The Counter

Posted by Edmund in Fast Food, Los Angeles, Restaurants | 0 comments

“Slow” Fast Food Burger/Classic Diner (You can sit down here without feeling awkward).
About $7.50 to $15 for burgers, depending on toppings and meat quantity. Specialty burgers go for less than $10.
Various locations throughout California, with a small presence (i.e. one site) in numerous other states and even in Australia and Ireland.
I went to the one at: 140 Shoppers Lane, Pasadena CA 91101.

As you’ve noticed by now, I’m quite the burger lover. It seems like every other LA restaurant I review is another burger joint, and that’s probably not an exaggeration. Still, this time I finally I’ve found the first truly legendary “burger” in LA—one that combines the classic with the gourmet and gives an endless variety of options to boot.

That burger would be found at The Counter. There are lots of locations throughout California, including in Santa Monica, Marina del Rey, and Pasadena. I chose to go to the Pasadena one.

[provided by and posted with permission of The Counter]

Upon entering, you’re immediately struck by just how epically classic this place is. It has the classic diner feel to it—nice little bar, the typical white-washed look, very clean-looking, with a good deal of space among tables. The place makes you feel like you’re in a modern version of Johnny Rockets, sans the juke boxes. So this is definitely the type of place where you can go with a friend or a date just to relax.

More importantly, the food itself is excellent. It’s cooked extremely well, with tons of choices, and nothing I had was bad in the least. Not only was everything consistently good, but the food served was, especially for the price, a phenomenal value. If you want a “traditional” burger, i.e. not too messy and perfectly cooked, this is the perfect spot for you, and so far it’s my favorite in LA.

Moreover, you have a create-your-own-burger option, and it’s quite amazing, though I didn’t take advantage of it, since I wanted to try their specialty burger. If you don’t find what you want, though, you can choose your patty size (up to 1 lb.), cheese, toppings, sauce, and even your bun. And these toppings are about as gourmet as it gets. If you want fried egg, they’ve got that. Avocado, guacamole, fried onions, sun-dried tomatoes, greek feta, and bleu cheese are only some of the other options. Really, not only do they have a fantastic menu in its own right, but this customizability makes it ideal for even the pickiest eaters.

For all these reasons, I can’t help but recommend The Counter as both an amazing place in itself and as one of the best places (in fact, my favorite!) to find a gourmet burger and a great milkshake in Los Angeles.

What I tasted (recommendations in bold):

1. The Counter Burger—All-natural ground beef, provolone, lettuce, tomato, fried onion, sautéed mushrooms, sun-dried tomato vinaigrette. The burgers are typically cooked rare with a pink inner center. The patty is near perfect. Juicy, moist, perfectly flavorful, and perfectly cooked. Can’t complain there. As for the combination of flavors, it’s just absolute bliss. The greasiness of the onions, with the freshness of the tomatoes, and the balanced flavor of the mushrooms, all topped with a surprisingly good, kind of tangy, strong-tasting sun-dried tomato vinaigrette (which actually comes served on the side), makes the burger irresistible in every bite. It’s also huge—barely fit into my mouth. And the bread was even good. It had a really nice toasty butteriness to it. It was a bit greasy but just melded fantastically with the meat b/c of that butteriness. In short, the burger’s awesome—no complaints. Perhaps the best “traditional” gourmet burger I’ve had (i.e. a normal style burger with some gourmet toppings). 4.5/5.0
2. Vanilla Shake—This is one awesome vanilla shake, comparable to the Pumpkin shake from 8 oz. burger bar or the vanilla shake from Johnny Rocket’s. This is a fantastic accompaniment to a burger and was perhaps my favorite part of the meal, which is saying a lot since I absolutely loved the burger. The shake is extremely thick, to the point that it’s not served with a straw, just with a spoon. Tons of ice cream goes into this thing, so you’re really going to need the spoon to eat it. It’s rich, creamy, with kind of a malty, satisfying thickness to it. Not too milky—actually tastes like ice cream, and good ice cream at that. On the sweet side, but not too much. Absolutely a pleasure. 4.5/5.0
3. Cheddar fries—The fries were actually pretty good. They are on the thin side, rather crispy too. The cheese is excellent too. Unlike most cheddar fries, the cheese isn’t solely on top. Instead, cheese is melted on the inside too, so it’s very well-distributed on the fries. With some ranch, these fries are great. However, one big flaw is that the fries are just way too salty, to the point of detracting completely from their taste. 2.5/5.0

Ambience (for a diner): 4.0/5.0
Taste: 4.1/5.0. Gains points for nearly infinite variety of choice. Loses points mostly for the fries.
Value: 4.0/5.0.
Overall Score: 4.1/5.0. For a “gourmet” burger joint, this is both on the cheaper side and offers just about anything you could want on a burger. This is gourmet done right, and it offers my favorite burger in LA.