It’s time for more burgers as last time the burger from Comstock Saloon really leaped to the top of the burger ranking! I finally got around to trying a few more burgers in the city to compare them to that epic burger. This time, I went to Calibur, Roam Artisan Burgers and The Saratoga to give their burgers a try.
1. Calibur
I decided to venture slightly further out on my burger quest, so I went to West Portal to try out Calibur. Unsurprisingly, there was a bit of a Muni hiccup (long, long delays), so it took me much longer to arrive that I expected. It did make me hope I was going to have a fantastic burger, but I tried not to raise my expectations. I ordered the double burger with blue cheese and Calibur sauce with a side of fries. The burger did look pretty good when it came out, with the blue cheese dripping off the patties. The fries were fantastic, and they served it with a side of their homemade ketchup that I immediately fell in love with. The burger was sadly not up to the same level. While the toppings were fresh and the bun was good and held together the sauce and the juices, the burgers themselves are cooked to medium well. That level of doneness caused the patties to be quite dry and gave an unpleasant, chewy texture to the meat. They have a soda fountain full of locally made products which is definitely an added bonus.
2. Roam Artisan Burgers
This has been on my list as I always see it when I’m wandering around the Fillmore street area, and I finally managed to make it in. They tout having fresh and organic meat, and things like that are always a draw to me. There was a huge selection of burgers on the board, but the French and Fries sounded the most interesting as there are truffled french fries on the burger as well as some stone ground mustard, Gruyere cheese, avocado and caramelized onions. I went for the standard grass-fed beef burger, but they also offer elk and bison patties at an additional cost. Because there were fries on the burger, I opted to get the zucchini and onion haystack as a side. The burger did look appetizing when it came out as it had those glorious looking fries and cheese melted on it. However, the burger itself was a bit grainy and chewy, even though it was cooked medium. The fries didn’t have much of a truffle flavor (or any), and the mustard did overwhelm it somewhat. The haystack was pretty amazing though with shaved zucchini and onions fried up nice and crisp. I would go back for those anytime. And maybe to try a different burger, but perhaps the elk might be a better choice as the beef wasn’t amazing.
3. The Saratoga
Last on the list this time is The Saratoga Burger. I heard a lot of good things, so I headed over here one happy hour to give the burger a try. They do have some pretty spectacular happy hour specials (cocktails and small bites for $5), but the burger itself wasn’t included. It’s two beef patties with tallegio cheese, dressed lettuce and pickles served on an onion bun, so while it’s not overly creative, it’s different than the usual Thousand Island special sauce burgers that you find in most places. I also opted to get both a $5 cocktail and the $5 tater tots that were on the happy hour menu in order to balance out the $16 price tag on the burger. The burger itself was actually really good. It had a nice meaty flavor, and the two patties added some bulk to the burger. The cheese added a nice bit of saltiness, and there was plenty of lettuce and pickles on top. The onion bun was full of flavor and really held the burger together well. The tater tots were great, and they bacon-bits-like crumbled chorizo on top was really a revelation.
Winner: Comstock Saloon
Comstock Saloon’s burger still reigns supreme. The Saratoga Burger definitely comes in on the rankings though as it had a great meaty taste and was a really tasty burger. While Calibur has some great homemade ketchup, the burger itself was lacking quite a bit in flavor and texture, and Roam Artisan Burgers really didn’t impress me at all. Check out the next round to see if I can find a burger that can beat the amazing Comstock Saloon!
Ranking:
1. Comstock Saloon
2. Southern Pacific Brewing
3. Black Sands Brewery
4. Wayfare Tavern
5. Son’s Addition
6. Gaspar
7. Wes Burger ‘n’ More
8. Epic Steak
9. Umami Burger
10. The Saratoga
11. ABV
12. 4505 Burgers and BBQ
13. Super Duper Burgers
Do you request a particular level of doneness when you order, or do you just go with whatever their default is? How was The Saratoga’s cooked? As a double patty I imagine medium at best. I’m so tired of this double patty trend…
If they ask, I will request medium rare. If they don’t ask, I just go with however it comes. I know a lot of places won’t go below medium or medium well because of health concerns, but I do think it really depends on where they get their meat.
I agree though, two double patties is less good than one big, thick patty. I guess it’s probably something they do in order to speed up cooking time.
Huh. I always ask if they can cook it med-rare. Sometimes they say no, usually at the thin patty/double patty spots, which I try to find out and avoid ahead of time. But if you have a preference (and I do, obviously :-D), then I’d say it can’t hurt to ask.
As to why they do thin patty/double patty, maaaaybe it’s to speed up cooking. My sense is it’s more about the growing popularity of In n Out, as it expands outside of California, and young people and chefs for some reason decide it’s the way they want a burger, whether it’s $5 at In n Out, or $16 at The Saratoga. For my part I don’t get why you would want or expect the same things from those experiences, at radically different price points, but that seems to be true for a lot of people. I think it’s also part of the hipster obsession with low-brow as high-brow, and the re-popularization of older, simpler food.
I’ll also say that I find industry workers – both restaurant and bar – are often (sadly) *not* the people I want recommendations from because they work with food and drink all day and apparently after work what they seem to often want is as simple and homogeneous and boring as possible. For chefs, a late night In n Out or even McDonalds run seems to be a real thing. And it seems like the burger on a menu is often where the chef likes to put their personal preferences out there a bit, at least from some of what I’ve heard, so that’s why this matters (maybe). This can be both good and bad, depending on said chef’s preferences, but again with the growing trend of fast food-style burgers, it lately often means a thin patty mediocrity saved only, if at all, but sauce/cheese/etc. That’s not what I burger for!
I suppose I could ask, the worst they could say is no!
Yeah, it could be In n Out. I do see a lot of burgers that really like to do something that’s almost identical. But I also don’t understand why they would do that, unless they can make it a whole lot better (like Black Sands Brewery). The Saratoga at least uses different cheese and sauce, so while it has the two burger patties, it’s not just a fancy In n Out clone. I don’t really have a problem with the re-popularization of older food or with a chef taking what they like and putting their own spin on it, but I do want it to be done much better than I would expect, and sadly, that’s not a very common occurrence.
Agreed, in fact some of my favorite foods are modern takes on classics. But I would say either A: not all classics are worth reincarnating, or B: it’s going to take some really new ideas and/or special skill to make a worthwhile reimagining. Not every chef is going to be capable of it. But that’s not how trends work, people glom onto trends, probably because popularity is a modern proxy for older evolutionarily ingrained social instincts. So sometimes (arguably often) good taste has to take a backseat to novelty and groupthink. Welcome to the thin patty era. I’d welcome the 2000s bistro burger trend back in a heartbeat…
Yes, sadly food trends do take over what we eat! I find it incredibly frustrating because it leads to food that is popular instead of food that is actually delicious and makes you want more. I’m finding that a lot of the places that get buzz in San Francisco do actually follow the trend instead of doing anything interesting, so when you try them out, there’s a huge level of disappointment there. (Obviously there are obviously exceptions to that rule, please point some out to me!)
But perhaps we are in the minority. Maybe most of the world wants stuff to be popular and accessible instead of delicious and interesting.
Oh, and I forget how it was cooked. I think they asked me, so I got it medium rare. I don’t recall the burger being very grainy, so I think it was cooked decently.
On a side note, they do offer a $5 slider version of the burger for happy hour. It is smaller, with a single patty, and served with cheddar instead of tallegio. So it might be a pretty good choice if you make it there for happy hour as it’s much cheaper and might give you an idea of how they do their burgers, plus give you the option to try a few other things.
I did like The Saratoga overall as a venue, so it’s definitely on my list of places to return to to try the rest of the food and drink.
Alright Grant, there are a couple of burgers I think you need to try for a future edition of the Burger Hunt. #1, Monsieur Benjamin, in Hayes Valley. Yes, it’s pretty expensive ($22), but it is fantastic. And everything else is impeccably executed as well, IMO. #2, Belcampo, ideally the big, new one in Jack London Square, Oakland. Not the 100 day aged burger (not worth the price IMO), but the normal Belcampo burger, cooked medium-rare of course. Come during happy hour (4-6 I think?) and it’s 1/2 off, so $9 for an excellent burger, and the tallow fries are a great upgrade on happy hour prices if you ask me (maybe not so much with the regular-priced $18 burger, but the normal fries are great too).
Oooh thanks! I’m always looking at more suggestions. I’ve looked at Monsieur Benjamin in the past, and I’ve been trying to get over there, but maybe I’ll make it over there sooner now!
I’ll keep Belcampo in mind too! The one in SF would probably be easier just as I don’t have to get over to Oakland, but perhaps someday after the smoke clears and I want to take a ferry ride!