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Best Cheeseburger in Davis: Tommy J’s at Froggy’s

Best Burger in Davis Tommy J's — Tommy J’s The Cheeseburger

It was my birthday this Sunday and I couldn’t think of a better thing to do on my special day than to eat another cheeseburger, this time at Tommy J’s, in pursuit of the best cheeseburger in town! But, since it was my birthday I wanted to invite all of my friends to eat burgers with me. So that is what I did!

Tommy J’s is the restaurant part of the bar Froggy’s in downtown Davis. It’s a little confusing, I know. But it is worth figuring out. Tommy J’s has a good cheeseburger and a wide selection of specialty burgers like the Cajun Burger, Blue Buffalo, and Swiss ‘n’ Shroomer. I’ve had a couple of these before and they’re also quite good. If I wasn’t on a mission to find the best cheeseburger in town I’d have order the Cajun for sure, it is a wonderful blend of spicy and savory.

Anyway, down to brass tacks let’s rate this cheeseburger!

The Review

Patty (25/35) – Ordered medium rare, burger was medium rare. Good mix of fat and meat. Good seasoning. Moist. Not too greasy, but also not dry.

Cheese (6/25) – One thin slice. Unable to taste. Overwhelmed by the burger, bun, and condiments

Bun (15/15) – Fantastic bun! Thick bottom absorbs grease and liquids without getting soggy or falling apart. Fresh. Does not seem mass produced. Not mostly air.

Toppings (7/15) – Lettuce is crisp, onion is fresh but sparse, pickles are only okay, tomato is mealy and tasteless, only one slice.

Condiments (6/10) – Only mayo lightly added to the top bun. Added mustard from the table. Menu mentioned a 1000 Island house dressing but I did not see any or taste any on the burger.

Ambiance (10/*) – Friendly pub atmosphere. The birthday party took over the entire space but the service remained very friendly and helpful. Fries were very good.

Total (79/100) – This is a good $9.49 cheeseburger brought down by a weak cheese and a lack of top condiments.

Best Cheeseburger in Davis: Black Bear Diner

Best Burger in Davis Black Bear Diner — Black Bear Diner’s Classic American Cheeseburger

Black Bear Diner is a local chain of diners that started in Mt. Shasta, CA and has spread across the western United States. They’ve had a location in Davis since 2009 but I’ve never eaten at the place. I had an old room mate who worked at one of their locations to the north who said that their desserts were really good, sadly I am not looking for the best banana cream pie in Davis (though I should be because I always need more banana cream pie in my life.)

Here we are though with Black Bear Diner’s “Classic American Cheeseburger” it’s a 1/3 of a pound of ground beef patty on a brioche bun with onion, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and thousand islands dressing. It can be purchased for $8.49 and comes with a side of french fries or onion rings. I deferred and asked for a side salad.

The Review

Patty (12/35) – The meat appears extra lean. Almost dry. I was unable to detect any seasoning on the patty. I asked for medium rare, it came out done. The patty looks like it was preformed and precooked. Considering how quickly it came out. Hard to tell if the patty is truly tasteless or if it is just being drowned by the sauce (see Condiments below)

Cheese (6/25) – Tasteless. Seriously, I couldn’t taste the cheese in a single bite. When I tore small pieces of it off and tasted them I still couldn’t detect any flavor! I don’t know if it was real or not. I think a slice of American Cheese might have been better.

Bun (10/15) – The bun is soft and fluffy. It was not dry. Not much more to say. The top of the bun was absorbing large amounts of Thousand Islands sauce.

Toppings (10/15) – A single leaf of lettuce, tomato, and red onion slice were in the burger. No pickles! All looked and tasted fresh.

Condiments (0/10) – The menu said that the burger would have mayo and Thousand Islands dressing on the burgers. I could detect no mayo. Also, why is there no mustard on this burger? Why is there no mustard on the table? The burger was literally drowning in Thousand Islands sauce. It did not taste like a house made sauce either. The sauce overwhelmed every aspect of this burger.

Ambiance (0/*) – Lots of pictures of bears, psuedo-rustic, I get the feeling they wanted the diner to look like a log cabin. Very generic “diner” look and feel.

Total (38/100) – Boo. How I suffer in pursuit of knowledge! This burger barely rates higher than the one I had at Sudwerks. I suppose if I had to look for a silver lining it’d be that it was cheaper than the one there…

Continue reading “Best Cheeseburger in Davis: Black Bear Diner”

Best Cheeseburger in Davis: Redrum Burger

best burger in Davis Redrum — Redrum Burger’s 1/3 pound Cheeseburger

Here we are for the second burger review in Davis. If you’re confused as to what all this is I recommend you read this post about why I’m eating all these cheeseburgers and then this one that breaks down how I am doing the ranking, that should get you all caught up. This week we went down to one of the oldest burger joints in Davis, Redrum Burger, though people in town still call it by its original name, Murder Burger. Redrum is a tiny little grill shack right off of the 80 that definitely qualifies a-hole-in-the-wall location.

Anyway, to the burger! This is Redrum’s 1/3 pound cheeseburger. I ordered it with a side of regular fries and a chocolate milkshake. The burger itself was $6.59, the fries were $2.49 and the milkshake was $4.99. Let’s break it all down:

best burger in Davis Redrum

The Review

Patty (25/35) – I ordered the patty medium rare. The clerk told me it might come out medium, despite his warning the burger came out medium rare. The meat was high quality, not too greasy, seasoned well.

Cheese (17/25) – Good cheddar. Medium or sharper flavor. Melts well.

Bun (12/15) – Bun was ungrilled. Fresh. Not greasy. Held up throughout the meal.

Toppings (14/15) – Crisp, fresh lettuce. Big tomato slices. Bright red onions that bite back. Strong pickles.

Condiments (10/10) – Mustard and mayonnaise on the burger. No Ketchup? Yes! Not drowning the toppings and burger.

Ambiance (5/*) – This is still one of those old school roadside diners. It comes with “grit.” Slow service. The tiny space was full and there was only one person on the grill

Total (85/100) – Much better than the last burger. This is how I wanted this project to start, this is a great, cheap, roadside burger. Not a big fan of the fries though, too soft, not salty enough. Milkshake was great! Also, I ate it all (unlike the last one.)

Best Cheeseburger in Davis: Sudwerk

Welcome to the inaugural cheeseburger review in my pursuit of the best cheeseburger in Davis, CA. We’re starting with Sudwerk’s Gourmet Cheeseburger ($10.75) for our inaugural review. First, a quick apology for the silence on the blog front I have been busy organizing an event at the state Capitol. (It went very well. Thank you for asking.) That’s over now though and I hope to return to a regular posting schedule.

Being the first comes with both positives and negatives. The first to be judged is able to set expectations but they’re also examined in a vacuum without any context. I didn’t know where to begin on my list of burger joints. I couldn’t simply start from the beginning and go down as some of these restaurants have odd hours. Instead of trying to randomly select a place or dither on which I wanted to try I kicked the responsibility to picking a place to my friends on Facebook. The “winner” was Sudwerk, a combined craft brewery and restaurant that has been in Davis since 1989.

If you need help recalling how I rate cheeseburgers you will find the criteria here. And without further ado let’s dig in:

The Review

Patty (10/35) – I ordered a medium rare patty. The one I got was medium well to well done. The patty was heavily seasoned. Lots of pepper and salt. It was difficult to taste anything but the spice. Salty, greasy.

Cheese (8/25) – A thing single slice on the patty. Actual cheddar as I requested. Tasteless. Probably mild or medium cheddar.

Bun (10/15) – The bun was grilled. The top was too dry and the bottom was soaked in grease from the patty and/or water from the lettuce.

Toppings (5/15) – Lettuce was iceberg and pre-shredded. Unable to tell if fresh but I suspect not. Three pickle slices, two tomato slices, and a single slice of red onion. The pickles were bland as was the onion

Condiments (0/10) – No condiments on the burger. No condiments on the table.

Ambiance (2/*) – The space is fine. It did not detract from the meal but nor did it add to the meal. The servers and waiters were hustling and working hard.

Total (35/100) – Not a good start to the project… I am hopeful that it is all up from here! This burger was so bad that I did not finish eating it. Continue reading “Best Cheeseburger in Davis: Sudwerk”

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