Burger Parlor
204 North Harbor
Fullerton, CA 92832
It's time to let the cat out of the bag. Katie and I have finally decided to take the plunge and get married next year. So now my world is all about guest lists, color schemes, caterers, and venues. In fact, the wedding venue brought us up to Fullerton on a recent Saturday afternoon. The one place Katie has come back to again and again is a venue in Downtown Fullerton, right on Harbor Boulevard. So we grabbed my parents and checked it out, but we had to grab a bite before. I knew instantly where I wanted to go, Burger Parlor, which just happened to be within a block of the venue.
If you are a keen reader of this blog, you know that we have been to Burger Parlor before. That was back in 2011 when they were sharing restaurant space with Rialto Cafe, just around the corner from Burger Parlor's new digs. They have been in this new permanent spot for two years, and we have finally returned to see if the burgers are as good as we remember.
Burger Parlor comes to us from Chef Joseph Mahon. For those who do not know his story, he is a classically trained chef who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. While there, he worked at many big names, such as New York City restaurants. After graduating, he spent time working in France and then returned back to New York. He later found himself on the West Coast, working as Executive Chef at LA's infamous Bastide restaurant. Bastide is where his concept for Burger Parlor came from. They held Burger Mondays during his tenure there, and they were such a rousing success that he knew he had to do something with the iconic burger. Lucky for all of OC, he opened his burger restaurant near where he grew up. I was very excited to see the new place.
This new place is much bigger than his old spot at Rialto Cafe. We arrived at just about 4:30 on a recent Saturday afternoon, and there was a steady stream of people wandering in from outside, even at this early dinner hour. The space is much more open, with high ceilings, fantastic brick walls, and several large, flat-screen TVs showing the Stanley Cup Finals. The speakers in the restaurant definitely worked, as the indie music was on a tad too high, but it helped drown out some of my corny jokes, so I'm sure my parents and Katie appreciated that. Ordering is done at the counter, and the food is brought to you. Let's see if this would be as good as our first trip here.
We could start with the Bride to Be's burger, The Danish Blue ($8.95). Katie selected this burger with Danish blue cheese, grilled mushrooms, caramelized onions, oven-roasted tomato, and arugula. Katie liked the contrasts of this burger. She got the tang from the blue cheese, the onion's sweetness, and the hormone-free beef's tremendous meaty flavor. This burger was juicy, and the blue cheese was mild enough to not overpower it. She would definitely get this burger again.
My mom is a burger purist, which was on full display with her choice of burger that night. The Parlor Burger ($7.95) is their basic version of a cheeseburger here. American cheese, lettuce, caramelized onion, roasted tomato, and secret sauce top this. Again, the patty was very juicy, there was just the right amount of secret sauce used here, and the bun was sturdy enough to stand up to the moistness of the meat. My mom was pleased with this burger.
My dad got a little more adventurous with his burger after getting the Kali ($9.99). This California-inspired burger came topped with crushed avocado, smoked bacon, provolone cheese, peppers, onions, arugula, and a chipotle aioli. He liked this burger but felt there needed to be more avocado on it. It did look good from across the table.
Man, I debated what burger to get here longer than it takes some people to pick out what kind of car to buy. I finally settled on the Smoked Bacon Royal ($13.79). This burger appeared to be right up my alley. It starts with four pieces of bacon wrapped around the patty, then is topped with American cheese, caramelized onions, roughly chopped pickles, and bacon aioli. Just like when I ate the one-pound 100 percent bacon burger at Slater's 50/50, this burger overwhelmed me. The first few bites were pure bacon bliss, but as I got further along, the bacon became too much. I'm not a big fan of pickles, but I was happy some were here just to cancel out some of the bacon. If you are an extreme bacon fanatic, this burger is for you. On my next visit here, I will try a different burger, though.
Of course, we had to have some sides to go along with these burgers, so the first of our two sides was these Onion Rings ($3.95). Their menu states that these rings are hand-dipped and beer-battered to order, and I have no reason to doubt based on how they taste. These were some perfect onion rings. The beer batter provided a nice, crunchy outer coating with an excellent casing for the sweet onion. Less greasy than I thought, these are necessary when going to Burger Parlor.
These DTF Fries are worth ordering at Burger Parlor ($4.25). I will probably get stoned for this, but I'm not a big fan of the animal fries at In N Out. (I'm also not really into their burgers, but that is a story for another day.) These DTF fries are their version of animal fries, except they are good. These fries are topped with secret sauce, cheese, and onions, like their In N Out counterparts, but then chili is added to the mix here, making these almost irresistible. The chili was very well-made and meaty, with just a touch of spice. The fries, for the most part, all stayed crisp until the last one was plucked from the bowl. You could tell that the fries were fresh and not frozen. While everyone was eating the onion rings, I was stealing extra bites of these fries.
We had about twenty minutes until our appointment to see our potential wedding venue, so we had time to get dessert. My mom is a Chocolate Shake ($3.99) connoisseur, and she gave this one her seal of approval. The shake was nice and thick and made with Thrifty brand ice cream. It is also used at Farrell's, so you know it's good. The chocolate was not overpowering, which made me think they made this with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. Either way, it was good. I'm a giant brownie sundae fan, so I had to have it when I saw the Brownie Daze ($6.75) on the menu. Two scoops of vanilla ice cream, with hot fudge, caramel sauce, brownie bites, chocolate chips, whipped cream, and a cherry to top it off with made-up this sundae. I was surprised that it was served in a plastic cup, but I suspect there was some sort of mix-up because it took a really long time for us to receive our desserts. The sundae was still good, with a decent ratio of ice cream to other toppings, which is crucial to me when eating ice cream desserts. A perfect end to our time at Burger Parlor.
Even though my burger overwhelmed me, I still enjoyed this trip to Burger Parlor. Seeing how this place has evolved from such humble beginnings at Rialto Cafe is excellent. There are now 13 burgers to choose from, not counting specials that appear from time to time. They also have other sandwiches and salads for the non-burger-eating public (all six of you). I liked the vibe of this place as well. It had a relaxed vibe to it without being too hipster. The service we experienced that night was good, even with the bit of snafu with the desserts taking ten minutes to come out to the table. The guy at the register was knowledgeable about the menu, and the food runners ensured we had everything we needed. The prices here are high, but you are paying for the quality ingredients they use to create these delicious burgers. Glad we came here first before looking at the wedding venue because it gave me an idea of where to eat before the big day coming next year.
Out of five red hats (because the social organization, the Red Hat Society, was started by a Fullerton resident), five being best to zero being worst, Burger Parlor gets 3.5 red hats.
For more information about Burger Parlor, go to their website here: http://www.burgerparlor.com/
