Went yesterday for lunch close to 2pm.
4 people line out the door. (although it dissipated by the time I ordered).
Cheeseburger and fries.
Pretty good.
Good addition to the neighborhood.
By stevewag23
on Jul 10, 2009 03:45 PM
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I'm a fan. I like their caesar salad quite a bit. Try their homemade BBQ sauce on the burger. It's good.
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Good tips.
Question for you Josh:
I know you are a fan of the place and figured you would have some insight.
I am almost certain the place is modeled or influenced by Australian burger joints. I was in Sydney a couple of years ago, and there are tons of cool burger joints and I always thought, how come we don't have these in the USA?
Then I went to burger lounge and it seemed very similar.
Plus, they got the Bundeberg.
Any insight?
You know the story?
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Sorry, no. Interesting question though.
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I don't know about Australia, but according to their website The Counter opened in Santa Monica in 2003. I first saw it in Palo Alto in 2006 and it was my first time visiting a premium burger joint. Counter is kind of the opposite of Burger Lounge, you get a little clipboard with a ton of specialty toppings. They also have a full bar. I sure hope they open one in San Diego.
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they are supposed to open one in the forum in carlsbad. Sushi on the rocks old spot. On there site they say Fall of 09 but I haven't seen any work going on in there.
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The gals at Damon and Drapers (don't ask) in the Forum, thiink that it is not going to happen. maybe money got tight.
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Ya I didn't think they could afford the rent there. Plus from what I hear counter is having some money issues. Possibly expanding too quickly.
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Maybe Which Wich opening soon in the old Chuao deterred Counter? I bet El Torito is sighing with relief with Casa de Bandini's horrid food reviews and antifreeze margaritas. No way that place is going to make it with that food and those prices, never mind the killer rent they must be paying.
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Well I guess we were all wrong. The Counter just put a sign up saying almost here. I guess only time will tell.
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"maybe"
In this economy, its all but a certainty.
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"In this economy" Burger Lounge is expanding. As is Arrivaderci (sp?) which seems to be opening another location next to Cafe Calabria in North Park. I believe this is now their 4th location.
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I am not sure if Arrividerci is expanding. The sign next to Cafe Calabria is there for the last 18 months.
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Counter uses corn-fed beef. Boo.
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True, but there is something to be said for having a burger with a nice martini and deep fried pickles.
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It did remind me as well of a place I went to in Melbourne last November. Slightly less options (no lamb), but kind of similar.
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I stopped in at the newest addition to the Burger Lounge on Wednesday. It was late afternoon and there were a number of people there but it was not packed. The service was friendly and quick and I've always liked their burgers and this one did not disappoint. There is a cleanness to the flavor that must be attributed to the grass fed aspect and it was cooked perfectly. I also got the onion rings which were ok. Afterward, my friend and I walked down to the new burger joint next to the Waterfront. The way the sign is layed out, it seems as if they wouldn't mind if they were confused with the Burger Lounge. Has anyone tried it?
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I had the same impression about the place next to Waterfront. It makes me question the integrity of their product, if they're that willing to try to capitalize on someone else's rep.
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Went once when they first opened.
Doesn't stick in my mind as being great and never went back.
Place is called Just Burgers.
They must be hating it that Burger Lounge opened.
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Pretty ballsy to open a burger joint right next to the Waterfront.
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agreed, try to get people looking for Burger Lounge and try to siphon (leech?) off of Waterfront.
They won't be getting my money.
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Just Burgers was opened a while back.
When Buds unfortunately closed.
There plan couldn't have been to "try to get people looking for Burger Lounge"
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It's a complete rip off of burger lounge. They even use the same meat (tallgrass). Not to mention the site is as cheesy as the decor. I'm so sick of people just adding lounge to their name when the establishment is nothing like a lounge.
http://www.justburgers.biz/
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I'm not so sure that Just Burgers is being justly accused. Can anyone confirm the opening dates of the first Burger Lounge and Just Burgers? I seem to recall that they were close together; Burger Lounge is not exactly famous now, and certainly wasn't then, so I'm not sure what JB would be capitalizing on. Furthermore, the concept is so utterly simple and common - how many variations of a classic burger joint exist already? And how many thousand restaurants serve an upscale or high quality ingredient version of a popular, simple food? Upscale 'pork 'n' beans' and 'mac 'n' cheese' was cliche in NYC 15 years ago.
Tallgrass beef is probably the only practical option for grassfed beef in SD, so it's not surprising that both BL and JB would use the same company.
I welcome both restaurants because I prefer to eat grass fed beef and I like it even more when I don't have to spend a fortune on it. JB also uses some organic ingredients in the buns and toppings; I'm not sure about BL. If JB executed the concept better than BL, I'll buy from them.
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Agreed.
"It's a complete rip off of burger lounge."
I think if anything, Burger Lounge is a complete rip off of Australian Burger joints I have seen.
Which is fine, we needed some.
No one has a patent on a good burger.
That being said, I like Burger Lounge more.
Let them fight it out.
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I don't think Just Burgers is Tallgrass, unless the person I asked there didn't know.
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says it is on the site. That's where I got that info from.
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Ah OK. Cool. When I was there I asked if that was it and the girl wasn't sure but said that didn't sound familiar. I'll have to give them a try.
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Just dropped into the LI Burger Lounge for a late lunch (everything gets delayed when it's so hot outside!) and noticed a moderate line out the door. By the time I had walked in (I was trying to decide whether or not to abandon my perfect parking spot right in front as it had a broken meter...) the line was gone and the place was better than half full.
I decided upon a medium-rare Lounge Burger w/American cheese (the orange stuff is synonymous w/burgers in my mammalian brain), extra raw onions and a rare (for me) vanilla shake.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/akatayam...
Oh what a beautiful burger! All of the flavors were so clearly articulated but in a way that didn't steal the show from the real star, the beef. This is a burger that doesn't need to be dressed! My usual metaphors for beef fail me, as this tasted so different. A much clearer, more elegant, dare I say even a lighter taste. Some of this I attributed to the softness of the patty itself - they must be hiding a staff of grandmothers from the Old Country gently hand forming each patty! - but most of the credit must go to the provenance of their beef.
What I really appreciated too was that they cooked it perfectly to a medium rare, and the little droplets of red on my plate gave testimony to that. At first I wasn't too sure due to the significant amount of char on the exposed part of the patty, but upon further inspection I found that the bottom part of the patty was flipped while the patty was still moist before it could brown, (it must have been flipped only once on the grill), allowing the middle of the patty to stay rarer than the crust on top would otherwise imply.
So the beef was the star of the show and hats off to the bun too! I didn't get a sense that I tasted it separately, but just enough to know that it gave more support to the beef than a more conventional bun would. It did what it should do, which is to support the beef's flavor while not calling undue attention upon itself.
My only nit was the broadly chopped onions, which I wish were kept as rings. This softened the flavor of the onions a bit (which would be a plus for many) and was hard to keep them all contained, as I love the somewhat acrid taste of a raw onion!
All in all a great burger, and instantly ties for my top SD burger with Hodad's. Now these are completely different burgers in style, and BL clearly has the better tasting beef. But for all of BL's clean, articulated flavors, there are just times when one wants to taste the burgers more evocative of one's youth, a burger with a cacophony of flavors and the almost funky taste from a greasy, over-loaded grill that's cooking more than just your burger. For that it's Hodad's. Schizophrenic perhaps, but in this case I'm calling both BL and Hodad's my favorite SD burger.
Oh, and after I was nearly done with the burger my shake arrived. Though clearly blended to order it somehow didn't thrill me, and even a better one wouldn't be well-suited to this style of burger anyway.
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Glad you liked it. I was at the Kensington Burger Lounge last night. What I really like about this place is they will make your burger more rare if you ask for it. I completely agree about the "cleaner" flavor of the beef. I've read complaints on here from people who don't think the meat tastes like anything, but I find that pretty baffling.
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Had the turkey burger today.
Not bad.
Place seems really healthy. Biz wise.
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Yeah, I just went to Coronado's location for the first time last week. Slammed, as they all seem to be. You can't argue with a good burger at a fair price. That's the kind of business I like to see succeed.
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LOVE LOVE LOVE Burger Lounge! I don't eat beef so the option of a turkey burger or house made veggie burger is so nice....both are DELISH. I'm not a fan of their french freis but I think their onion rings are great. I also LOVE their vanilla milkshakes too. I've only been to the La Jolla and Coronado locations and my only comaplaint is that they are small.
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