The Great Burger Hunt — Part 4

It’s time to see if there is a burger out there to beat the top burger from round three of my great burger hunt. The current best is the burger from Black Sands Brewery. Can it be beaten? This time, I tried the burger from Wayfare Tavern, ABV and The Burger Bar. I’ve also decided to rank the burgers from best to worst at the bottom of the post, with new entries added in bold. (I’ve also edited the previous posts with the rankings.)

1. Wayfare Tavern

When having a discussion about fried chicken with some friends, Wayfare Tavern was brought up as the place to go in San Francisco. Someone also casually mentioned to me that they had a pretty good burger, so I headed here for lunch one day to give it a try. The burger has a pretty hefty price tag attached to it (at a whopping $22), and was probably the most expensive burger I’ve had so far (although that was soon to change). I also had to add a fried egg (at an additional $2). The burger itself comes with melted brie (which had me sold when I read about it), red onion marmalade and smoked bacon. When it came out, it did look amazing with some herbed garlic fries on the side. The burger itself was quite thick and cooked really well. The brie and onions were pretty fantastic toppings, and the burger was quite messy given the size of the patty compared to the bun. The bacon was nice and thick. The fries were well cooked, but not the best I’ve ever had. All in all, I’d have to say it was a pretty good burger.

Patty: ★★★★★
Bun: ★★★★☆
Sides: ★★★☆☆
Value: ★★☆☆☆

Wayfare Burger with egg

2. ABV

I’ve known about ABV for awhile, mostly due to their amazing upstairs bar, Overproof (that I’ve now been to three times, and if you want to hear more about my experience there, you can read about it here). I’ve only had cocktails in the main bar, but I headed over here one afternoon to give their New Fucking Burger with Spicy Ass Chips a try. When the burger came out, it did look really good, with a nice medium pink color in the middle. It also tasted really good! It had a really meaty, well-seasoned patty with some home made sweet pickles to give it some acid. It’s probably one of the better burgers I’ve eaten in San Francisco. Sadly, the chips were a bit of a disappointment. When I see “spicy ass chips” on a menu, they better be hot, but sadly they weren’t that hot, and not nearly as good as the chips from Dad’s Luncheonette. It was a fairly decent price though at $15, but for that price, I do expect better (and bigger) sides. It’s definitely worth it if you’re already here drinking and want to grab a delicious bite to eat though.

Patty: ★★★★★
Bun: ★★★★☆
Sides: ★★☆☆☆
Value: ★★★☆☆

New Fucking Burger with Spicy Ass Chips

3. The Burger Bar

I remember on one of my trips back to the bay area, I felt the need to hit up The Burger Bar to try their burger with foie gras and truffles before the first foie gras ban in California. And I remember it being really good, so I thought I should come back and try a different burger to see if it was as good as I remembered, and to see if it was only good because foie gras and truffles make lots of things better. So I came in for lunch and tried the Le Frog Burger which had melted brie, asparagus, mushrooms and a truffle mayo served on an onion bun. It’s served with your choice of thin, fat or sweet potato fries, and I went with fat fries. The burger looked pretty good when it came out, and the toppings were nice, but the patty itself didn’t really wow me, and in fact, kind of reminded me of a slightly nicer version of a burger you would get at a Denny’s. The bun was a bit dry and felt slightly stale. The fries were nice, but slightly underdone in the middle. Considering the burger was $23, I really was expecting it to be a lot better than it was. I did leave extremely full, so it’s a good sized meal for the price, but I definitely know that there are way better burgers out there to be had.

Patty: ★★★☆☆
Bun: ★★★☆☆
Sides: ★★★☆☆
Value: ★☆☆☆☆

Le Frog Burger with fat fries

Winner: Black Sands Brewery

It was a tough call between Black Sands Brewery and Wayfare Tavern. I think the cost of the burger being close to half the price at Black Sands really sealed the deal for me though. While I would definitely enjoy another burger at Wayfare Tavern, I think I’d rather return to the brewery more often for the price. It was a tough decision though. ABV also did really well, but the price of that one makes it not quite as good as the others either. Sadly, The Burger Bar, is much lower in the ranking as it just lacked a lot of the qualities of some of the top burgers, and the price is outrageous.

So, will there be a burger to topple Black Sands Brewery? Only time will tell!

Ranking:
1. Black Sands Brewery
2. Wayfare Tavern
3. Wes Burger ‘n’ More
4. ABV
5. 4505 Burgers and BBQ
6. Super Duper Burgers
7. Causwells
8. Garaje
9. The Burger Bar
10. In ‘n Out
11. Gott’s Roadside
12. Popsons Burgers