How does Burger Grades review restaurants? Glad you asked.
The Meal’s the Deal
Here at Burger Grades, we’re only concerned about the food itself. We may talk about the atmosphere or the service, but the grades are based entirely on how good the food was (or wasn’t). We’re seeking out the greatest gustatory experiences available, regardless of whether we find them in a four star restaurant or a roadside diner.
To keep the playing field level, only the burger and fries count towards a restaurant’s grade. We’ll let you know if they have amazing milkshakes or an incredible side dish, but that “extra credit” doesn’t affect the letter grade we give out. Finally, no burger can receive an A+ on our first tasting. A+ grades are given out only when we’ve visited multiple times and know it’s a consistently amazing experience.
Our Standard Order
If a restaurant has a “signature” burger of some sort, we order that on our first visit. If they’re telling us that’s their best effort, then that’s what we want to try. If there isn’t an “signature/chef’s own/superduperamazing” burger on the menu, our standard order is a blue cheese & bacon burger, medium rare, without onions.
- It’s ordered medium rare, because burger snobs everywhere accept that’s the perfect temperature to let the beefiness of the beef shine through (and who doesn’t want the beefiest of beef?)
- It’s ordered with blue cheese since that’s a cheese where quality really matters – does a restaurant order the highest quality, ultra sharp and tangy blue or do they settle for something less? We want to know.
- It’s ordered with bacon, because bacon is awesome.
- And it’s ordered without onions, because we hate onions and the whole point of this is to enjoy a great meal (if a restaurant absolutely insists that onions are essential, again, we’ll take their word for it and order it with).
Just So You Know
In addition to our undying disdain for onions, we have a definite preference for thicker fries vs. thinner fries. In the reviews, we’ll try to evaluate fries as compared to their “genre”, but we’re firmly of the opinion that thicker is better (because it’s a better balance between crispy and fluffy).