I’m still looking for the best burger in San Francisco. The burger from Comstock Saloon is still out in the lead, and we’ll see if any other burgers can topple that beast. This time, I tried the burgers from Nopa, American Eclectic Burger and Brickhouse to see if any of those burgers could be the one!
1. Nopa
Finally. Nopa. I’ve heard about this burger. A lot. I really wanted to try it out, but I also knew how much of a nightmare it was to come here as if you want to book, you usually need to book quite far in advance. I decided to venture here one Monday night and arrive just before opening at 5:00 to see if I could get a table at the bar. There were already a couple of people in line, but I hopped in and grabbed a seat at the bar. It also turns out that they don’t serve food until 5:30, so I had a good thirty minutes to chill at the bar and drink. I decided on the burger (it’s a whopping $19!) with blue cheese (which ended up being an extra two dollars). But how was it? Honestly, it was a pretty good burger. The patty is very thick and very rare (just the way I like it). The bun was grilled nicely and the pickled onions helped cut through the fattiness of the beef. I think perhaps the blue cheese was a mistake as there was quite a lot, and it was a bit overpowering for the flavor of the meat. The fries were good, but not amazing, and overall I was quite satisfied with the burger.
2. American Eclectic Burger
Have you heard of American Eclectic Burger? I hadn’t, but I was browsing through DoorDash one day thinking about dinner, and I ran across it. Their burgers were on the inexpensive side, so I thought “Why not?” and made an order. I believe they are online only, so don’t expect to go into a brick and mortar shop. I went for the bacon cheeseburger ($10) and opted for onion rings ($3) instead of fries this time around. It did look pretty good when it arrived with a lot of fresh toppings, although the rings didn’t excite me that much. And the burger was pretty good too, with a nice beefy taste with some extra saltiness from the bacon. The fresh toppings were a great bonus and the bun held it all together well. The rings were fine and nothing special though.
3. Brickhouse
Finally, I tried out Brickhouse. I did go here once before with a visiting friend and remember the burger was fairly decent, but I never put it on the blog, so for research purposes I had to come back to try again. I saw online that the guilty pleasure burger with a soft fried egg, American cheese, beer candied baconnaise, and fried onion ($22) had the option for gravy on the side, so I kind of already knew what I wanted. However, the gravy isn’t an option on the menu anymore, so I had to go without, which was slightly disappointing. When it came out it was really delicious looking with grill marks on the bun that really made me want to dig in. The burger was delicious though, although after a while I really wanted something to cut through the fattiness of everything on the burger, so perhaps another option there would be better. I did like all the toppings though, so I was pretty happy overall. The fries were again nothing amazing, but the burger definitely more than made up for it.
Winner: Comstock Saloon
Even though this week I had three fantastic burgers, none of them really could match the amazing one from Comstock Saloon. Nopa was fantastic, but definitely not the best I’ve had in San Francisco. Eclectic Burger was definitely on par with Super Duper Burgers, but isn’t going on the list as it is slightly less convenient being an online only restaurant. And Brickhouse definitely makes for a pretty solid burger experience that I would want to revisit, but perhaps try for one of their different sides.
Ranking:
1. Comstock Saloon
2. Black Sands Brewery
3. Wayfare Tavern
4. Son’s Addition
5. Gaspar
6. Nopa
7. Wes Burger ‘n’ More
8. Epic Steak
9. Tank18 Winery
10. City Beer
11. The Saratoga
12. ABV
13. Brickhouse
14. 4505 Burgers and BBQ
15. Biergarten
16. Papa Mak’s
17. Magnolia Brewing
18. Umami Burger
19. Super Duper Burgers
