Grill 'Em All

Where: Roaming in Los Angeles
Price: $6

When living in the downtown area of Los Angeles, keep your eyes peeled for a black food truck with heavy metal music playing on the highest volume.

That is what you will get from Grill 'Em All, not just burgers and fries, but fun. The food truck features a handful selections of unique hamburgers to feast on. One such burger, and probably the most popular, is called "Waste 'em all". The burger symbolizes the rocker life style. Ingredients include marinated green chiles, which describes the rocker's spicy attitude, pepper Jack cheese to give the rocker a kick to his guitar solo, and topped off with beer soaked onions, which represents the alcoholic beverage that all rockers love, beer.

The staff includes about four people who constantly cook for the many people that stand outside waiting to give their orders to them. Though their unique painting and stickers that coat their truck does add customer's interest, the food truck was also a participant in the "American Food Truck Race" that was shown on the Food Network.

Not only was it a participant, but Grill 'Em All won the whole contest by outselling fellow native food truck, Nom Nom. The hit show won many customers for Grill 'Em All, but their goal is to remember them by their unique flavors that lie within the buns, shared by heavy metal.

Taste

I decided to try the "Samoa Joe" burger. The burger featured a half-pound patty with beer soaked onions, barbecue sauce, cheddar cheese, and the surprise ingredient; pineapple slices. I have to say it was the most intriguing burger of the bunch thus far.

With the help of the pineapple, this was the sweetest burger I have ever tried. So many different flavors, but were heavily on the sweet side. No matter, my sweet tooth was raging for sweetness and what good way to satisfy it then with a sweet burger. Yes, I did say "sweet" five times in the last two seconds! Good burger, but doesn't range "elite". Still, the experience to having a burger from this particular food truck made it all worth it for driving from Whittier to Hollywood.

Apple Pan

Where: 10801 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA
Price: $7

Down the historic street of Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, Calif. is where one of the most old-fashioned burger houses in Southern California. The Apple Pan was established in 1947 and has served burgers, sandwiches, fries, and apple pie for all its customers since. The restaurant resembles a small house that could be found in the prairies of the Midwest in the middle of the 20th century, but is actually across the street from Westwood Pavillion.

Taste

Apple Pan is famous for its "Hickory Burger", so naturally I ordered to eat that. The wait time was only about eight minutes and the waiter just gave me the burger in front of me without any plate, but only a napkin. This was a bad move because I needed more than one napkin after eating this burger.

I know I'm suppose to critique fairly and quit giving all these places I have been more than a three burger rating, but I can't today. The hickory burger was amazingly delicious to say the least. It had everything I wanted in a burger, cheddar cheese and crispy ice burg lettuce with a unique taste. That unique taste was their hickory sauce. The sauce was savory with no bite, not a barbecue style sauce at all. The burger patty literally melted in your mouth, it was tender and juicy. I finished my burger quick and almost ordered another one. Go to the Apple Pan, you won't be disappointed.

Five Guys

Where: 11411 South Street, Cerritos, CA
Price: $6

There's a battle going on right now that has caused a stir in the burger world. Everyone is debating whose burger is better, In-N-Out or Five Guys. Living in Southern California for 100 percent of my life, In-N-Out was and is still the gold standard for fast food burgers in the region.

But when Five Guys, a restaurant that opened in Lorton, Va., made its way West, the "newbies" loved it, loved it so much that Zagat, a review website, awarded Five Guys the 2010 award for Best Burger.

There are a couple of Five Guys restaurants in the LA area, the closest by my house was in Cerritos. I stopped by there because of the hype and I wanted to see for myself if it was indeed better than In-N-Out's burger. What I ate, was a good burger.
Taste
I ordered a cheese burger, which was really a double cheese burger. A single patty burger is called a little burger, go figure. Anyway, my burger included grilled onions, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, barbeque sauce, the patty, and sesame buns.

For my $6, the burger exceeded my expectations. It was very tasty, thanks to the barbecue sauce, which was my favorite part of the burger. The patty was cooked more well done than I would've liked, but it was fine. The lettuce and tomato was average, but I didn't expect a knock out from the vegetables anyway.

All in all, I welcome Five Guys in Southern California. For a growing restaurant chain, they cook great burgers. Just not as great as IN-N-Out's. ;)