The Burger Challenge

In the Five Cities on the Coast of South San Luis Obispo County there are many discussions regarding the best burger joint. Everyone has an opinion on what a good or even great burger should be. Often, unfortunately, burgers aren’t compared equally.  Gourmet or Foodie burgers are often elevated in a special way above the traditional drive-in, diner style burger.  For this reason I focused on the latter.

Being the burger lover that I am, I made it a personal quest to sample some of the more popular burger joints in Grover Beach, Arroyo Grande and Oceano. Sorry Pismo I'll catch you on the next review.  I did a small sampling so over time I will update my review to include additional eateries.

For comparison purposes specialty burgers were not considered.  If you can’t make a good classic burger, hiding it under a bunch of creative toppings and sauces is merely deceitful.  A bun, burger patty, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, sauce, mustard, mayo, and ketchup are all a burger needs, and a really good burger may not need that much.  The condiments are optional but there should be something wet on there and I left it up to the eatery to determine what they added.  All the eateries tested used a bun, burger patty, lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions.

Garland's Hamburger's in Grover Beach for me was disappointing. It's hard to criticize an eatery that is a local favorite and has wonderful reviews. When compared head to head with the others they are lacking.  My biggest disappointment is the small patty size which seemed to be over compensated with extra lettuce.  If not for their popularity I would not have included them as a contender in this review.

Sylvesters in Oceano is the talk of the town so I had to include them.  I liked the fact they used very thinly sliced red onion, green leaf lettuce and a unique flavorful sauce.  Beyond that it was a burger on a sesame seed bun.  The bun, meat and veg ratio was perfect.  The bottom bun did get soggy from the sauce though, so maybe a slightly thicker bun would be better.  The bite was easy, not too thick, and flavor packed.  I wish the meat had a bit more flavor.

Old Village Grill in Arroyo Grande Village serves a burger that just begs to be eaten.  It’s appearance in the fresh Brioche Bun is rather inviting.  It turned out the bun was the best part of this burger.  Overwhelmed with lettuce, onion and a thousand island dressing that did little to compliment the burger I felt the overall experience, not including the bun was average.

Orcutt Burger in Grover Beach has the best bite in my opinion.  The balance of meat to veg to condiment is perfect.  The burger isn’t overloaded, and most important of all, the meat has flavor the other eateries lacked.  The char smoke flavor the from the grill with the right amount of seasoning tips the scales to make this eatery my local favorite.

Stayed tuned for a review of Pismo Beach only burger places.