It’s a Win-Win if You Eat This Burger in Glendale

 For the Win

1200 South Brand Blvd. #3

Glendale, CA 91204

It was family time again up in Burbank. This time, the occasion was a college graduation party for Amanda, Katie's cousin's daughter. She graduated from USC with a degree in Music Industry and a minor in Sports Management. She's bright, focussed, and a lovely girl, and I'm not just saying this to suck up because there might be some complimentary concert/sports tickets in my future. 

As is our custom when spending the night in Burbank, we always try to sneak in a place to eat on our way up and back home. For the Win has been on my list of places to try forever, so it was not even a question that we'd be visiting here on this trip to try their very much-hyped smash burger. I have yet to read a smash burger best-of list that does not mention their burgers at all. I was pretty excited. 

For the Win was born out of the pandemic. Papilles Bistro was an award-winning bistro, but when lockdown orders came down, the owners pivoted from French food to smash burgers and chicken sandwiches. After many months of tinkering, they created a smash burger with crispy edges but still juicy in the middle, an excellent sauce to compliment the beef and cheese, and the perfect soft potato bun to hold everything together. The chicken sandwich was also a labor of love, and it took a lot of time to get it right. 

Their customers must love their burgers and chicken sandwiches because they have nine locations operating, along with two cloud kitchens in Echo Park and West LA. Unfortunately, they have no OC locations, but the closest one is in Whittier. Their menu is simple to navigate. They offer single, double, or triple burgers, with or without cheese and chicken sandwiches. Sides include fries, sweet potato fries, brussels sprouts, and loaded fries, which are topped with grilled onions, cheese, and fry sauce. Shakes are also available in vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry flavors. Their online menu differs from the menu in-store, as you can not order a chicken sandwich online, and the shakes are available online but not on their current menu at this location. Confusing. 

We arrived at For the Win's Glendale spot just after 1pm on a Saturday. They are located in a small shopping plaza, with only 15 or so parking spots, so it might be challenging to find parking during peak meal times here. There's little in the way of a dining room here, too. They had two small tables outside and a tiny counter space inside, fitting four patrons snuggly. Even with a steady stream of people coming through the door, it only took us ten minutes to receive our food. Here's how everything turned out for us. 

For the Win is mainly known for their burgers, so of course, I'm going to start off with their Fried Chicken Sandwich ($12). This sandwich was dressed simply with pickles and mayo on a pillowy soft potato bun. I'm usually partial to chicken sandwiches made of a single piece instead of pieces, as they are generally easier to eat, but this one stayed together well. The chicken was juicy, but I wished for a little more crunch to their breading, which was nicely seasoned. They could have had a heavier hand when the mayo was applied. It's a good chicken sandwich, but it's not crave-worthy.  

What is crave-worthy are the burgers at For the Win. From my first bite, I was enthralled with this burger. I knew I would be eating at our upcoming family party in the coming hours, and it took all my willpower not to order another burger right away. I ordered the Double Cheeseburger ($12.50 plus $1.95) for bacon). The burgers here come with pickles, fry sauce, and grilled onions. Tomato, lettuce, bacon, and jalapenos are an upcharge of fifty cents to $1.95. The double patty option hit my sweet spot, as it had an outstanding balance of meat, cheese, bacon, and bun. The potato bun is soft and pliable and keeps its structural integrity for the short time it took me to inhale this burger. The beef patty had crispy edges, and the center was juicy in the center, which is not always the case when ordering smash burgers. The cheese was gooey, and even though I'm not the world's biggest fan of pickles on burgers, they worked here to add a little tang to each bite. My one knock on this burger was that it needed some extra sauce, but I'll order more the next time I'm here. This burger is definitely worth the trip. 

For some odd reason, I was not feeling like fries, so we went with Brussels Sprouts ($6) as our side item. This was a very generous serving size, but I quickly got bored with these. They were fried crisp and seasoned with a little too much salt. I would have liked a sweet sauce to help break up the salt and natural bitterness of the sprouts. Not my favorite side, but for people who want a slightly healthier option than fries, this might be more to your liking. 

Okay, I did have some minor misses with the sprouts and the chicken sandwich, but that burger is definitely in the running for one of the best smash burgers I have had to date. It was so good that since we visited, I'm trying to find reasons to come back up to have that burger again. This location of For the Win is not the most convenient to eat at, as there's limited seating, and it's more conducive to takeout orders, but these smash burgers are worth the hassle. I'm looking forward to the day that they enter the OC market. I'll be the first in line. 

Out of five streetcars (because this restaurant is on Brand Boulevard, named after Leslie Brand, a city leader in the early 1900s who was instrumental in getting streetcars to Glendale), five being best and zero being worst, For the Win gets four streetcars. 

For more information about For the Win, head to their website by clicking here: https://forthewinla.com/#

Jacked Up to Try Jack’s Woodside Grill

 Jack's Woodside Grille

30065 Suite A Alicia Parkway

Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

It was vacation week for Katie and me, so we took this rare opportunity to walk at the beach, get our house in order, go through the mail, and eat. We both have full-time jobs, so we only have one day a week to try a breakfast restaurant. During football season, that number dips to zero, as football takes up our entire Sunday from 10 a.m. until the last whistle of the Sunday night game, usually around 8 p.m. Yes, we are a little obsessed. 

We have wanted to try Jack's Woodside Grille since it opened in March of this year. In those eight months, Jack's has amassed a very impressive 4.7-star rating on Yelp and has a weekend wait for tables of anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the day. In the fifteen years I've been writing this blog, this address was the location of Legado Bar and Kitchen and Beach Pit BBQ, and before that, it used to be a Pick-Up Sticks.  

Jack's Woodside Grille is named after Jack Holder, a World War II veteran who opened his first breakfast restaurant in 1957. As the years passed, he and his children opened several other restaurants in Northern California. Jack Holder passed away, but his legacy lives on in the form of the restaurants his children have continued to run, including this one named in his honor and the first one in Southern California. 

Only open from 7 til 2pm, the menu here is geared towards breakfast, but they offer some lunch options, including burgers, sandwiches, and salads. The breakfast portion of the menu is broken up into egg dishes, griddled items, specials, omelets, classic breakfast plates, and benedicts. The average price per item on the menu's breakfast side is around $17, which is reasonable nowadays. Katie and I quickly made our selections, and here's how everything came out for us during our maiden visit to Jack's Woodside Grille. 

Katie took longer to decide what to order than usual, and I wonder if it was because so many things looked good or if she was just extra indecisive this morning. She finally selected the Jack's Special ($16). This scramble came with two scrambled eggs, ground beef, spinach, mushrooms, onion, and jack cheese. She stated that she would generally shy away from ground beef when having breakfast, but she found this to be very much to her liking. She enjoyed the lightness of the eggs, felt the ingredients were fresh, and loved the rye bread that came with her meal. Her only complaint was that the cheese was not melted, and there needed to be more of it sprinkled on top. 

When I eat breakfast out, I tend to look for the items on the menu that have the most breakfast meats. At Jack's Woodside, that meant I would be having the Supreme Omelet ($17). This omelet came with four kinds of meat: sausage, ham, bacon, and linguica, which is joined by some mushrooms, bell peppers, jack and white cheddar cheese, and Spanish sauce. The omelet had a souffle-like feel that I enjoyed, but I was not in love with this plate. The breakfast meats were cut too small to be noticeable, the Spanish sauce was bland and tasted like jarred spaghetti sauce, and the cheese needed to be melted. The outer portion of the hashbrowns was nice and crisp, but the inside lacked seasoning. I always enjoy it when a restaurant allows you to sub out toast for pancakes, and these were pretty solid pancakes. The buttermilk flavor came through, and they had maple syrup on the table, so you could add your desired amount of syrup instead of asking the server for extra. 

No, I did not have two meals on this visit; I returned recently with my friend to try their Chicken Fried Steak ($21). This was better than my omelet. I mixed my hashbrowns and eggs this time and added a good amount of pepper, making them automatically better than the first time I visited. The chicken-fried steak was good, but I would have liked the outer portion of it to be crunchier. The delicious country gravy helped save this from being just your run-of-the-mill chicken fried steak. The Swedish pancakes get a lot of love online, but I failed to see their attraction. They came out lukewarm at best, and the lingonberry butter did not add much flavor. They were okay, but the pancakes are the better option at Jack's.  

I really wanted to give Jack's a glowing review. The service has been stellar the two times I've been here, and the management team has been very hands-on in ensuring everything runs smoothly. Unfortunately, the food has not been up to the same standard. Even though the price point and portion sizes are more than fair, I have not found anything that has wowed me here, and the only thing left on their menu that intrigues me still is the Crab Benedict and maybe something off of the lunch menu. Jack's is okay, but not in my top 3 breakfast spots in Laguna Niguel. In case you were wondering, my top Laguna Niguel breakfast spots are still Mollies Country Kitchen, Plumeria Cafe, and Snooze. 

Out of five wildcats (because the sports teams for the Woodside High School sports teams are called the Wildcats), five being best to zero being worst, Jack's Woodside Grille gets 2.5 wildcats.  

For more information about Jack's Woodside Grille, head to their website by clicking here: https://jackswoodside.com/