to be served and I have to go to the bar and order food myself. I also find it that comparing burgers is a hard job given that there's really little to differ between the burgers, thought this one was perfectly cooked and high quality.


5. IHOP



I know it's a chain store for Trailer-Park Americans, but the service were great and the burger tasty. They must have had went under severe training to make their staff endearing and courteous to the T. The buns of the burger was spiced with rosemary and garlic, the beef patties were also very well seasoned which regular restaurants or bars are afraid to do for fear that it will mask the taste of the beef itself. So maybe I have a problem with my palette, but I thought it was good and the service made it a great experience.


6. Five Guys



Another food chain and folks, this place have the best burger I've had so far. Well, any place who call a single patty burger "little burger" and a double decker "regular burger" you'll have to love, right? Their burgers is juicy and big, like what a Big Mac is supposed to be and then there's a list of topping you can customize your own for free is pretty sweet. The only thing though is that their fries are a little inferior, they are all crisp and no tender inside, but I'll still go back again and again for their burgers. (Well, hopefully I will be able to control myself.)

I also had a memorable burger at Vargas, which is a half block away from me and the buffalo burgers at Ted's I find to be more flavorful than regular beef burgers, they also have a long lists of topping they can do. Next I think I'll go to Village Whiskey which is a new venture from the city's very own Iron Chef Jose Garces, they have a $24 burger with cippolini, blue cheese, bacon and foie gras that I might "splurge" on, but did I mention the boyfriend came home with 8 bags of leftovers?


Maybe non-fast-food joints are too proud to use MSG? lol.