Fronk's Restaurant

Where: 9260 Alondra Blvd
Price: $10

As the voice of the Clippers Ralph Lawler would say, "Oh me, oh my!"

This trip started out around 11 a.m. on Saturday and while looking for breakfast, I figured why not eat a burger? Since I didn't feel like driving very far for a place, I went on Yelp to help me find a nice spot around the Pico Rivera area. I found Fronk's Restaurant and their pictures really intrigued me. I had to check out their burger immediately to see if it was really that big.

Luckily for me, the restaurant was off the 605 freeway on Alondra Boulevard. I got there in 10 minutes and was pretty excited. As you can see in the picture, the outside texture of the restaurant won't marvel you, but it's a different story inside. To me, it was a mix between a sports grill bar and a western restaurant put in one, very family friendly. There were only two people working and I ordered behind three people so it took about 20 minutes to get my burger.

Taste
I'm always going to get the signature burger from the places I go so I ordered the "Fronken Burger". The ingredients include a half-pound angus burger with beer battered onion rings, maple bacon, grilled onions, lettuce, tomato, Monterey Jack cheese, and Chipotle ranch sauce. Yeah, that's a boat load of stuff going on in the burger. I also ordered sweet potato fries for my side dish that each burger comes with.

To be honest, the burger was intimidating. It was the largest burger I have ever seen, it was a tower. My warning: there is no chance to get a clean bite on the burger, no matter how big your mouth is.

As big as the burger was, the taste was overwhelming, burger nirvana was instant. Let me just say that the patty melted in my mouth, if that makes any sense. It was soft and flavorful, this was indeed the best burger patty I have tasted thus far. I am not really an onion ring in my burger guy, but boy, the crispiness of the ring was light, not very crunchy (which is good for me). The Monterey Jack cheese, along with the Chipotle ranch sauce, gave it a nice small kick after swallowing. So many flavors, nothing was bland, not even the fresh tomato and lettuce. The flour of the bun has no flavor, but the bun was sweet and the crust was buttered nicely.

I didn't bother eating a lot of fries because the burger had me full. As much as I tried to focus on the individual ingredients, the flavor the angus patty prevented me a little to explain a lot more. It was too good, I really can't say enough about it.

Please come here. I have to give it a perfect score.

The Golden State

Where: 462 N. Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA
Price: $10

I first about the Golden State after a friend from a baseball blog said they served great burgers, so naturally I wanted to try it. I guess it was a bad idea to go on a Friday afternoon because the traffic back home from West L.A. to Whittier was just about maddening.

I admired the location of the restaurant. It lied smacked in the middle of Fairfax Avenue where there is just about every cool thing there like vintage stores, classy restaurants, art galleries, and an urban-hip hop barber shop where I would love to get my hair cut.

The place was neat. As you walk inside you'll notice the the clean white wall on your left and a brick wall to your right. The setting looked as if you lived in a loft, which is cool. There were about five people working the kitchen and register, not a big place.

I ordered "The Burger" which ingredients include: Cheddar cheese from Fiscalini Farms, apple wood smoked bacon, hamburger patty from Haris Ranch, Arugula, and homemade aioli and ketchup.

Taste
This burger is probably the best looking burger from the restaurants I tried so far. Because of that, I hoped that it would taste as good as it looks, but I came away somewhat disappointed. For one thing, the bun was hard. I like my hamburger buns to be soft, but the buns were hard yet sweet. I wasn't a fan of the arugula and prefered lettuce a lot more, but I guess the restaurant wanted something more unique.

The meat was juicy, but the taste was "meh". The bacon was pretty good as it was cooked for a crispy texture. I have to say that the best part of the burger was the cheese and ketchup... And the sweet potato fries that complimented the burger (Those were awesome).

All in all, I don't think I would come back to this place unless I was strolling around Fairfax Avenue. Melrose Avenue is just a block away and I know better places to eat there than The Golden State.

Rating

Dave's Burgers

Where: 3396 Atlantic Ave, Long Beach, CA
Price: $4

Living in Whittier and going to school in Long Beach, I don't normally eat around the places around Long Beach City as I hope for. The only places around Long Beach I do eat at are normally besides Long Beach State University. On Friday, I decided to try Dave's burgers, which is a local favorite and serve a great burger from what I hear.

Small Place, Huge Burger
The location of the restaurant surprised me as it was placed right next to Chevron in the same vicinity. If you look in the picture, I'm the guy in the middle wearing the white shirt and the car you see in the picture is my car, it's parked right at a gas pump. The staff consisted of two women, and that's it. After you place your order, you have to pay after they make your order. Why do they do that? I don't know.

I ordered the "Jumbo Burger" which is third-pound burger and many other ingredients to make up the burger, thus the term "jumbo" becomes appropriate. Other ingredients include grilled onions, lettuce, pickles, and American cheese.

Taste
At first glance, my expectations were low because I thought it was going to taste like a burger that I could find at any other low-profile burger stop. Alas, I was wrong. The burger was exceeded those expectations by a mile. The patty was cooked right, but was seasoned more than what I would like. The dressing was up to par and the grilled onions were sweet. One of my favorite parts of a burger is the lettuce, in my view, the lettuce should absolutely ALWAYS be crisp, this burger delivered.

It isn't a gourmet burger like "Juicy Burger", but it was a good "basic" burger.


Rating