Craftsman – Encinitas, CA

Okay, so football season is in full swing and it’s time to post some burger review. Sadly, this first one is from last year… Our bad! This particular UBR location was recommended by a few of UBR’s superfans. Yeah we got fans, tons in fact!  Craftsman is located a few miles inland in the nearby town of Encinitas, however, it a bit of coastal hipster wannabe feel.  The inside is nicely decorated with rustic wood and wall art as well as a bar area which made for a good cheeseburgering environment. Craftsman also had  a TV that was only turned on after “Meatsack” Mike whined about it loud enough for everyone to hear. The cleanliness of the restaurant has to be noted as well, in fact it was so clean that our OCD resident Marketing staff member Caitlyn even used the restroom, without having to “hover” which we understand is a big step for her.

Our waitress Lindsey was extremely informative and friendly, enough to put up with our obnoxious antics at least.  She took our order quickly and even gave us the hookup on their special bacon onion marmalade as well as the world’s smallest cup of soup for tasting.  UBR staff loves extras! When informed of Mike’s bulimia problem that he was able to overcome in the womb, Lindsey even tried to be nice by saying his body type shows a certain type of “confidence.”

There was only one burger option on the menu, and at $15 it was a budget breaker, we can only afford a retired cop car as our staff vechile after all.  We also sprung for the deviled eggs at $2 a pop because it was payday and why not celebrate?  The restaurant was so expensive that we watched one of the staff members leave on their lunch break, presumably to go across the street to hotdog on a stick where she could afford to eat.

After a little bit of a wait we received our burgers (and lame tuna sandwich to be consumed by a nameless non-meat eating dummyhead) on a nicely presented plate with fries.  Okay first the burger. We don’t want to go in to too much detail on the burger because it was not the star of the meal (it was good to average with the high points being beef flavor, patty thickness) But the Fries! OMG! The deal is they are fried in duckfat! Yeah!!! Frickin for real! Duck fat! Who was the genius that though this up! We want to put up a bronze statue of them in the UBR park we don’t have. Let us tell you o’loyal followers of the knights of UBR, these were the best fries we have yet to come across our gullets  in our long tenure of burgering experience!

All in all, Craftsman knows how to serve a good burger with the best fries frickin ever, but that comes at a cost.  However, the price and speed of lunchtime service was almost completely mitigated by the great food and friendly service.  While the restaurant received a solid four, it will be location save for special occasions like Mike’s induction into the AARP and the recognition of him beating bulima.

The Landings – Carlsbad, CA

The Landings burger

For this review we visited the “The Landing’s” at Palomar Airport with our guest reviewer Jeff  “Meat Sickle” Falk. Also, tagging along to review the stupid veggie burger was Caitlyn Bragelmann (which really doesn’t really count for anything but we let her go anyway). We know what you’re thinking.  Why would these UBR high rollers hit an airport for a burger?  And no, it’s not where we keep the UBR corporate jet. You see, back in the day, we use to frequent a little greasy spoon called the Palomar Airport Café.  It was located on the old airport’s tarmac.  You’d weave your way through the parked airplanes, climb up the rickety staircase to the second floor of this cool old building. Here you were met by the classic American diner, complete with a panoramic view of the little regional airport. And man, did they have a good burger! Unfortunately, they became a victim of progress.  Because of the needs of a growing airport, the building was torn down and classic yummy airport burgers are a thing of the past.  Welcome to the new age of the airport diner.  The Landings is now located within the new airport terminal. Sadly, without the yummy burger part. The new Landing’s is nothing like the old crusty burger hole in the wall. It’s all posh with granite topped tables and comfortable chairs and a fancy bar. One really cool thing is the glass wall that gives you a ground level view of the tarmac where you can sit and watch the planes taxi around. They also have a nice outdoor patio area which would be a great place to hang and have a beer on a warm sunny day. A special mention needs to go out about our server, Jackie, who was cute, fun and attentive. We surmised that her Mom must be a real hottie too! On to the burger; if you have ever eaten a burger at an airport you know you can’t set your expectations too high.  And this place proved to be no exception. Despite taking our request for cooking requirements (which gave a false sense of hope), all the burgers showed up well done. While the burger displayed some positive visual traits, like a good burger-to-bun ratio and decent patty thickness, it earned a dismal and flavorless 2.67 on the UBR scale. Additionally, the fries, as ‘Meat Sickle’ Falk said, were “Stiff” like some rigor mortis stricken, long dead, heat lamp warmed leftover from yesterday’s lunch. It’s pretty hard to screw up your standard fry type, but they managed to go out of their way to pull that off. For you weirdoes like Caitlyn, that bypass the normally delicious meat factor, it’s a “pass” on the stupid veggie burger too (for what that’s worth). While the Landing’s probably have better things on their menu, sadly it’s a pass on the burgers and fries. This proves progress and posh are not always a good thing.  We miss you Airport Café.  

The Landings

Bistro West – Carlsbad, CA

Bistro West Burger

For this review the UBR staff, along with guest reviewer Jeff Kremicki, journeyed to Bistro West in Carlsbad based on the recommendation of our Future UBR staff accountant Stacy. Bistro West is an upscale restaurant that offers a Kobe “blend” burger offering. We’re not sure what the “blend” means but based on the price we’re pretty sure it wasn’t “blended” with something worthless like Greg’s wallet after he picked up the bill. Overall the restaurant was by far the finest we have experienced to cram a burger in our… Sorry, to partake in a burger gastronomic experience. To match the fine interior surroundings were pleasant clientele and top shelf service.  Our server was on it from the start, delivering insanely delicious fresh baked dinner rolls the moment we sat down. At no point did the high quality service falter and they would have received a perfect UBR five if he wasn’t, well, a dude. We prefer our burgers delivered by a girl and this is our site, so we can give a wiener deduction if we want too. Speaking of wieners, a mention needs to go out that Mike strongly felt that the Bistro also has the finest restrooms we have seen at a place that serves burgers. Oh yeah, the burgers. Yum! A 3.9 UBR scale yum and perfectly cooked to our order specifications. The burger would have easily broke a coveted 4 rating if the burger to bun ratio was a bit better, the meat a bit more favor/seasoning, and of course had they included the often over looked detail of a pickle spear. The only key burger item to note is that they offer two bun types, Focaccia or whole wheat.  Focaccia is the way to go. On the fry front, there are many options here too, from standard fry, the steak fry, or the un-traditional metro-sexual sweet potato fry. Most of us opted for the standard, but Greg was the clear winner with the steak fry option which boosted the fry score to 3.6 UBR rating. Bistro West is a place a guy could impress a girl on a burger date if paired with a fine bottle of Cabernet.  So our recommendation is, throw your burger eating babe in a cop car and head west, to Bistro West!

Mike's attempt at photography (Bistro West)