1401 Broadway
Seattle, WA 98122
After a well-deserved vacation nap, we ventured back out to have dinner. We had tackled Pike Place Market earlier in the day, along with the Seattle Great Wheel, and had amassed a good amount of our 12,000 steps walking up and down the hills of downtown Seattle. It was time for dinner, and another chance to cross another restaurant off my Seattle wishlist. This time we swung by 8oz. Burger Co.
Before leaving for Seattle I did a ton of research on where to eat. On every best burger list, they included 8oz Burger Co. as one of the best burgers in all of the Northwest. This was a must-visit, and with one of their two locations a mere ten minutes away from our downtown hotel, we made the trip to the Capitol Hill area of Seattle to see what they were all about.
8oz Burger Co. comes to us from Chef/owner Kevin Chung and his mentor Govind Armstrong. Govind had this concept down in LA, and they decided to do it up in Seattle. They settled on this Capitol Hill location and opened it in 2011. Back then they started with Govind's recipes but after a year they transitioned to Kevin's menu. A menu that utilizes organic, local, and sustainable ingredients for their award-winning burgers.
The menu is broken into sections featuring snacks, salads, burgers, other sandwiches, and sides. Their nine half-pound burgers come ala carte and run about $16, with sides going for $6. There are twenty sauces to pick from, most are a fifty-cent upcharge. Not in the mood for a burger? Chicken, veggie, fish, and turkey options are available. We arrived here on a Thursday evening and were met with a ten-minute wait, which was not too bad for this smaller than I expected spot. Let's see if all the accolades for 8oz Burger and Co. are warranted.
Katie will start things off with her pick, The Madison ($15). This half-pound burger patty was topped with watercress, tomato, ale-roasted mushrooms, onions, thyme-infused truffle salt, aged gruyere, and an herb aioli. A very grown-up burger. Katie liked the way that all of the toppings melded together nicely, and allowed the juicy beef patty to be the star of the show. She described this as a very refined burger.
I went with their namesake burger, the 8oz. ($16). This one came with Beecher's Flagship cheese, bacon, balsamic onions, truffle aioli, and arugula. The burger patty, which is made up of 100 percent black Angus beef from Pasco, Washington, was nice and juicy, and one of the cleanest patties I have had in a long while. I had asked for this to be medium, but it was closer to medium-well but was still good. A sign that this is excellent beef. All of the toppings were a little more subdued than I thought they would be. This was my first time having Beecher's flagship cheese, and I could not really get a good taste of it. The bacon lacked the smokiness that I expected, and I'm not even sure that there was more than one strip on here. The truffle aioli needed to be applied with a heavier hand to make it more prominent. The brioche bun was nice and spongy and kept everything together nicely.
Since we had eaten a lot earlier in the day, we decided to spilt the Small Kennebec Fries ($4). These fries were obviously cut in-house, and fried perfectly. A good solid fry. We trusted our server to pick her four favorite sauces (.50 each). She brought us the 8oz Special Sauce, Herb Aioli, Honey Curry Aioli, and Peppercorn Aioli. I liked the variety here, but I found myself always veering back to the herb aioli and the peppercorn aioli, both of which made each fry and eventually my burger better. I'm very curious about the rest of their 16 sauces we didn't try, especially the gorgonzola sauce and the bacon mayo.
Even though I had wished my burger toppings had been a little more prominent, I could see why these burgers top a lot of best burger lists. The burgers are really good, but I feel like I'd have to visit a few more times to perfect my ultimate burger at 8oz Burger and Co. I was also a fan of the fries and the variety of sauces that they have here. The service was good, and the burgers came out promptly. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant, as it was nice and relaxed. Just what we wanted after the touristy day we had earlier.
Out of five contact lenses, (because cultural icon Bruce Lee is buried in nearby Lake View Cemetery, and he was one of the first people to try contact lenses), five being best to zero being worst, 8oz Burger and Co. gets 3 contact lenses.
For more information about 8oz Burger and Co., head to their website by clicking here: https://www.8ozburgerandco.com/
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