A few weeks ago I was driving home from an early morning workout in Runyon Canyon and I caught a red light at the corner of Hollywood and Ivar. I spied a new facade, for a place called Juicy Burger. A new burger place in Hollywood? A new burger place located a stones throw from one of the town’s better burger places, Lucky Devils? I was most definitely intrigued. Yesterday around mid-day I saw the OPEN sign was turned on, so I made Nicci promise me we could eat there tonight. In anticipation of the event I made damned sure not to read any reviews that could color my opinion of Juicy Burger. As it turned out, I could have read all the reviews I wanted, none of them would have changed my mind in regards to how Juicy Burger stacks up against its LA competition.
The menu at Juicy Burger is broken down into halves. You have a “build your own burger” option with various additions from sauce to toppings and extras, and then you have a standard burger menu with four or five choices plus some non-burger options. I elected to make my own burger because the standard juicy burger option sounded a bit too…standard I guess. I opted for a 1/3 pound patty with lettuce, tomato, thousand island dressing plus a slice of cheddar cheese and a few strips of bacon on ciabatta bread. Nicci went the build-your-own route as well, requesting a 1/3 patty topped with lettuce, tomato, blue cheese and a fried egg on a fresh bun. Mustard on the side. Both burgers were ordered medium rare. We shared an order of large fries with three dipping sauces: tabasco ketchup, chipotle mayo, and teriyaki sauce, which the cashier recommended as one of his favorite dipping sauces.
The wait time was not bad at all, but right after we entered the joint they got slammed. Unfortunately, the cashiers seemed really easily frazzled by the three or four orders that came in one after the next. The girl who ordered before us got her food after us, and they screwed up her order. We got our order as we placed it, but they forgot one of the dipping sauces. No worries, they were quick to retrieve it for us.
So, how was the burger? It was the epitome of average. The patties were dwarfed by the size of the buns, and they were most definitely not cooked to a nice medium-rare. To call them medium-well might even be too kind. There was no juice to the patty. Furthermore, the lettuce was low-quality iceberg which fell off the bun each time I went to take a bite. The cheese was decent, the bacon was crispy but not smokey enough, and the ciabatta bread was too firm and too large for the patty. Nicci’s burger was a bit better. The blue wasn’t overpowering and the fresh bun was much better than mine. It was flaky and soft, like a cross between a challah bread and a croissant. The fresh bun was by far the best thing about the Juicy burger. Her patty was overcooked as well.
The hand-cut fries were a bit better. They were lightly seasoned with kosher salt, but were undercooked. There was no crunch to them. The tabasco ketchup was great (and I have long championed this condiment combination, dating back to my youth, when I was known to hit up all the grocery stores in New Jersey and Pennsylvania on my quest to buy Heinz Kickerz Ketchup before it was discontinued). The chipotle mayo was good but not spicy enough, and the teriyaki sauce was…interesting. I never thought about teriyaki as a dipping sauce for french fries before, but it wasn’t as foul as I imagined it to be.
I know there is a burger renaissance occurring in America at the moment, and that Los Angeles in particular has seen a slew of new restaurants open recently that either feature or offer gourmet burgers. Just because a new place opened up this week that offers a fad dish doesn’t mean it should receive a free pass. At this point, there’s no way I would include Juicy Burger on my list of the best burgers in Los Angeles. It’s not even really close to inclusion. Lucky Devils is about two blocks away and they craft a much better option than this one. Even Umami, which I’m not madly in love with, is a couple blocks away and would make for a superior alternative to Juicy. Maybe I experienced firsthand some of the restaurant’s opening week jitters. Maybe the 1/2 pound patty is juicier and more flavorful than the lighter option. Maybe the woman sitting to my left had a burger that was cooked exactly how she asked for it, and it really was as amazing as she said it was. Maybe I should just eat the standard burger instead of building my own, and wait to pass judgment on the place. There are a host of reasons why I should give Juicy Burger another shot, and maybe I will. But the next time I’m in Hollywood and I’m jonesing for a burger, my my stomach will most likely carry me to one of those other eateries.
