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@Damon Thanks for the birthday shout out....I just noticed the review and the date.

@Dino ..Doh! Thanks for the correction. I am a dolt.

Sorry for being "that guy", but all of the breads, with the exception of the focaccia, come from BreadBar. It's a shame because BreadBar makes a world-class burger bun.

As you can see from the attached link, the quality of the beef has slipped since Damon reviewed it. http://www.theburgerreview.com/2011/04/little-doms-los-angeles-ca.html That's unfortunate, because I was looking forward to a better than average burger.

Amen, Adam. I spent 10 years in Seattle, and the lure of Red Mill and Dick's was baffling. Both serve bland burgers made from relatively low-grade ingredients. http://www.theburgerreview.com/2009/10/red-mill-burgers-seattle-washington.html

The only burger that I could find that was worth a damn in Seattle was at Palace Kitchen.

Damon this review was dead on in 2009--I loved that burger, and I promoted to everyone that would listen. I revisited Comme Ca on 01FEB11 and discovered that things had changed.

I was curious if the current rendition of the Comme Ça burger was as good as the amazing burger that they served when Chef David was at the helm in 2009...it was not even close. It was like the wheels fell off at Comme Ça when it came to the cheeseburger and fries. A popular translation of "Comme ci--comme ça" is "Could be better--could be worse. Chef Samaniego (the latest guy to head up the kitchen) and team made it a point to show us worse.

Greasy, undercooked Chuck on a greasy bun with soggy fries was the new way of doing things at Comme Ça.

Comme Ça was one of my favorite burgers in LA. I will not go there until they change chefs again. They changed everything that was good and for the worse. The bun, the beef, the cheese, the fries all have all suffered dramatic drops in quality. I miss the old and delicious Comme Ça cheeseburger, which in 2009 was proclaimed this to be perfect burger by the New York Times.

Burger Review : Comme Ça went from hero to zero in about a year. Pass on this place until they sober up and bring in a better chef that gives a damn about good ingredients. What they saved in food costs, they will more than lose in repeat business.

full review at http://www.theburgerreview.com/2011/02/comme-ca-west-hollywood-ca.html

Nick, you are totally on the money with this review--the burger at Olives in NYC was an overpriced afterthought. It was complete BS. However, the burger at the location in Las Vegas is the best cheeseburger that I have ever tried. It is shocking that the quality is so variable between the two locations. Then again, the Craft is LA turns out weakness compared to the fare in NYC.

http://www.theburgerreview.com/2009/10/olives-at-via-bellagio-shops-in-las.html

@laurasue Your comments are duly noted. As a former chef and current consumer, I feel that quality and value should be delivered, particularly when serving up something as basic and formulaic as a cheeseburger. They are brutally easy to prepare properly. I also sing the praises of the good ones ..... here.... http://www.theburgerreview.com/search/label/5%20Bites

I too am glad that AHT exists. I travel quite a bit, and this is one of the resources that I use to locate burgers in the cities that I frequent. That said, since the forum pertains to burgers, I sure would like to know about the burgers. If a review is all travelogue, then I get little value out of it. As a regular reader of this site, I like to contribute my 2 cents from time-to-time so that I can help shape the forum and remain a loyal user. Eyeballs = Pageviews = Money..I am simply helping AHT help me.

Thanks to AHT for all of the hard work.

To cut the acerbic tone, please think of kittens as you re-read this--I find that it helps.

I think they served you the cork and not the burger---that looked miserable.

@BurgerBoyLA , you are a generous soul. I don't know that I could go back 4 times to get a single good burger. I found that The Counter just fell off of a cliff in terms of quality and prep.

With regard to the burger at 26 Beach--a little gristle is forgivable so long as the quality and flavors are there. In this case, they were not. So it goes.

Tastes vary, and I can only speak (loudly) for my own.

It sounds like they improved since the last time that I tried them. A year ago, it was just a bland, griddled burger. I wanted to ask James Beard for my money back.

People of Denver...BEWARE! This was my experience.

Secure in the knowledge that this burger was going to be the culinary equivalent of the second coming, I brought along three friends to sample what was hyped as the finest, freaking burger in Denver.

The Wind Up...............The service was spotty. The AC was doing a poor job. The booth seats were still wet from a wipe down. There were pieces of food on my fork. The waitress actually told us that she forgot about us midway through the meal. All these things were service related and, therefor, of no consequence since an amazing burger was sure as hell going to overshadow all of these trifles.

The Pitch..................The burger arrived with a marvelous, griddled sear, but it came out Medium--I ordered Med-Rare...Strike One.

The meat was juicy, and it was properly aged to deliver a nice front note of the good stuff.

The massive bun was toasted--but in a mild, lackluster way that provided no shift in texture or flavor, but they sort of tried. Did I mention that the bun was massive? The bun was massive, so the meat to bun ratio was all wrong. Strike Two.

The meat was freshly ground and formed ever so gently so that all of those sticky proteins in the medium grind minded their own damn business and did not form a rubbery mess....good for HBurger.

The meat was bland, bland, bland. Say it with me...."Salt and freaking pepper." As a result, the burger had no middle or end note. It was a one-note wonder. No umami present. Strike Three

Looking back--I suppose HBurger's menu and/or website never touted any modicum of competence in terms of preparation. They merely stated that they had good ingredients, and that those ingredients would find their way into your food hole. This burger would have been good if a little care had been taken, and the chef and management took the time to run both the front and the back of the house. That said--eff 'em for turning out a mediocre product.

Burger Review -- The H in Hburger stands for HALF-ASSED and/or HYPE. You can safely pass on Hburger.

Uncensored review at http://www.theburgerreview.com/2010/06/hburger-co-denver-co.html

Pump the brakes--I went back there yesterday, and the wheels have fallen off in terms of quality.

I ordered my burger 1/3 lb, Med Rare, plain "hamburger" bun, and a slice of American cheese. I used the handy, "foolproof," ordering system, where one is required to specify the burger parameters, in writing, and hand it into a server for prep and delivery. This menu promised the beef to be antibiotic and hormone free--the special surprise was that it would also be flavor-free and texture-free, but I have gotten ahead of myself.

Mine showed up with Swiss--I sent it back. It came back moments later, and by "it" I mean the same, freaking patty. First, I noticed that the plate was a mess--there were bits of food and liquid on the plate, which seemed to have nothing to do with my cheeseburger. This time the cheese was barely melted, and I noticed a bit of melted Swiss on the bottom bun....hmmm. I peeled back the unmelted, American cheese slice to reveal that someone had used their fingertips to scrape off the Swiss cheese from the original burger. GROSS. I sent this one back, too. It was a douchetastic, shockingly lazy, and sloppy move by an incompetent kitchen staff that had no concept of quality.

* The satisfying and tasty char of a year ago--non-existent. The cool griddle barely got any color onto the beef.
* Sear--there was no sear.
* The beef--an oil slick of Deepwater Horizon Blowout proportions-- 75:25 chuck(?) with the texture of baby food--it was a pink, oily, meat paste due to the fine grind and greasy, greasy beef. It was completely bland in terms of both texture and flavor
* The Seasoning--there was only a tiny hint on the outside--this coupled with the fact that they didn't add seasoning to the ground Angus that made up this burger meant that there was not a hint of savory and/or umami flavor to be found.
* The American cheese--it was lost in the blandness of the beef.
* The Bun--The Counter recently changed suppliers, and the "hamburger" bun now resembled flimsy challah. It was overly sweet with a cake-like texture, which turned into a sloppy, wet mess when it soaked up the grease and juice from the burger. Imagine a school lunch roll dipped in warm water--it was a useless way to hold an already greasy burger. The fine, wet texture served to showcase the already pasty mouth feel of the meat. The overbearing sweetness of the bun further pointed out lack of seasoning in and on the patty.

On the plus side, they acknowledged the preparation blunder and comped my burger. On the minus side--I could only eat half of it, because it was mealy, wet, bland, and greasy--unpleasant. At a price of $0, this was still a bad value.

It was clear that The Counter has failed to manage its standards while increasing the number of its locations via a franchising strategy. The Counter being a franchising operation is really a real estate company that happens to help its clients pay their rent and dues by purveying crappy food to the public. It has become an overpriced McDonalds without the toys or the quality control.

I have to side with Ezra. It would be nice to see burger reviews that focused in on the burger. Of the 583 words in the article, only 151 of them (two paragraphs) told the reader the specifics of the burger itself and where it went right and wrong.

I was happy to learn that the station was home to a scene of one of the best films of all time, but a lot more burger review in the burger reviews would be most appreciated.