By BlueZero
21 Apr 2016 03:23
Burgers are everywhere these days and there are the definite tiers of burgers from fast food, to causal, to fancy/gourmet. A new burger restaurant opened up recently near the Irvine Spectrum near the 405 and 5 junctions. Burger Lounge presents burgers from grass fed cows as well as other tradition American fare including french fries and salads. I decide to check out if these burgers are worth the attention:
Location & Ambiance:
Burger Lounge is located right next to Whole Foods in the new shopping complex. The outdoor dining patio is spacious and there is plenty of seating also inside the restaurant. Their menu on the back wall is very tiny. Even the paper menus at the counter had very small print. I'm not even blind. They have three beers on tap, none that caught my interest. I went during dinnertime in the middle of the week and it was light to average crowded. It's the fast-casual setup where you order at the cash register and they bring out your food to your table.
Food and Service
After looking at the menu for a few minutes, I settled on the Lounge Burger and regular fries. I hate paying more than $10 for a burger unless it is going to blow my mind in taste. Luckily their burgers start at $8 so it's within my threshold. The regular size fries are $3.50. Just a heads up that you are likely not going to leave the restaurant for less than $12, $15+ with a drink. I figure it's worth trying once to taste the grass fed patty. Bill total $12.36
There were lots of staff cruising around the restaurant checking in one people. They were friendly and offered homemade ranch or bbq sauce when they brought out my burger and fries, I selected the homemade ranch to go with my fries.
Burger
The burger was tasty through I don't feel the flavor was enough to propel it beyond a normal good burger in Orange County. This isn't like the Umami burger taste explosion where the burger stands king. I liked the grilled onion. The organic cheese, I couldn't taste any difference. Burger size was standard.
The burger patty looked normal and tasted very standard. I should have tasted a piece of it separately, but since I couldn't taste the patty, the meat wasn't the star of the burger. Overall it was a pretty generic burger, a step above high end fast food like Five Guys and below a full restaurant burger.
Fries
For me, the fries were the star of the meal, especially paired with the homemade ranch sauce. I think I tasted ground chives in in the ranch. Excellent ranch as Orange County demands. The fries were good by themselves and were perfectly cooked. The fry texture was slightly airy and crispy.
The ketchup tasted like it's normal Heinz ketchup; at a restaurant like this, they should be making their own ketchup. I am quite disappointed with the ketchup since it's an easy fix and wouldn't break their bank. They could even upsell to a homemade aoili ketchup for an addon charge or have it already part of the fry price.
Conclusion
I'm likely to go back, though I'm not super sold on the grass fed cow angle. Not all the burgers are from grass fed cows, so it's the first two on the menu that are basically the same burger, one with 1000 island dressing, the other ketchup.
For $8, it's a decent price for the supposed quality. I'd want to try a different burger next time. I'd definitely get the fries.