It's All Still Great at G Burger - CLOSED

G Burger

421 East La Habra Blvd. 

La Habra, CA 90631

In my quest to review at least 1000 restaurants on this blog, I rarely go to the same place more than once. There's always a new restaurant to try or one I have wanted to eat at but have yet to make it to. The four pages of my restaurant wishlist can attest to that. My point is that a restaurant has to be unique for me to make a return visit, but G Burger in La Habra is definitely in that particular category.

My first visit to G Burger was six years ago. It was the first restaurant I ate at in La Habra, a city some people still think is in LA County. 2012 was a magical time for burger lovers. It was an era when new burger spots were opening up everywhere. Chefs were ditching their fine dining roots and opening burger spots to feed us. The burger was not just something you would pick up at the drive-thru anymore. It was elevated to an art form that chefs liked to showcase on their menus and prove they could do better than anyone else. I loved this time.

On my first visit to G Burger, I met George Makri, the man behind the grill and the founder of G Burger. I remember him being subdued but passionate about how he crafted his burgers. He told us that he went to the farmers market when possible for produce, made all of their sauces in-house, and was very picky about their vendors. The results were evident when you consumed one of their burgers. When asked today about my top burgers in OC, I always mention G Burger.

Flash forward to the present. When Samie from G Burger reached out to me through Instagram to invite me to try some of their new menu items, I could definitely not say no to this very generous invitation. I grabbed my friend Jeffery, and we made the long trek from South OC to the northernmost city in OC, La Habra, for a late lunch.

Once here, we met with Antonio, the current man behind the grill (sorry, I did not get his last name). I inquired about George, and he told me they were on their third owner now and that George had left the area some time ago. I did a little internet sleuthing and found out he is now the owner of a bar and grill in Quebec, which does sell burgers, but the menu is in French, so I'm not sure if they are like the ones he made here at G Burger. I also asked about the heartbreaking closure of G Burger Irvine, which is closest to my house, and he claimed that it was a financial decision partly based on the overabundance of burger options available near the Tustin Marketplace. The good news is that there are no plans to close the Fountain Valley G Burger anytime soon.

G Burger is located in the downtown district on the corner of La Habra and Lemon. It's a small restaurant where you order at the register, and then you try to find one of the ten or so tables, or if they are occupied, there's counter seating facing the restaurant's front window. We were here after the lunch rush, so we had no problem getting a table. The only problem for us was trying to narrow down what we wanted to eat, but we did so after some tremendous inner struggle. Let's see if G Burger is still as great as in 2012.

The first clue I had that the burgers would be just as good as they were was that they looked like works of art. First up was my Blue G's Burger ($10.50). This masterpiece was stacked high with an Angus beef patty, lettuce, tomato, blue cheese crumbles, BBQ sauce, butter pickles, candy cayenne bacon, and crispy red onion rings. I ended up taking half of the onions out of the burger to make it more manageable. I really enjoyed the myriad of flavors on this one. The crisp and well-seasoned bacon, the tang from the blue cheese, the barbecue sauce's slightly sweet touch, and the crunchy onions' texture made this a balanced and well-thought-out burger. Even after I took the stick out of the middle of this, the bun did a great job of holding this half-pound burger and everything else together. Really impressive.

Jeffery's burger choice did not fail to impress when it hit the table either. He selected one of their new burgers, the Guacamole Burger ($11.95), as his afternoon lunch. This burger was listed on their specials board right next to the register. This colorful burger came with plenty in the way of creamy guacamole, swiss cheese, two strips of bacon, tortilla strips, chopped red onions, tomatoes, and peppers, and was crowned with chili topping on its bun. Jeffery really liked this burger and made it disappear rather quickly. They did not splurge with the toppings on this one. This definitely should make their regular menu.

Sides should not be ignored at G Burger. The G Style Fries ($5) is a much better version of the animal fries you can get at In N Out. I've always thought that the only reason to order animal fries at In N Out is to make their awful fries go down much easier. Okay, sorry for my anti-In N Out rant. These fries stayed crisp even with the Thousand Island, cheese, red onion, and bacon bits covering them. These are the way to go if you want to jazz up your fries a little bit. I've always loved the Onion Rings ($5.50) at G Burger. When I first came here, they used red onions for their rings. Now, they use the more traditional brown onion, which is buried inside one of the best breadings to ever cover an onion. They went well with some of the ranch dressing we were provided with. Still one of my favorite onion rings around.

Based on this visit, I'm happy to report that all is well at G Burger. A lot of times, after the initial owners leave, the quality takes a hit. I did not find that to be the case here. I sensed the same finesse when putting the burgers together; the ingredients were fresh and carefully chosen, and they still made their sauces, including one of the best ranch dressings around these parts. Full disclosure, we did try another one of their specials, Chicken Wings and Fries, which were in the testing phase while we were here, and they could have been better. The breading needed to be thicker, and the sauces covering the chicken also needed to be corrected. Definitely stick with their burgers and sides, and you can not go wrong. I'm still sad that the Irvine location closed, but that makes every trip up here to La Habra much more special.

G Burger does not have a website, but you can find out a lot about them from their Yelp page here: https://www.yelp.com/biz/g-burger-la-habra-la-habra