Now I get why some people hate Eagles Deli

[lergnom]

I had an execrable burger at Eagles Deli tonight. Really, truly awful. And yet I've consistently said I get terrific burgers there. The difference is in the word "tonight." I always have eaten at Eagles for lunch. They have a really good cook then.

I sat in my chair and watched this lousy cook press the meat into the grill. Flames were shooting up past his head. I think he likes fire.

Pressing meat until the juice is gone is an old, bad trick taught in bad restaurants. It's a simple way to tell when meat is "done," meaning that when the juice is basically gone it's still a little red inside. Bad cooks think that means "done."

We all know that juice is this weird thing called flavor. This guy doesn't know that or doesn't care and it's obvious that management either doesn't care or is not competent enough to make sure all their cooks can actually cook hamburger properly. If you don't press the meat, you have to rely on timing and knowing how hot the grill is compared the thickness of the patty. It takes skill, but not a ton of skill. The basic tool is a clock with a minute hand. Those are readily available.

This hamburger was worse than McDonalds. It had none of the loose consistency of proper meat. It was significantly smaller in appearance because it had been compressed. Since there was no juice, there was no melding of flavor with the condiments.

BTW, I sent essentially this same note to Eagles with a comment that it is management's fault because they hire and train the cooks. My advice: do not order a hamburger at Eagles in the evening. Go anywhere else instead.

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Eagles Deli
1918 Beacon, Brookline, MA 02445

[MC Slim JB]

Two things: the spectacle of some hammerhead BC frat boy puking on the sidewalk after failing to beat their disgusting burger challenge, and the general cleanliness of the place, which is, ahem, less than perfect.

http://mcslimjb.blogspot.com/

[mhead]

BC doesn't have frats.

[MC Slim JB]

And yet, BC is rich with frat-boy types. Sorry: should have been clearer there.

http://mcslimjb.blogspot.com/

[ecwashere7]

Eagles Deli was always a greasy spoon kind of place. When I went to BC, they used to have "gourmet burgers" that had a variety of toppings. They were actually pretty tasty. Nowadays, the food is all about gluttonous portions and it certainly isn't about quality.

Just as a side note, the excessively sized burgers (with people's names attached to them) are named after a BU student and a Tufts student.

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Eagles Deli
1918 Beacon, Brookline, MA 02445

[lergnom]

I find it clean now. It wasn't before. The only good thing about the old place was the old style grill along the wall on the right.

I think the food has improved markedly since the new owners and the renovation. With this one exception, they've made every burger a juicy medium rare and served very hot, well cooked fries.

They do cash in on the constant showing of them as a pig out place on Travel Channel. I only go once a month and yet most times I've seen at least one Eagles Challenge plate brought out. I've asked a few of the eaters and they intend to take most of it home. Once I saw it served to a table of four. In other words, the idea of it being a challenge isn't taken seriously and it seems to attract tourists / visitors.

I do know that some guy ate the entire thing in much less than an hour. There's a youtube of it up. He's a competitive cross-trainer who does competitive eating.

The atmosphere has definitely changed, except perhaps late in the evening on weekends. Much more kid friendly, adult friendly.

[Luther]

Is the challenge burger the 1 lb beef plus 1 lb fries? I used to have my photo on the wall for that, it's not particularly hard to finish if you have the motivation.

[Kinopio]

It keeps going up exponentially. I think its 6 lbs/6 lbs now.

[Luther]

oh christ

[lergnom]

As an update, the manager emailed and told me they demoted that cook and put a more experienced person in his place. Apologized profusely.

They should fix the lighting in there, make it less harsh, but otherwise I think the new place is a big improvement, if only because it no longer feels grease encrusted.

[Luther]

But... the dank! The dank!

[Guinness02122]

I have seen this place on a few TV specials and ate there once before the renovation. Do you think visitors that have seen these TV specials would be delighted or disappointed? It didn't live up to my expectations, but that's probably because Kevin Youkilis wasn't there. :)

[jgg13]

Hopefully for you they didn't demote him to the lunch shift.

[Luther]

I can't bear to even attempt to eat there now that they've turned it into what looks like a campus dining annex. It used to have some personality with the photos and whatnot....