Too Much Flour Power at Berkeley Dog - CLOSED

Berkeley Dog

25522 Marguerite Parkway Ste 101

Mission Viejo, CA 92692

We have now written over 200 restaurant reviews. I sometimes wonder about the restaurants we have written about and if they have improved since we last went there. I saw an advertisement for Berkeley Dog, and they were promoting a new bacon hash dog. Bacon hash! That is all they had to say, and I was back with my friends Mike and Richard to give Berkeley Dog another shot.

The last time we were at Berkeley Dog, they were sharing their space with a yogurt shop. Big surprise: The yogurt shop, like many others throughout the county, is not here anymore, and they have the space all to themselves. We arrived at 3 p.m. on a Wednesday, ordered from a very cheerful employee at the counter, and waited for our food to come out. Here is what we had.

On our first journey to Berkeley Dog, I tried the sausages. This time, we went big, starting with the Monster Fries above. Monster fries are topped with onions, bacon, and cheese sauce. These tasted just okay. I am not really a big fan of cheese sauces. I would have rather had grated cheese on this instead. The fries were your average fast-food fries.

Another new item since the last time we were here is the Chili Cheese Dog. Mike and I split this, and we both had the same opinion of this dog. The chili was good, but it took a lot of work to get past the bun. The buns at Berkeley Dog are some of the worst we have had. There is just too much bread for a hot dog. They would be better off getting store-brand hot dog buns and using those. Since there was so much bread, so the hot dog and cheese got lost here.

Now, the reason I came back here is the Bacon Hash Dog. The hash consisted of hash brown sticks, onions, and bacon bits. The hash browns needed to be seasoned with salt. The hot dog and bacon were good, but like the chili dog above, the bun detracted from the flavor and made this specialty dog dry. I had such high hopes for this and was so let down.

The next sausage I had was the Louisiana Hot Link. This really packed a punch. It was very spicy and had a good snap to the hot dog.This was my favorite thing here this afternoon, but again, the bun tried to steal the show from the hot dog and almost won in this case.

Mike has been on a fried egg kick lately, adding it to numerous hamburgers at Slater's 50/50 and other places. Berkeley Dog was no exception for him. Here, he added an egg to the Juicy Habanero. According to Mike, the egg added nothing here. He would have liked to have had the egg seasoned with pepper or salt. The result of not doing this made the egg flavorless and unnecessary.  He felt that the habanero had a decent kick he would leave out the egg next time.

Mike still hoped for a redeeming hot dog when he ordered the Kielbasa with onions and peppers. His hopes were dashed after finishing this, though. Mike described the kielbasa as "bland." Like the hash brown sticks and egg before them, the peppers and onions added nothing to the kielbasa. Finally tired of the bun, he discarded it less than halfway through this sausage. He was very disappointed.

As disappointed as Mike and I were about this place, Richard was even more disappointed about Berkeley Dog. He called the Kobe Beef Dog delicious but was too distracted by the bun to enjoy this hot dog. His second choice, the Calabrese, he did not finish. The fennel in this sausage really over powered the taste, and led Richard to call this sausage, "awful".

Richard also chose to order the Funnel Cake Fries here. These "fries" were listed right along with the regular fries, but they were more of a dessert than french fries. We did agree that these were good, but they were missing something. Maybe some caramel or chocolate dipping sauce would go even better with them. Without a sauce, we grew tired of these rather quickly.

The last thing we went with was the Chili Cheese Fries. Like the chili cheese dog, we liked the chili enough to call these fries solid. I especially liked the grated cheese on top of these. The chili, cheese, and fries ratio here was pretty good, and that can sometimes be hard to get just right.

So, was our second trip to Berkeley Dog better than the first? No, it was not. Like the first time I was here, the main problem with this place is the bun. There is too much of it, and it takes all the moisture out of the hot dog and the toppings you put on it. A simple fix would be offering a more traditional bun,, allowing the hot dogs and sausages to shine. The meats here are delicious but get pushed to the side by the overpowering bread. Also, a little seasoning from the cooks would help bring out some flavor in the grilled onions, egg, peppers, and hash browns. I did like the wide variety of mustards and relishes that they offer, but I am not sure that is enough to make us want to come back.

So out of five golden bears (because that is the nickname for the University of California sports teams located in Berkeley), five being best to zero being worst, Berkeley Dog gets 2 golden bears.

For more information on Berkeley Dog, click here: http://www.berkeleydogs.com/index.html 

Hot Doggin' It at Berkeley Dog - CLOSED

Berkeley Dog

25522 Marguerite Pkwy Ste 101

Mission Viejo, CA 92692

Hot dogs and sausages have been the new food trend lately. There is the new Valhalla Table in Costa Mesa, Portillo's in Buena Park, and now we have Berkeley Dog in Mission Viejo. Berkeley Dog is the sister store to the legendary Top Dog, which has been serving Cal students since 1966. Top Dog started when a young man from New York needed help finding a good dog in northern California. So he took matters into his own hands and came up with Top Dog.

Berkeley Dog is located inside a yogurt shop in Mission Viejo. They have a straightforward menu. You can choose ten different frankfurters and sausages, all priced at $3.75. Their toppings include grilled onions, peppers, and fried eggs. Any of these added to the sausages will cost you fifty cents. They have a large assortment of condiments you may add for free. These include at least three different kinds of mustard, sauerkraut, and diced onions. So, let's look at what they have going on at Berkeley Dog.

First up in our cavalcade of sausages is the Bockwurst above. This sausage is half pork and half veal, with eggs and milk added. This had a very mellow taste, almost too mellow for me. It really did not taste like anything.  This was Katie's favorite out of all the hot dogs we ate. She liked the texture and added sauerkraut and Dijon mustard to this one.

The Smoked Chicken Apple is next. This really had an unusual taste that you would not expect from a sausage. The sweetness from the bits of apple really shocked my taste buds here. I liked this one; it was the second-best out of the five that we sampled.  Katie also liked this one second best, mainly because it is deficient in salt.

This is the Kobe Beef Dog. The menu says it is made from 100 percent premium beef. This dog did have a nice beefy flavor. Katie felt it was too salty, but I liked the taste of this hot dog. 

The classic  Frankfurter was next for us to try. We added grilled onions to this one. I liked this dog better with the onions. Both of us thought that this frankfurter really had a good snap to it, though Katie thought that it was too greasy and lacked the meaty flavor of the Kobe dog. I thought the flavor on this one was okay.

Our last stop on our adventure around Berkeley Dog is the Calabrese. This one was my favorite, made of pork, paprika, chili, and fennel. Katie thought this had way too much fennel, but I liked the spice, and this sausage made me wish I had gotten their Louisiana Hot Link. I added spicy deli mustard to this for an added kick as well.

I have yet to mention the buns at Berkeley Dog. I did not like them, and I thought they took away from the frankfurters and the sausages. The meat-to-bun ratio was all off for me. I would have just been so much happier with store-brand hot dog buns. The buns here are more of a French roll consistency, and I would have rather had softer buns. The star of this show should have been the meat, but it was overshadowed by the less talented bread.

I will probably give Berkeley Dog another shot, mainly because I want to try the Louisiana Hot Link. I will also add grilled onions to the other dogs to fill up the bun.

Out of five hippies (I am sure you get the connection), five being best to zero being worst, Berkeley Dog gets 2.5 hippies.

For more information on Berkeley Dog, click here: http://www.berkeleydogs.com/index.html