Thanks guys. I’ve driven past The Cut a few times, and will definitely make a point of checking it out. My default high-quality hipster burger place has been Burger Lounge, but can always use another one. Will take a look at those ramen places too. Haven’t been impressed by the ones I’ve tried (though did like the new Marugame Udon place that opened up in South Coast Plaza). And yeah, we’ve been to North Italia and liked it, though it’s a bit fancier than we usually aim for.
@Matt_W, we do make it down to San Diego a couple times a year.
Went to Wayback Burger for the first and only time. I recall it being mentioned once up thread. Had a B1G1 coupon which probably should have been an early warning sign. So I ended up with 2 bacon double’s that I shared with a friend. Neither of us liked how wet the burger was, like the meat was just soaked in boiling water. Also the fries were overdone and the potatoes they used must have had lots of rot marks/bruises.
This sounds suspiciously like a generic dive my buddy worked at in high school. They would pre-cook dozens of burgers and let them sit in 1/4 pans on a steam station.
This may no longer be accurate, but during my tour of duty at Wendy’s over a summer in the 90s, the only burgers that went into a steam pan were ones that were to become chili meat.
Wendy’s sort of cooks burgers to order - the griddle has quadrants of burgers that get moved as they get closer to being cooked. There’s a quadrant of burgers that are cooked, and those are used to make your burger. So your burger should technically be fresh off the grill.
But if the restaurant is slow or the grill person loaded too many burgers, eventually those burgers in the finished quadrant get overdone just sitting there. They put those in a steam tray and don’t sell them as a burger. And thus new Wendy’s chili meat is born.
Ok, yeah, they’re all different because it’s franchised and the ones near me have all been pretty great. I haven’t been to that one though. I don’t get up that way as often. Buncha bad reviews of that location on Google too.
I’ve had good luck at the Smashburger down on 222 near the turnpike extension.
