Albie and I used to eat breakfast at Rose’s Cafe with our friend Ben, but we haven’t been there in quite a while. The breakfast is really good, so I thought maybe a burger would be too. I took a look at their menu online and discovered this: Rose’s Grass Fed Beef Burger & Fried Potatoes $12 (+$2 with cheddar cheese). Sold! Let’s go try it.
The first couple of bites seemed a little too salty for me, but that seemed to dissipate as I ate on. It was cooked just the way I like, crispy on the outside, but not quite medium enough on the inside. It did however dish up a nice mess, drippy mess. In general the burger was really good quality, but the flavor was nothing special. The mayo aioli was probably the most special thing about it. So I’m giving it a high rating for being good quality and highly edible, just not the perfect burger for me.
The View Cafe is a little cafeteria on the UCSF Campus. Albie and I were excited about this place because we were hoping it would be a replacement for the Palm, which closed down last year. It was a little odd getting in and finding the cafeteria. We had to sign in with security, go up to the second floor and smell our way there.
The cafeteria was pretty typical, menu-wise and layout-wise. The burger was really cheap and came with a side (salad or chips) and drink – totaling about $7.
We found a seat outside, hoping that the place was named for its view. But it was not. We could barely see the tops of the buildings downtown due to all the plants and shrubbery. That said, it was a gorgeous outdoor setting.
Now on to the burger. I was utterly disappointed. It was yet another standard patty, and it didn’t even have extra grill flavor. I was completely unimpressed. It sort of reminded me of the burger you’d get in high school.
When we finished we tried to leave by going down some steps to find that there’s no way out but back through the building, which was completely locked up. Luckily there was a person outside talking on the phone, she let us back in and informed us that you need a badge to open the doors.
In conclusion, I wouldn’t bother going there. The only reason I’m giving them two stars instead of one is that the burger was edible, though not special.
Just like Hamburger Haven, the first bite was very yummy. And also like Hamburger Haven, it was a pretty solid “regular” burger. They didn’t ask how I wanted the meat cooked, so it was a little over-cooked for my taste. The only juice coming from it was tomato. But, they did get the outer surface nice and crispy, so it had that grill flavor. The meat itself didn’t have any special spicing or flavor. The price, however, was quite cheap. For $8.10 I got a cheeseburger, small fries and a can of soda. The fries would good, but nothing to rave about. I would eat there again.
The first bite was yummy. As I continued on, the burger began to reveal itself as a standard, typical diner burger – kind of like what you’d expect off your neighbor’s grill. It was cooked well (well as in good, I ordered it medium) and it had gorgeous grill marks on it, but I would not drive across the city just to eat this burger. If I were in the neighborhood and had a hankering for some meat on a bun, I’d probably pop in.
The fries were decent and the service was prompt and friendly. They also had some interesting items on the menu for breakfast, which I might go back to try.
For $8 you get 1/3 lb of aged Harris Ranch brisket, short rib, and chuck granulated and seared in beef fat. With Monterey Jack cheese, caramelized onions, and caper aioli. Add another $2 for french fries.
I ordered mine medium-rare, and I wished I had ordered it cooked a little more (though it probably still would have been too pink, because
Albie’s was supposed to be cooked more and it wasn’t). I made it about half way through the burger before I was so grossed-out I couldn’t go on anymore. The meat in the middle looked way too much like the pink ground meat before its cooked. Usually its just a little pink, but I could still see all the wiggly pink rawness.
I’m still giving them an ok rating, because before I reached my breaking point the burger was pretty good. The outside was definitely nice and crispy with a touch of grill flavor. And it met my messy requirement. The french fries were also really good, crispy all the way through. I will probably never get a burger there again though, unless they can give me less meat. I think the fact that the burger was so thick really hindered the cooking of it.
I’ve had the hamburger here before, and I remembered it being really good. And that’s exactly what it was, really good.
The Liverpool Burger is an 8 oz. Angus beef patty with grilled onions, lettuce, tomato, mayo and some type of cheese (I got Gruyere) on a sesame kaiser bun for $12.95, which included some french fries. A little pricey compared to what I’ve eaten so far.
The meat met most of my requirements; cooked medium, liked the taste and the outside was nice and crisp. On the down side, the meat was not quite the mess I want – there were no juices dripping down my hands and arms. The burger should have come with grilled onions, but I didn’t want them. I think they probably would have added a lot to the overall taste. The bun wasn’t top notch, it was toasted but maybe a touch stale.
The fries were good, crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. However, when I ate there a couple weeks earlier the fries weren’t crispy enough. So the fry crispy quality is variable.
In conclusion I would say that the Liverpool Burger is good stuff, but still not my go-to burger.
There’s great potential for me to be biased on this one. See, the Soccer Cafe is just two blocks away from where I live and work. I go there often and usually love what I get. On top of that, the people there are extremely friendly. You could say that my expectations for the burger was pretty high.
I ordered one of the day’s specials, a Blue Cheese Burger. It came with some macaroni salad, for a total of about $8.50. The burger didn’t look that great when I unwrapped it. I forgot to say no onions, and it had mustard on it (yuck). The top of the bun was a little over toasted, but I usually like my bread products over crispy.
I took my first bite and was not as happy as I hoped I’d be. The bread was a little too crumbly for my taste and the mustard really threw me off. I managed to get a couple bites of the meat by itself. The flavoring was pretty good, but again, didn’t knock me off my feet. In conclusion, I’d say the burger was edible, but I probably won’t order one again.
The macaroni salad however, was fantastic. They put jalapeño peppers and pineapple in – a true delight to my taste buds!
As I waited for Albie to show up I paroosed the menu. Pearl’s offers some very interesting special burger choices, like a Pesto Burger. And the list of milkshakes flavors is quite extensive, I was tempted to order a blueberry shake. However, aiming to eat a burger every two weeks adds up to too many calories as is, so I didn’t order one. What I did order was a basic cheeseburger and onion rings, the two totaled about $9.
The burger was served medium, which was fine with me. Upon first glance I was not impressed, the cheddar cheese looked gross dripping down the side. I began to eat my burger, and although it was a mess (dripping what looked like a mixture of burger juice and tomato juice), I was not completely happy with it. To sum up, I think it was just plain boring. Now, maybe if I had gotten that Pesto burger I would have enjoyed it more. But I felt like the meat just wasn’t very flavorful or interesting, and the toppings didn’t make up for what the burger lacked.
Overall:
Yelp: Pear’ls on Yelp
708 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94109 Map
I had an Urbun Bleu Classic, which comes with fries (regular or sweet potato) or a salad for $9.50. The burger was a nice mess, but mostly because of the cheese and grilled onions, not because of burger juice. The meat was good and cooked pretty much the way I like it. I didn’t really add anything else to the burger aside from the cheese and onions. The bun was a little below my standards, but edible. The size of the burger was pretty good for the cost when you include the sides. When it comes to hitting the spot I would say that overall the hamburger was 90% of the way to hitting there.
On a side note, both the regular and sweet potato fries were good – nice and crispy. And the bathroom was decent enough for a restaurant in the Mission.
This is our new burger blog! Here we begin our search for the ultimate burger in San Francisco. Tomorrow night we will eat the first burgers to be written about. Here’s some info about us and how we will be judging the burgers.
Albie and I used to eat breakfast at Rose’s Cafe with our friend Ben, but we haven’t been there in quite a while. The breakfast is really good, so I thought maybe a burger would be too. I took a look at their menu online and discovered this: Rose’s Grass Fed Beef Burger & Fried Potatoes $12 (+$2 with cheddar cheese). Sold! Let’s go try it.
