Steelhead Diner, March 19th 2010

The Steelhead Diner is situated in the heart of downtown, just up from Pike's Market, and was the destination for our most recent Burger Tour.  The restaurant has the feel of an old school diner, but has modernized touches to better fit within a metropolitan city.  The owners, a husband and wife team, Kevin and Terresa Davis pride themselves on practicing sustainability and supporting local growers, bread makers, cheese makers, and organic and natural beef producers.  This is clearly evidenced in the reason for our visit, their American Wagyu Beef Burger.  This burger features Beecher's cheddar cheese and a Le Panier bun, two local establishments which are just down the street in the Market.  Sauteed onions and mushrooms rounded off the toppings.  However, the real star is the American Wagyu beef. 

American Wagyu Beef Burger

What is Wagyu beef?
This refers to several breeds of cattle genetically predisposed to intense marbling and to producing a high percentage of oleaginous unsaturated fat. The meat from wagyū cattle is known worldwide for its marbling characteristics, increased eating quality through a naturally enhanced flavor, tenderness and juiciness, and thus a high market value. Highly prized for their rich flavor, these cattle produce arguably the finest beef in the world

What is American Wagyu Beef?
In the United States, Japanese wagyū cattle is bred with Angus cattle to create a crossbreed that is better able to survive the U.S. climate and ranching methods. The meat of this crossbreed provides the balance of marbling and red meat desired by American buyers. Designed to mimic the diet that Japanese cattle receives, wagyū cattle in the United States are fed a mixture of corn, barley, alfalfa, and wheat straw.

Here's how I rated the burger.
Meat: 4
Bunnage: 3.5
Fixings: 3.5
Overall: 4

I thought the American Wagyu beef patty was easiliy the best patty we've had so far. The meat had good flavor and was nice and juicy. It was a good size, not too thin or thick.  My burger was cooked to the specified "medium" doneness, but there were some complaints of burgers being undercooked.  The picture above is evidence of that.  This was likely the result of a busy Friday night, but certainly not a good excuse for this type of mistake.  The Le Painer bun had a good texture, but didn't hold up well throughout the entire meal.  The melted Beechers chedder cheese was excellent, but the mushrooms and onions were lacking in quantity.  I could have used double the amount of those two toppings.  The only reason I gave as high as a 3.5 for fixings was because in the rating I included the side of Poutine. The french fries topped with gravy

and melted Beechers cheese curds were amazing. I have only had poutine once before, but I was blown away by this side dish.  Overall I definitely enjoyed the burger, mainly because of the quality meat used in the patty, and the side of poutine really makes the whole meal enjoyable.


 
 
Take a listen the everyone else's thoughts on the burger....
 

 
And here are the scores for the American Wagyu Beef Burger:

MEET

 
 


BUNNAGE

FIXINGS

OVERALL

So just average scores for the Steelhead diner, and I think that is ultimately due to the inconsistentancy of the meat on that busy Friday night.  Some burgers were undercooked and some fixings were sparse or completely absent, leaving some burger eaters wanting more.  The Wagyu beef is a great way to start a burger, but this is clear evidence that there is more to a burger than just the meat.

Feel free to add your thoughts on the American Wagyu Beef burger in the comments sections.

Cathy, Annie, Brad, Dino, Katrina, Julie, Amanda, Dave

Red Mill Burgers, February 12th 2010

About a month ago now, we ventured out to a seldom-visited land  called Interbay, which sits somewhere between Ballard, Queen Anne, Magnolia, and Downtown, to probably the most famous burger joint in Seattle.....Red Mill Burgers.  Red Mill has been mentioned in GQ magazine, was featured on the TV show Man vs Food, and has even been mentioned on the Oprah Winfrey Show.  It is always part of discussions about the best burger in Seattle, so it was our turn to find out.

Red Mill offers an essentially classic burger selection.  You can get a single or double, with our without pepper bacon.  Other burger options include a blue cheese burger, bbq burger, and a red caramelized onion burger.  They also offer veggie or chicken burgers for those who don't eat red meat. 

Pair of Bacon Deluxes w/ Cheese

The beef in the burgers at Red Mill are 1/4 pound, flame broiled fresh beef patties.  The Deluxe burgers come with lettuce, tomato, pickle, red onion, and mill sauce.  The Bacon Deluxes come with Red Mill's famous pepper bacon, which you can smell the second you walk in the door.  Interestingly, Red Mill uses American cheese as their standard on the cheeseburgers.  This is all served on a simple seasame seed bun.  

I ordered the Double Bacon Deluxe with Cheese.  My first thought was that beef patties seemed thin and unsubstantial....and they were.  Since I ordered a double burger I had plenty of meat, but I'm sure a single would not have been enough for my large appetite.  Additionally, the beef was a little over cooked, not too juicy, and not very flavorful.  Where this burger really shined was in the fixings.  The burger is heaped full of fresh lettuce, tomato, and onions (there are also pickels, but I removed those).  There were plenty of veggies

to get me through the entire burger.  The Mill Sauce adds a nice smokey flavor and keeps your bites moiste, and the entire things is topped with a perfectly melted slice of, yes, American cheese.  Normally I would take cheddar over American any day of th week, but the American cheese works great in this burger.  Finally, the highlight of the fixings was the pepper bacon.  The bacon was cooked perfectly; not soft and greasy, and not overly crunchy.  I didn't count exactly how many stips topped the burger, but the strips were huge and I seemed to have bacon in every bite.  The bun was a standard sesame seed bun, substantial enough to hold all the fixings together the whole way through the burger, and light enough to not take away from any of the burger flavor.  Cathy and I shared a choclate chip mint malt which was like sipping minty deliciousness through a straw.  The fries on the side were a good compliment to the burger, but the better option for a side is the onion rings.  There were thick, not overly battered, and the entire onion didn't pull out with each bite.  I definitely enjoyed this burger and would go back in a heatbeat.  There are a couple other burgers I would like to try, mainly the Red Onion Jam Burger & BBQ Burger, but the Double Bacon Deluxe will remain a stable.  My personal ratings for this burger, using our new rating system, are...

Meat: 2.5

Bunnage: 3.5

Fixings: 4.5

Overall: 4

We had an awesome turnout for this Burger Tour dinner....10 burger eaters.

             

Top row: Jason, Dave, Cathy, Julie, Mike, Brad,

Bottom Row: Elaine, Alice, Annie, Tod

Before I give you the results of everyone's ratings, take a look at a quick video taken with the Flip Cam.

And now what you've all been waiting for....the results of our new rating system.  

MEAT:   

BUNNAGE:  

FIXINGS: 

OVERALL:   

Pretty darn good scores for Red Mill Burgers.  I'd say that Red Mill lived up to its reputation, and the bacon seemed to be the best part (sorry Annie, you'll have to go back and get a bacon burger).  One aspect of Red Mill Burgers that I didn't mention is that it is an excellent value.  All their burgers are under $7 (less than the happy hour burger price at El Gaucho), and you're getting a very good burger.

Here's a few more pics from Red Mill.

    Brad & Annie

    Julie & Dave

           My Beautiful Wife with Burger

    Tod & Alice

    Jason & Elaine

Burger Tour Rating System

Following our first tour at El Gaucho, we decided to start a more formal rating system.  There have been some great suggestions, and we've tried to take them all into consideration.  Ultimately, we wanted to keep it simple, while making sure to include the most important aspects of the burger.  So, from here on, all burgers will be rated in 4 categories.  The rating will still be on a "1-5 Burger" scale, with the possibility for half points.  Without further ado....here are the categories.

1) Meat:  Simple, yet extremely important. Does it taste like a fresh or frozen patty? Seasoned or plain? Cooked on a grill or over an open flame? Too thin, too thick?

2) Bunnage: Is it grilled, toasted, soft, or stale? Too big or small? Soft or firm?

3) Fixings: This includes all the burger toppings as well as the side dishes.  Is the produce fresh?  Are the condiments applied too sparingly or in excess?  Did you like the fries, onion rings, or was there a unique side dish?

4) Overall: Did everything come together in a cohessive, memorable, and delicious way? Do you want to come back for another burger tomorrow?

Happy eating!  (Stay tuned for the review of our most recent tour at Red Mill Burger).

El Gaucho, January 24th, 2010

Our first ever Burger Tour dinner was held at El Gaucho in Belltown.  For all of you who don't know, a "Gaucho" is an Argentinian cowboy (!Viva Argentina!), and Argentina is well known for their delicious steaks.  It makes sense then that El Gaucho is mostly known as a classy steakhouse, as Yelp has it rated as the second best steakhouse in Seattle.  While their steaks are generally quite expensive, El Gaucho has an excellent happy hour, which they call Power Hour, where the entire bar menu is 50% off.  Included on the bar menu is the reason for the visit.....the 410 Burger.

410 Burger

  The 410 Burger is a half pound patty of certified angus beef top sirlon, topped with bacon, chedder cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and thousand island dressing.  It is served on a roll, but we're not sure what type.  On the side is homemade white rose potato salad.  Since this is the only burger on the menu, everyone ordered it.  Everyone ordered the burger to be cooked to "medium," except for Julie, who ordered "medium-well."  We also shared a couple orders of Mac N' Coastal Chedder Cheese.

Amanda, Greg, Kate, Dave, Julie, Cathy, Mike, Landon....with their burgers

Now to the review.  Excellent size, you know you will be full after a 1/2 pound burger.  I (mike) thought my burger was a little dry.  I thought that maybe it was just over cooked, but when I look back at the picture of my half-eaten burger, it looks pretty pink in the middle.  So it seems that it was made to order, but I really didn't taste the moisture I was hoping for.  The tomatos were cut thick, and there were two large slices, which I really liked.  The bacon was good, not too crunchy or too soft.  I would have liked a little more lettuce as I seemed to run out about two-thirds of the way through the burger, and also maybe more thousand island dressing to counter the dryness of the burger. The best part of the burger may have been the bun.  Firm on the outside but soft inside, and sturdy enough to keep everything together the whole way through the meal.  As for the potato salad side dish, it was a nice change from french fries, but I've had better.

Check out this video with some analysis from the other burger eaters.  Sorry for the poor editing, this was my first time.

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Rating and Proposed Rating System
For this first dinner we didn't have any official rating system set up, and everyone was basically put on the spot to give their rating on video (as seen above).  So basically the ratings given were for how the burger was "overall" on a 1-5 scale.  I would personally give the 410 Buger a 3.5.  It was basically a slightly above average burger, and it gets an extra 0.5 points for the great deal during the power hour.  If all the Eaters' ratings are averaged, the burger would rate 3.5.

El Gaucho, 410 Burger

In the future I think we will rate different aspects of the burger separately; patty, bun, toppings, side, & overall.  We will keep the "1-5 Burger" rating scale. This will give us a nice way to compare all the burger joints we visit.  

As for our next Burger Tour dinner....February is looking pretty busy, we'll keep you posted.  We're thinking of going to a more dedicated burger joint with a greater selection of burgers.  We're open to suggestions, so go ahead and make some in the "comments" section.

Here's a couple more pics from El Gaucho.

Greg & Kate

Dave & Julie

The Burger Tour Begins

You may be asking yourself, "what is a burger tour?  Are there going to be a lot of old people on this tour?  Will I have to ride in a double-decker bus?  Is there going to be an annoying tour guide?"  Well, this isn't that kind of tour.  I'ts simple actually.  The plan is to get together, about once a month, and go out to eat at one of the many burger establishments throughout Seattle.  We'll eat burgers, have a drink or two, and eventually figure out who's got the best burger in the city.  We all love to eat, and who doesn't like a good burger.  We will do our best to keep this blog updated with pictures, reactions, and ratings of each burger event.

The first ever Seattle Burger Tour dinner will be on Sunday January 24th at El Gaucho (http://www.elgaucho.com/) on 1st Ave in Belltown. If we eat in the bar area after 5:00pm, the bar menu is 50% off. They have 1 burger on the menu, but it's supposed to be awesome. Let's shoot for 6:00pm. See you all there!

UPDATE!
Dinner will be pushed back until 7:00pm due to the Vikings-Saints football game