Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I live in Burlington and while Fred's has tasty burgers they are NOT the "World's Best Burgers." Have you ever watched them prepare burgers? They perform one of the biggest cardinal sins when cooking a burger. They CONSTANTLY press on your burger which will leave your burger dry and drain it of all juices!!! I've been there a couple of times (I've grown up here all my life) and both times (2 different cooks) BOTH were constantly pressing down on the burgers. I went back a second time because I thought maybe it was a fluke and it was a teenager cooking. But by the second time I knew this was common practice. If this place knew anything about making burgers they would know you cannot rush a burger by pressing down on it. Next time your in there just watch them they'll press down on it with the spatula constantly. They should all know this is a big no no. In my opinion how can you claim you make the "world's best burger" when you don't even know the simple rules of making a burger? Another unattractive thing is A LOT of people bring in small children that run around and yell (this place isn't very big for this) which can also make for and unappetizing atmosphere (parents now days don't control their children when in restaurants). I was in there on New Years Day and someone had the audacity to bring a screaming child in there and I'm not exaggerating when I mean screaming and we were the lucky ones they sat right behind. The whole restaurant turned around and looked at these people. We were half way through our meal and the father put his hand over the kids mouth (which I almost thought was on the verge of child abuse) and held it there for awhile and proceeded to tell the kid to shut up. Needless to say the child didn't shut up and they proceeded to order anyways. We finished up early and left because the screaming was so unbearable. If you want to go eat a burger in peace in quiet you need to go here during a school day or late in the evening. Either way you might want to request they don't squeeze the crap out of your burger. The homemade chips and potato strings are to die for and if you want to try something really different try deep fried green beans. Yum