A knife-and-fork burger might be blasphemous, but this beast is worth it.
Nicci wanted to spend part of today together, so I said “Let’s get lunch!” like a good boyfriend should. She’s pretty much incapable of making decisions (especially simple ones like, “Where will we eat?”) so I came up with the suggestion of Hungry Cat. Why? Because I haven’t eaten a good burger in some time, and I’ve seen their “Pug Burger” on a few “Best of LA” lists. In my never-ending quest to find the best hamburgers in the city of Los Angeles, I decided today would be the day that I tried the variation on the sandwich created by Hungry Cat.
We’ve eaten at Hungry Cat once before, and the experience was very good. I don’t remember the occasion for our dinner there, but I think it was to mark a special event. Maybe it wasn’t. I don’t have the best memory for relationships, dates, and their corresponding circumstances. I remember on our first visit we started with a cheese plate (three assorted cheeses, one blue and two others, with marcona almonds and honeycomb). I ate fish and Nicci ate crab. We both agreed that the seafood was fantastic.
We arrived shortly after opening today, a few minutes after noon, and were seated near the bar. There seemed to be one guy who was running everything from mixing drinks to taking orders and overseeing the kitchen. Nicci ordered the non-alcoholic daily drink special (cucumber soda) and I had a beer. We were told what today’s cheeses were when we inquired about starting with a cheese plate. We ordered a trio of Echo Mountain blue cheese, and two french cheeses: a semi-soft raw cow’s milk cheese and a soft sheep’s milk cheese. All three were really tasty. Nicci ordered the pan-roasted soft-shell crab BLT with potato salad and I ordered the pug burger (with bacon, avocado and blue cheese) cooked medium-rare.
Neither Nicci nor myself had ever eaten soft-shell crab before, so today offered us a unique opportunity. I was surprised to learn that Nicci — a lover of lobster and crab — had never tasted it before. For me, texturally it was weird. I bit into her sandwich and came away with a tiny little crab leg hanging out of my mouth. Tasted really good, but that texture and knowing that I was consuming a crab in its shell — soft or not — was a little weird for me. Five years ago everyone I know would have been proud of me for being so “adventurous,” but these days I guess it’s a disappointment when I’m not trying really bizarre new things. I was proud of myself, but pride in oneself can only get you so far in life. I might order soft-shell crab again in the future. We’ll see.
The point of this review, of course, is the burger. The Pug arrives looking like a mountain on a plate; it instantly instills thoughts of “How am I going to approach this? It’s huge!” As it sat there open-faced, still steaming, my eyes gravitated to the different components. The top of the trimmed La Brea Bakery rustic roll sat with a few choice cuts of lettuce and red onion. Next to it was the hulking mass of meat: a stout eight-ounce ball of 80/20 ground chuck from Niman Ranch topped with melted blue cheese, thick-cut bacon (Niman Ranch pork belly smoked on site) and a few thin slices of avocado. The Pug is served with a large serving of fries. No dipping sauces were provided. Despite being given a small steak knife with which to pare down the burger into manageable portions, I decided to just dive in and see what happens. I removed some of the lettuce and onion because even as I tried to hold the burger in my hand and take a bite, its gigantic size was just too much. I should have just used the knife and fork, but I didn’t. I wanted to conquer the thing.
I don’t normally like blue-cheese topped burgers because the flavor of the cheese overpowers everything else, and actually, it’s not even a flavor I enjoy. Still, The Pug’s high-quality meat was seasoned and cooked so perfectly that it not even the very thick-cut bacon and powerful blue could dwarf it. Based on the patty alone, The Pug is one of the best tasting burgers I’ve had since I started my quest for the best in the city. It was juicy as all hell, and the rustic roll was just airy enough to capture all that fatty, greasy, bloody goodness without being transformed into a soggy mess. It might have failed the cardinal burger rule that the size of the patty should equal the size of the bun (The Pug fails this miserably) but it doesn’t matter because it works. The thick cut bacon, blue and avocado compliment the patty very well.
The fries…holy shit. Even without any dipping sauces (is this normal?), they were great. Imagine the crispiness and starchiness of In-N-Out fries brought to amazing new heights through proper seasoning and preparation. They are soaked overnight, fried, rested, and then fried again before serving. As satisfied as I was with The Pug, I could not stop eating the fries. I felt horrible about not being able to finish the huge quantity on my plate, but I was just too full. Those fries were fantastic.
Overall I would award a high grade to The Pug burger from Hungry Cat. At $16 (plus a few dollars extra if you want a fried egg on top) it is not exactly the cheapest lunchtime burger in the city, but the quality of its ingredients and the precision with which it is prepared is absolutely worth the cost. As I’ve stated in my last few burger reviews, I don’t know when my official Top Ten list will be ready for publication, but as it stands right now Hungry Cat is poised to claim a spot on that list. Kudos, Hungry Cat!
Funny side note: As we were walking towards the restaurant, Nicci pointed to Cafe Was and mentioned how she had always felt the urge to eat there whenever she’s passed it. Then we noticed a few signs in front of the restaurant boldly claiming that the executive chef at Cafe Was is Alex from this season of Top Chef. I was immediately turned off, but I promised Nicci we could check it out in the near future. I don’t really feel the urge to eat that guy’s food (unless there’s a pea puree on the menu, prepared by someone else) but I’d love to ask him if Gail Simmons’ tits look as awesome in person as they do on TV.
