GD Bro Burger
2321 East 4th St.
Santa Ana, CA 92705
It seems like the burger wars are starting to heat up again in OC if they ever really cooled down. All of a sudden there seems to be a new burger place opening up every week or so. In just the last few months, Krave Burger, Holsteins, and Hopdoody Burger Bar have made their presence felt by opening new locations in Orange County. On our way to watch the Ducks early-season woes, we swung by another burger place that's getting a lot of attention for their burgers, GD Bro Burger.
If you are a big fan of the TV show "The Great Food Truck Race," then this restaurant might ring a bell for you. Unfortunately, I have not had too much time to watch food TV these days, as I have been binge-watching Mad Men and Breaking Bad on Netflix. I did look it up though, and the GD Bro Burger truck finished in third place on this year's race on Food Network. On the show, there were three of them running things, good friends Kevin, Geoffrey, and Mark. Now their restaurant website only lists Kevin and Mark as running things. Not sure what happened to Geoffrey, but I was still pretty excited to give this place a try.
GD Bro Burger is located in the old Toro Burger spot, on the corner of 4th Street and Tustin Avenue, right next to the 55 Freeway. There's a Subway right next door, along with a UPS store. I believed that the GD stood for god damn, but I was wrong. I guess that would make my mom happy that they are nice guys that wouldn't say god damn. It actually means globally delicious. There are currently six burgers to choose from on their menu, along with some signature fries, regular style fries, and mozzarella sticks. I've also seen some killer shakes on their Instagram page, but did not have one on this evening. Maybe next time. Let's see what we did have though, and how we liked it.
Let's start things off with Katie's selection, the KBBQ Poutine Burger ($9.95). Before we get to the burger, you'll probably notice the bright red buns at GD Bro Burger. These are their signature raspberry buns, but they also offer a traditional bun as well. To tell the truth, I did not really get too much raspberry from these buns, but they did an admirable job of keeping everything together, which is basically all I ask for in a hamburger bun. This burger was topped with mozzarella cheese, Korean short rib, pickled red onions, sesame seed chives, and homestyle gravy, which Katie asked for on the side. She stated that she has not had such a delicious burger in quite a long time. The short rib was tender, and added a nice flavor to the well made burger patty. A wonderful mixture of flavors made this burger a winner in Katie's book.
I was really torn when it came to choosing a burger here, but this Italian Stallion ($9.95) eventually won out. This pizza inspired burger came with mozzarella sticks, pizza sauce, spinach, pepperoni, and ranch. The toppings are what make the burgers here, but this is a good quality hamburger, and the toppings really enhanced it. The mozzarella sticks were some of the best I have had recently, and I was afraid that the pizza sauce would overwhelm, but it did not. The burgers were not overly huge, but I would not be able to eat two of them like I can do at Umami Burger. I liked this burger but would try their Mexican inspired Juan and Only Burger on my next visit.
We did try the Mexican inspired Consuela Fries ($5.95) on this evening though. These fries were topped with pepper jack cheese, avocado, pico de gallo, chipotle mayo, and some Cajun seasonings. I really liked the spicy flavor of these, and they resembled a much better version of In-N-Out's animal fries. The one problem with these was that the cheese was all clumped together, as these fries were not served hot. Lukewarm, but still a must-try when you come here.
I really enjoyed our time at GD Bro Burger. Are these the best burgers in OC? Not sure about that after only this one visit, but I think I'd need to come back and try some of their other burgers on their menu to make up my mind. It kind of seems to me that the toppings on these burgers are what make them stand out, which is fine by me. Don't get me wrong, the burgers on their own are good here, but what I really enjoyed was the creativity of their signature burgers. In my opinion, these are near the top of my burger list. I also did not feel that these burgers were too expensive, and they definitely did feel me up. The service that we experienced was great, and I should mention that they offered us samples of their house made juices when we walked in, and they were all pretty solid. I've heard that the wait times can get pretty long for this place, but we must have hit them at just the right time, 5pm on a Wednesday night, as we were able to walk right in, place our order, and have our food ready within ten minutes. GD Bro Burger is definitely a player in the burger wars that are taking place in OC right now.
Out of five spices, (because GD is the country code for the Caribbean island nation of Grenada, which is known as the Island of Spice), five being best to zero being worst, GD Bro Burger gets 3.5 spices.
For more information about GD Bro Burger, head to their website here: http://www.gdbrotruck.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment