Prep Kitchen – Del Mar, CA

For this burger review, the UBR staff headed down to Old Del Mar to attend a final California burger review with Chuck “Dog Biscuit” Huston.  Chuck, Hunter’s previous VP of Sales and Marketing, has and continues to be mentor for the entire UBR staff as well as many others within the industry. Not the cheeseburger review industry, the sprinkler industry, where we all still hold real paying jobs which of course we’ll abandon once we have enough fuel for the official UBR Gulfstream 5 jet.

Since we did not have the UBR cop car, Chuck insisted that we walk down to the restaurant as he didn’t want to ride in Mike’s Explorer, because Chuck is a man of class.  As you may have already guessed, this began a tireless session of whining by Mike because he had to walk a whole four blocks…….downhill.

Prep Kitchen is located on a street corner in Old Del Mar on Pacific Coast Highway.  We opted to sit on the patio which provided partial ocean views.  The setting, ambience, and weather could not have been better.  It was the perfect location to have laughs and regale of times past with Chuck, Judy Netteland, and Pat Sullivan (another retired veteran survivor of the sprinkler wars).

When it came to the actual burger, our expectations were high and did not come close to being met.  The mediocre meat puck, although edible, was nothing special.  After waiting for over 30 minutes for our food, we were thinking it would come out presented with origami French fries…..or at least a friggen’ pickle. Maybe the pickles were what Troy saw the cook eating in the kitchen in plain view while we were waiting for the food.  I guess he was too hungry to cook our food before his.

However, even the lame service of an even lamer burger did not even have a chance in overshadowing the great day we enjoyed with great company.  The UBR staff is looking forward to future review with Chuck in Texas. Godspeed Dog Biscuit.

Bobby’s Hideaway Cafe (Revisited) – Carlsbad, CA

The start of the football season has prompted the end of the official UBR hiatus.  To get back in the game we decided to do a warm-up with a re-visit of Bobby’s in Carlsbad. Last time we went to Bobby’s we enjoyed a great burger and thought what a great way to start the season off. We found the burgers to still be delicious, but still had the same slight imperfections as last time such as the meat patty of yumminess could have been a tich thicker and the burger to bun ratio a tich better. While the slight imperfections remained, it was clear Bobby’s staff are fans of UBR and almost instantaneously recognized the UBR staff as the celebrities they are. Hey Bobby’s! Let us know if you would like some burger consulting! It will only cost you free burgers. Most establishments would pay in the 10’s of dollars for such valued input and direction.

The group was excited to invite the newest member of the Marketing team, Megan, to be the guest reviewer this week. For some reason Mike felt he constantly had to apologize to Megan for everything including his whining, language, and overall personality.  Her husband, James, had been asked several times last year but was too busy “working” to experience the honor of the UBR guest spot. Clearly James is not smart enough to pass a simple intelligence test. Moreover, apparently he doesn’t think it’s cool since nothing will top his past Prom King status at his high school class of 10 people. Even with that low class number we at UBR are pretty sure it was a mercy thing and they just felt sorry for him.

Pretty much everything about the restaurant has stayed exactly the same over the last year, in fact, it’s probably been the same for the last 30 years, but that’s part of what makes Bobby’s a cool and eclectic burger stop.  The pictures of random semi-famous people like Bob Villa line the whitewashed walls throughout the restaurant and are grouped into mini themes.  Mike was happy to see the representation of some sort of sport memorabilia as he was going through Sport Center withdrawals from the lack of TV.  There was a special kid’s corner which probably would have suited Troy better but we didn’t let him play because he could have choked on stuff.  An added bonus was the free WIFI which Troy found extremely exciting and distracting throughout the entire review process. Lastly, the UBR staff was excited to see someone flushed the crap in the crappy crapper that we noted on the last review.

Centre City Cafe’ – Escondido, CA

Looks can be Deceiving

For this review the UBR staff and the guest reviewer entourage of Darrin, Kevin, Chris and Tim motored down to Escondido to Centre City Café, San Diego Home Cooking’s North County location.   As usual Mike, a.k.a. “Capt. Cranky”, was in full pissy mode to start the adventure. This was the first time Darrin had met Mike and he was seriously second guessing if it was worth a free cheeseburger to have to endure a 50 year old man-child’s tantrum. However, once we arrived at our burgering location and met up with the rest of our burger buddies (who came all the way from Florida for this review), Mike’s attitude turned around. Centre City Café has classic 1970’s architecture since it was formally a Sambo’s.  It’s also located in an area of Escondido that seems to be unaware that several decades have gone by since Sambos demise. They did however have a few awkwardly placed TV’s that clashed nicely with the randomness of the un-themed painted artwork. While this description sounds like a great place to chow a burger, the restrooms and service speed severely affected the overall restaurant rating (thus the 2.5). If it wasn’t for the cute and very attentive waitress, the restaurant ratings would have been much worse.  It should be noted that knucklehead Troy picked this place because they touted their great burgers on a TV ad. Understanding Troy’s pea-brained belief that the TV never lies helps explain his depth of thought and reason. Once the burgers finally arrived, the real disappointment began. Before the burger bash begins, let’s list the good points.  It was made of meat, you had several cheese choices, you got a pickle spear, and the presentation and appearance was average. The rest just sucked. It earned a dismal 2.5 on the UBR scale. The post burger was pretty dismal too, and came close to yakking up a 1 on the post burger rating.  Then there are the fries. On the surface, the fries should have been great (good curb appeal); the reality was they were disgusting. They completely jacked them up by cooking them into a charred greasy shell. Yeah, they can’t even cook a friggin’ french fry! Probably the best part of this visit was watching the black cat hanging out on the outside awning. You could almost hear his little squeeky kitty voice saying “DON’T ORDER THE BURGER! RUN, RUN NOW!” To our may UBR fans from around the world, you are the reason we do this, and we took one for the team this week. Now you’ll know to pass right by this pathetic burger experience! We’re just glad we didn’t have to pay for this one… Thanks Chris!

Unwitting Darrin

The TV says it's good!

Tip Top Meats – Carlsbad, CA

On this Ultimate Burger mission, we made one of those rare discoveries that only the true locals know about. We drove to Carlsbad, CA and took a look at a funky little place called Tip Top Meats. Tip Top is part grocery store, part butcher shop, and part restaurant all wrapped up in one. The UBR staff and entourage of Derres, Sean, Mike’s father-in-law, Dick, were a part of this burger check out. A courtesy mention ‘should’ be thrown out to Jeff Falk, but he chose some type of meat-sickle and salad instead of a burger…. LOSER!  The first thing you’ll notice when you walk into the store is a plethora of high quality meats ground up and crammed into casings, cured meats, pastry’s, wine, beer… you name it. Anyway, we were there for the cheeseburger. Everyone (except loser Jeff) decided to take on “Big John” which is a 2/3 pound patty of yum!  A good bun, delicious cheese (with a good melt on it I might add) and a rarely seen in the wild dill pickle spear, lead to a solid burger experience. Everyone but Mike liked the fries. His were cold and the big prissy whiner could not get past it, so they lost a few points there. The atmosphere of the restaurant was somewhat odd . They were going for the authentic German look, but it was mixed with a healthy dose of Asian yard sale wall art. Eclectic to say the least. While the distance was a bit far for us, you can’t argue Tip Top’s prime location just off the I-5 freeway. If you’re in the area, Tip Top is a noteworthy place to check out.  And they serve up a killer breakfast as well.

Chris Madrids – San Antionio TX

Yes the UBR Staff travels! We were in San Antiono (Troy and Mike… no Greg… and no cop car) and Mike learned about this place… Chris Madrid’s had an excellent cheeseburger. OMG! This is definatley the best burger we have reviewed and will be forever known as the bench mark for the top level of the review and killer burgers… That is until we find a better one. The only bummer was they had a fast food type ordering system so if you wanted another… beer let’s say, you had to go and get back in line. We brought Phil Robisch, John Alderman and Bruce Lipien as our guest reviewers who were all changed persons after what we now refer to as “The Madrid Incident.”

Chris Madrid's Killer Burger!

The Money Pit – Escondido, CA

Upon a recommendation by Mr. Polderman (an unofficial staffer here at UBR), we jumped in the PoPo and headed to Escondido, CA for a visit to The Money Pit. Scoring ‘Rock Star’ parking set the tone for today’s cheeseburger experience. We were greeted with a packed Family Style/Fast Food hybrid atmosphere (although timing is everything and there was no line to speak of). The menu was extensive but easy to decipher (even for Troy). We were pleasantly surprised by the prices. We all agreed that, without a doubt, it’s the best value in North County! Burger, fries and a drink for less than $6. There are no waitresses (which is a potential nail in their coffin), but after ordering, a little man-servant delivered our meals.

Not the greatest presentation (it kind of made you dizzy as you can see above) but hopes were still high. It actually turned out to be a better than average burger (a strong 3) but multiple patties is a must (I believe they go up to 4). And the fries were even better, scoring a solid 4 out of 5. Really the only downside to the whole experience was the noise level. Between the throngs of people yapping and the sound of blenders churning out shakes, we could hardly hear each others mindless drivel. Maybe that’s not a bad thing. Anyway, overall we gave the Money Pit a 3 out of 5. Thanks to Todd Polderman, Derres Catalano and Ryan Leezy for their participation in yet another quest for the Ultimate Cheeseburger.