Solid for Fast Food

Ranking Five Guys:

Aesthetics of the building: 2/5 … classy place
Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff: 5/5
Fries: 6/10 (too salty)
Quality of Burger Patty itslef: 34/40
Quality of Burger Build: 25/30
Value: 4/5

Total: 79/100

Joe’s American… More to the Challenge?

Our latest stop on the Burger Challenge led us to Joe’s American Bar and Grill on Newbury Street. Twas’ a glorious night as eight of us marched through the heart of Boston to devour the burgers we’d been craving all day. We were immediately crammed into a table meant for six but that hardly mattered. We embraced the closeness, not concerned about anything besides the fellowship and the burgers about to be served.

In short, I think the following three photos best sum up our evening…

Wes slowly but surely consumed his burger.

Ben affectionately kissed one of his french fries.

Sean shoveled a piece of chocolate cake after convincing our waiter to give us a free piece for Ben’s birthday.

Although we can agree that we didn’t find the best burger on Thursday night, all of us enjoyed our time together at Joe’s. After all, and if you didn’t know by now, the Burger Challenge is more than simply trying to find the best burger in The Hub. It’s still a goal of course, but I think it’s safe to say a lot more has come out of this epic adventure of ours…

Here’s the review of Joe’s.

Aesthetics of the building: 5/5 … classy place
Atmosphere: 5/5
Staff: 5/5
Fries: 8/10
Quality of Burger Patty itslef: 31/40
Quality of Burger Build: 23/30
Value: 4/5

Total: 81/100

Two for one… A review on Eagle’s Deli and Bartley’s Burgers

Wow, it’s been a while since our last post, and we’ve been to two new fantastic burger joints! A couple weeks ago we ventured into the heart of enemy territory to Eagle’s Deli in Cleveland Circle and then just last week, across the river to Bartley’s Burgers in Cambridge.  One thing is for sure… neither disappointed our crew.

Let’s start with Eagle’s Deli, a place so well known for its burgers that even Mr. Adam Richman from Man Vs. Food had to check it out!

And although Man vs. Food is certainly a show that us men enjoy and trust with all of our hearts, we had to check Eagle’s Deli even if it meant surrounding ourselves with BC folk.

The Ben Castro

Here is my ranking.

Aesthetics of the building: 4/5
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff: 5/5
Fries: 6/10
Quality of Burger Patty itslef: 30/40 (a little too smokey)
Quality of Burger Build: 28/30
Value: 5/5 (Huge portions for a good price)

Louis, where is your hand?

Total: 82/100 …. and just like that, Eagle’s Deli moves to #1 on my list!  But what about Bartley’s in Cambridge?

I’m not sure anything is going to beat Mr. Bartley’s gourmet burgers in Cambridge.  First, the ridiculousness of the menu is fantastic!  I decided to go with the Joe Biden burger, although I gave serious consideration to the monstrosity that is The Big Papi burger. Denis went for the Viagra, and if Sean Gunning had only been there to order The Tom Brady… there’s no telling what kind of madness could have occurred that night…

That being said, the burger was fantastic, the staff was friendly, the frappes were delicious and even Father Barnes only had good things to say about his burger.

Let’s rank this place.

Aesthetics of the building: 5/5
Atmosphere: 5/5
Staff: 5/5
Fries: 8/10
Quality of Burger Patty itslef: 39/40 (just…. wow)
Quality of Burger Build: 27/30
Value: 4/5 (Pricey but well worth it)

Total: 93/100

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Bartley’s might just be the burger joint we’ve been searching for.

Mixed Feelings about Shake Shack

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the Shake Shack experience last Thursday night. The burger was fantastic, the fries and milkshake were delicious, and the the fellowship even better!

Despite my overall satisfaction with our trip to Shack Shake, one simply cannot completely look passed two of our ranking categories, those being value and quality of the burger build.  Together these categories make up 35 of the 100 possible points in a ranking. This is where Shake Shack will hurt itself because we all agreed that the food was very overpriced for the portion sizes we received. The burger patty itself was also very small, though very tasty.

The Ranking

Aesthetics of the building: 4/5
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff: 5/5
Fries: 6/10
Quality of Burger Patty itself: 36/40
Quality of Burger Build: 15/30
Value: 1/5

The Burger Total: 51/70

Total: 71/100

Where was the taste?… My Beer Works Ranking

In my expert opinion, I believe the Boston Beer Works ranking given by our dear friend Denis, was drastically overrated. So since I missed the challenge last Thursday night, I decided to venture over to Fenway myself. To put it nicely, I left disappointed.

I do agree that the size of the burger was somewhat extraordinary, however, it was the quality of the burger that I found to be lacking. It just didn’t have enough flavor. That being said, the spicy fries that I finished before even eating half of my burger, were delicious and seasoned to perfection. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed going to Beer Works. The service was great, the atmosphere solid, but when our friend Chris Lynch asked me if I would ever go back there and order a burger… my answer was…. no.

The rating:

Aesthetics of the building: 4/5
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff: 5/5
Fries: 10/10
Quality of Burger Patty itself: 20/40
Quality of Burger Build: 25/30
Value: 4/5

The Burger Total: 45/70

Total: 72/100

Just the beginning….

Men of the Burger Challenge, it is even more clear to me now that our quest has only just begun… I found the following article on the front page of Boston.com.  Yet another sign that our journey will be one for the ages.  God Bless.

Boston’s 25 Best Burgers

http://boston.com/ae/restaurants/2012/07/20/boston-best-burgers/1iHkgP3ONuwRnQf4K8Z4gI/story.html

Stop 2 – UBurger

I’m sorry Sean can’t take a good photo

With a night before the Catholic Center’s fall undergraduate retreat, we decided to stay close and head to UBurger, one of the “go to” burger places on BU’s campus. A quick five minute walk stood between 10 of us men and the second stop on our burger challenge.

It’s pushing midnight as I write this, so I will get right to some of the positive and negatives about our trip to UBurger.

Positives: the frappes, fries, quick service, ESPN always on the television, free refills on soda, great fellowship with the guys, burger toppings

Negatives: the burger itself was mediocre at best… already UBurger’s overall ranking is in trouble

Despite the mediocrity of the burger, we had a great time together and debate raged as we discussed how we should be ranking the burgers. Father Barnes was particularly disappointed with his burger, saying he’d give it a score of 20/100. I didn’t think the burger was that bad, but hey, we each have our opinion. It takes more than one man to find the best burger Boston has to offer.

That being said, we decided to stick with our original ranking system. Here are my official UBurger rankings…

Aesthetics of the building: 3/5
Atmosphere: 2/5
Staff: 5/5
Fries: 8/10
Quality of Burger Patty itself: 20/40
Quality of Burger Build: 20/30
Value: 2/5

The Burger Total: 40/70

Total: 60/100

Ranking Tasty Burger

I know I’ve slacked on my ranking of Tasty Burger, so here it is!

Aesthetics of the building: 3/5
Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff: 2/5
Fries: 4/10
Quality of Burger Patty iteslef: 35/40
Quality of Burger Build: 25/30
Value: 3/5

The Burger Total: 60/70

Total: 75/100

And so it begins…

First stop Tasty Burger!

Ben prepares for his first burger of the quest

We wanted to start of our journey off with a bang so we had to go to the Tasty Burger on Boylston. With the excitement from a week of anticipation still mounting, we waited for our table patiently as fans trickled out for the start of the Red Sox game. We were seated in the back of the restaurant and then waited about five minutes too long for our server. However, he did come eventually and immediately took our order. We were disappointed to find out that they were all out of milkshakes and iced tea, but that did not dampen our spirits.

The burgers finally came, and to put it simply, they did not disappoint. Made with  delicious patties and fresh ingredients, this is what we expected from Tasty Burger. The fries were subpar and overpriced, but the burgers were top notch.

Side note: The bathrooms looked like they came from a scene straight out of the movie Silent Hill…

That being said, here are some of my positive and negative takeaways from Tasty Burger:

Positives: the burgers, the toppings, solid variety of burgers, nice atmosphere (would have been better if we weren’t tucked back in the corner), friendly staff, plenty of condiments on the table, chalkboard for us to write on, the burgers had a good value

Negatives: bathrooms, service on the slower side (to be fair, it was busy), no milkshakes (were on the menu), no iced tea, cheap ketchup (not Heinz), fries mediocre and overpriced, no free refills

Official rankings to come!

Btw this is how Tasty Burger got its name…

A Tasty Start!